Roselinde Torres has spent 25 years observing leadership qualities across the globe in an effort to help cultivate great leaders for corporations and nonprofit organizations alike. In this must-watch TED talk, Roselinde reveals her findings and articulates the top three leadership traits that all great 21st century leaders embody— that is to say, the things great leaders do differently in order to help their organizations thrive and grow:
1. Ability to anticipate change
2. Relational skills with diverse groups of people
3. Courage to abandon the past
In terms of fundraising success, the best nonprofits consistently score a 3 of 3 in their thinking, with everything from their board to their fundraising strategies embodying Roselinde’s three traits for success. However, we see that the majority of nonprofit organizations often have just 1 out of the 3 traits. Again and again we see nonprofit leaders entangled in board meeting spiderwebs of “we don’t have the money or staff to do anything new” and “we’ve always spent our money on direct mail, telemarketing and in-person events and it would be irresponsible to invest in new technology,” which are the direct opposite of traits #1 and #3. These same nonprofits consistently fail to meet their fundraising numbers, and often wonder why without digging deep enough to uncover the root cause. See the issue?
Watch this quick 9 minute TED talk now to change the way you think about effective nonprofit leadership and then take your fresh perspective and download our latest infographic, A New Generation of Giving (download below video). This MobileCause infographic reveals that most nonprofits are invisible to two-thirds of the US workforce because they refuse to adopt modern technologies for fundraising and communication that could greatly benefit them both now and in the future, and shows what your organization can do to overcome these common problems.
As Roselinde says, “Great leaders dare to be different.” Where will your nonprofit stand?
By Jeremy Koenig | MobileCause Creative Director
