Managers provide your teams with the direction and motivation they need to fuel productive performance. At a time when global stress among employees is at a record high, the more equipped your managers are for their roles, the more effectively they’ll be able to keep team members aligned, engaged, and productive at work.
Nonprofit managers are accustomed to supporting and empowering their staff in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. There are dozens of nonprofit leaders who have carried out tremendous accomplishments in their challenging sector, such as Aliguma Young, whose management expertise empowered her to lead a nonprofit through a $75 million capital campaign. Because of this, businesses and social purpose companies can benefit significantly by borrowing a few tips and insights from the nonprofit sector.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how your business can improve its workplace learning by studying how nonprofits approach management training. First, let’s nail down exactly why it can be so valuable to learn from these social good organizations.
Why Should Businesses Learn from Nonprofits?
Nonprofits often have to make the most of limited resources to raise funds, build crucial relationships, and fulfill their missions. This means that they’re particularly well-versed in managing change and streamlining their daily processes to maximize results. One key factor in their success is continuous training.
According to Laridae’s nonprofit management training overview, nonprofit managers must hone the following skills to cultivate cohesive, effective teams:
- Managing time well
- Holding productive meetings
- Delegating and setting expectations
- Motivating team members
For businesses and social purpose companies, long-term success depends upon bringing together a variety of stakeholders and securing their support—from customers to board members to employees. Nonprofit managers specialize in forging meaningful relationships that keep staff, volunteers, and donors continuously invested in their organization.
4 Tips to Take Away from Nonprofit Management Training
Retain more employees, maximize your resources, and boost teamwork at your business by investing in your managers the way nonprofits do. Set your managers up for success by applying these tips from nonprofit management training:
1. Provide a variety of training formats.
Just as your managers can vary in their management styles, many of them likely have differing preferences when it comes to how they like to learn new skills and best practices. Therefore, it’s essential to provide them with ongoing training opportunities in multiple formats.
For instance, consider offering:
- Cohort-based training programs. Online, live cohort-based training allows your managers to find a sense of community and support from peers in their industry who experience similar situations and challenges. They’ll be able to receive structured education from instructors, learn from their peers, and practice vital skills that they can directly apply to their roles. These training programs make learning much more engaging and interactive for your managers.
- Podcasts. There are plenty of podcast series that discuss common management challenges, real-life examples of successful managers, and skills that managers can adopt to better lead their teams. Look for resources that offer actionable advice on topics such as delegation, coaching, and team communication.
- Asynchronous courses. Online asynchronous courses, though less engaging, are self-directed and allow your managers to take learning at their own pace. These courses often include videos and practice exercises on topics such as emotional intelligence, managing hybrid or remote employees, and how to provide feedback.
Supply your managers with the necessary tools and resources to learn and thrive in their roles. This includes implementing technology for accessing online training, such as Zoom, or bringing in experts to impart more specialized knowledge. For example, many nonprofits reach out to nonprofit consultants for expert one-on-one management coaching sessions, HR audits, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) support, and more.
2. Prioritize communication skills.
Modern technology has made it easier than ever to communicate with people from anywhere at any time. However, just because your managers have the tools to do so doesn’t mean that they immediately know how to act as an effective digital leader. Especially if your business has remote or hybrid employees, it’s time to take a page from the nonprofit’s playbook and put communication at the forefront of your management training efforts.
Managers should practice and improve how they:
- Listen and react to employee experiences or concerns
- Provide positive and constructive feedback
- Delegate tasks according to each team member’s strengths
- Set expectations that inspire employees to meet their goals
Nonprofit teams prioritize communication to convey their needs to supporters and get the most mileage out of their resources. Encourage your managers to schedule one-on-one meetings with team members and maintain open communication with executive leadership to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding their responsibilities and goals.
3. Cultivate a positive company culture.
Just as with nonprofits, your company’s culture encapsulates all of the most important values and practices that define your organization and pave the way for your long-term success and sustainability. Therefore, it should be reflected in your onboarding process, strategic plan, and the everyday actions of your managers.
Whether you’re looking to improve your culture or reinforce it throughout your business, train your managers to reflect the behavior you want to see in the workplace. In doing so, you’ll create a ripple effect that transforms how all of your employees approach their work.
When your managers and employees are aligned on your overarching values and priorities, they’ll feel much more comfortable making independent decisions in their day-to-day activities that contribute to your success as a whole.
4. Provide recognition for learning achievements.
In the nonprofit sector, prompt and thoughtful recognition is essential to maintaining strong, lasting relationships with employees, volunteers, and donors. As you engage your managers in training opportunities, don’t forget to recognize them for all of their time and effort.
eCardWidget’s employee recognition guide recommends several compelling methods for appreciating your managers, including:
- Personalized eCards
- Experiential gifts
- Social media shoutouts
- Free meals
Send out surveys to collect feedback from your managers and identify new training priorities. For instance, you might determine that your teams need more help with getting familiar with a new messaging platform or CRM that you’ve adopted. Or, your managers might share that they’d like more training on how to promote more inclusivity within their teams.
Wrapping Up: Supporting Your Managers
Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the results of your management training initiatives, such as course completion rates or post-training evaluation scores. Use these in conjunction with your survey responses to discover ways to improve your training efforts moving forward.
By staying tuned into the specific needs of your managers, you’ll create an overall culture of learning and improvement at your business.
