Managing Leadership Transition for Nonprofits: Passing the Torch to Sustain Organizational Excellence

For nonprofits leadership transitions are a time of exceptionally high risk. Here, three internationally-respected experts show how to systematically identify, introduce, support, and monitor leaders in ways that enhance rather than undermine their performance. They explain why leadership transitions are so challenging for nonprofits, and show how to replace chaos and crisis with proven, sustainable leadership transition plans.

Writing for all nonprofit board members, leaders, aspiring leaders, and stakeholders, the authors demonstrate how to:

• Maintain organizational momentum, continuity, and credibility through the transition
• Find leaders who align well with your organizational values and its evolving culture
• Avoid fighting, rumors, accusations, and the common mistakes that derail nonprofit leadership transitions
• Build a sturdy bridge between departing and incoming leaders
• Set appropriate expectations for both boards and leaders, and guide them to complement each other successfully
• Plan succession and continuity for the long-term
• Use transitions to advance the organization’s mission

Barry Dym, Ph.D., is Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership. During his wide-ranging career, Dr. Dym has been an organization development consultant, executive coach, psychotherapist, entrepreneur, author, researcher, and teacher. Currently, Dr. Dym is the Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit Management at the Boston University School of Management.  

As a consultant, Dr. Dym specializes in executive coaching and team building; strategic planning and implementation; aligning strategic direction with organizational capabilities; and the management of change and key organizational transitions.

He has founded and directed three other organizations–The Family Institute of Cambridge, The Boston Center for Family Health, and WorkWise Research and Consulting–and a journal, Family Systems Medicine. He has served on and advised many boards of directors.

Dr. Dym has written four books–Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations, Leadership Transitions, Couples, and Readiness, and Change in Couple Therapy–and many articles, including “Utilizing States of Organizational Readiness” (OD Practitioner), winner of the Larry Porter Prize as the best article on organizational development, 1998-1999, “Resistance in Organizations: How to Recognize, Understand and Respond to It,” “Integrating Entrepreneurship with Professional Leadership,” and “Forays: The Power of Small Changes.”

Dr. Dym received his A.B. and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Harvard Five-Year Prize Fellowship.

Susan Egmont is principal of Egmont Associates, an executive search firm for nonprofit organizations and for corporations, foundations, and academic centers with nonprofit interests. She has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, including youth development, education, workforce development, healthcare, children’s issues, the arts, and in organizations fighting hunger and poverty. Susan’s passion is excellence in nonprofit management and matching vital organizations with effective leaders. Her clients include foundations, academic institutions, peace and justice organizations, socially responsible investment companies and nonprofits, human service groups, community health providers, environmental coalitions, arts organizations, education reform efforts, and other nonprofits. In addition to executive transition work, Susan has consulted extensively with nonprofit organizations in board development, strategic planning, human resource issues, and program development.

Susan was formerly Executive Director of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ foundation for children’s health and Deputy Director of the Boston Private Industry Council. She was the director of a contemporary dance company and spent eleven years in management at the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Susan holds an MBA from Emory University and is a Certified Association Executive and Certified Fund Raising Executive. She served on the founding boards of directors of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, the national professional association for nonprofit consultants and management assistance centers, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, the statewide association, and Atlanta’s Nonprofit Resource Center (now Georgia Center for Nonprofits).

Laura Watkins is principal of Dovetail Associates, a consulting firm that provides integrated services to nonprofit organizations with a focus on strategic planning and organizational development, senior leadership transition, and executive coaching. Laura’s passion is to build a nonprofit sector to sustain a healthy democracy. Her clients include organizations of all sizes, regional and national coalitions, and nonprofit boards of directors seeking to reorganize operations to achieve their mission.

Dr. Watkins works with organizations to develop coalitions around shared strategic visions. The outcomes of these strategic alliances have ranged from shared facilities and administrative staff to collective purchasing, and integrated programming and training to developing joint grants and fundraising initiatives.

Laura was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council in Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked in the nonprofit sector for 30 years. She has served on the board of directors of Leadership America, the Children’s Trust Fund, the Chamber of Commerce, Charles River Museum, and the National and Community and Service Commission.

Dr. Watkins received her B.S. from the University of Missouri, MPA from George Williams College, MBA from Illinois Benedictine College, and Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Development from the Union Institute. She has directed nonprofit organizations across the country during her career. Dr. Watkins has given innumerable seminars to nonprofit organizations and taught courses in Non-Profit Management at Suffolk University and Northeastern University.