Over the last few months, I have been facilitating a monthly Learning and Support Group for executive directors of New York City nonprofit organizations with the support of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York.

I developed this series after having conducted a few roundtable discussion meetings with these organizational leaders. What became apparent during these discussions was their difficulty finding time to step back and reflect on their work, their roles, their visions for their organizations and their professional and personal development that is crucial to their ongoing success and effectiveness.

As individuals at the helm of their respective organizations, executive directors can sometimes feel isolated (“alone at the top”) and in need of support but without the time or opportunities to seek it out.

They found attending these roundtable meetings beneficial because they provided an opportunity for them to:

• Meet professional peers with whom they could confidentially discuss the issues and concerns they typically face;
• Have time and space for them to reflect on different issues and concerns while having the benefit of other perspectives and approaches; and
• Engage in ongoing professional growth and development.

We, therefore, decided to establish an ongoing monthly Executive Director’s Learning and Support Group to enable them to meet regularly with professional peers in a learning environment, giving them a much-needed opportunity to take time for reflection and ongoing learning.

At these meetings, they bring issues and I provide the facilitation and frameworks. Each month, they bring real life scenarios to discuss confidentially. We use two models as frameworks to enable them to analyze the issues they face so as to better understand and resolve them. The Quilt of Humanity Model^TM provides a metaphor for the layers and complexity of organizations that illustrates the importance of understanding the connections (and disconnections) at the personal, group, and organizational levels. Another model I developed, the ABCD Model^TM, lists the following critical factors that impact effectiveness and success for individuals, teams, and organizations:

A= Alignment and balance
B = Boundaries and connections
C = Clarity
D = Discernment

Interestingly, in exploring the factors of balance and alignment, these organizational leaders realized the importance of balance and alignment in their own lives as part of what enables balance and alignment in their organizations. They realized that working constantly to meet the needs of their organizations while failing to meet their own needs for support and development left them feeling off-center. They acknowledged the importance and benefit of putting time aside on a regular basis to meet with peers in a supportive, learning environment to enable them to maintain their mental and emotional equilibrium.

For those of you in the New York City area who would be interested in participating in this kind of professional development group, please click here to request further information about the next series.