NGO Leadership

Case Study 6: Leadership Framework for Global NGO

In 2004, one of the world’s leading independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) faced one of the same challenges faced by for-profit organizations – how to develop leadership capacity.  Indeed, the challenge may have been greater given that the organization’s non-profit status means that efficient use of funds for “staff development” is critical.

Using a proprietary framework (“4E”) that he developed, growing-global.com principal Mick Yates designed and led a three-country pilot for the NGO. The goal: to increase managers’ understanding of and abilities to “Envision, Enable, Empower and Energize” the organization. The 4E framework was tailored to the organization’s unique culture and circumstances, and then implemented through on-line self-assessments, team workshops and follow-up interventions. The process was not used to “score” one manager or team or country vs. others. Instead, the framework provided a common language, outlook and benchmarking aimed toward action.

A “whole” picture of the organization’s leadership capacity began to develop.  For instance, the NGO learned that the “top 5 strengths” tended to be consistent across countries, while key weaknesses varied markedly. Together these findings allowed decisions about what leadership development activities could be “global” and which needed to be more “local.”

The program proved so useful that it was expanded to 27 member countries in 2005.