Manage Up and Raise More Money

In 2018, a cherished mutual friend, Dr. Deb Morgan, passed away. Barbara A. F. Greene, Founder and CEO, Greene and Associates, Inc./ A CPI Firm and a nationally recognized executive coach, and I pledged to collaborate to honor Deb’s inspiring example of service, leadership and improving the lot of others. We discussed how we could most effectively merge our different disciplines.

I emphasized the need for non-profit executives, board members and others to follow the lead of development and fundraising professionals to more effectively address the challenging work of resource development. The truth is that too many people, even high-ranking men and women, are bewildered if not outright frightened by the fundraising process, especially asking for gifts. Development professionals enjoy the advantage of specialized training and the opportunity to concentrate their energies on the discovery, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of gifts. If CEOs, EDs, Board Chairs and other leaders can set aside their egos and follow the counsel of development professionals, more money can be raised to advance their noble missions of their non-profits.

Barbara likes calling this high-performance practice, “managing up,” and it applies not only to fundraising but to other high skill areas like IT, finance, marketing and others. 

I’m thrilled that Barbara is joining me as our subject matter expert in our webinar, Wednesday, March 17, 4 PM to 5 PM, Central time. We will also be joined by accomplished development/advancement colleagues (Mike Davis and Richard Ortega) who along with me have more than 100 years of collective experience in running development/advancement operations. As gray hair attests to, we’ve seen it all -- the good, the bad and the missed opportunities.

What is managing up really about? I asked Barbara to respond briefly to the following questions to provide non-profit friends with context on how the leadership best practice of managing up when consistently and concretely applied will culminate in progress and raising more money. 

1. Let’s start with the basics: What exactly is managing up? And how does it add value to an organization?

Managing Up is the ability to shape a person’s career -- in a good way or a not so good way. The better people work together then the organization has a better ROI. Now how to manage up in different organizations needs to be discussed and clarified.

2. What is required of the CEO for managing up to be effective in their organization?

First, it is a mindset that yes, indeed it is part of the CEO’s job to manage up. Often times, the CEO had been the subject matter expert and then presto – they are promoted. Yet it is in the first 90 days that the new CEO demonstrates a CEO mindset and more. Communication with all their stakeholders -- looking at a 360-degree view. Since the CEO reports to the Board of Directors, then the CEO would manage up to their BOD. This requires building productive relationships, understanding and adapting to their boss’ communication and decision-making styles. This might mean the CEO needs to customize their communication approach to several different people on the board.  

We say that IQ is a major reason why a CEO is in the leadership role, yet the higher we go in leadership it is the EQ that keeps them in this critical role. IQ is formed by about the age of 17 and does not change much, yet the EQ can be developed over a lifetime.

3. What is required of the CEO’s direct reports for managing up to be effective in their organization?

·     Respect – remember the song from Aretha Franklin – and ask yourself what does respect look like, feel like, taste like?

·     Trust the CEO.

·     Customize your behavior to the CEO’s preferred communication -- be brief, be brilliant and be gone or it is a dissertation dialogue or somewhere in between.

·     Execute the way the boss trusts you to do so.

·     Solve the CEO’s problems even before the CEO knows it is a problem.

·     Bring solutions, not problems.

·     Leverage the One Challenge Rule -- It is okay to challenge the CEO, to get the person to look at another perspective, yet do it only once.

·     Know yourself and your environment. Know your boss and know the culture of your organization.

·     Realize that Leadership is much more about influence than authority.

·     At a minimum, it is important to understand your CEO’s goals and pressures.

·     Anticipate their needs.

·     Create value for your CEO and the organization.

4. Most people, even business and community leaders who are virtually fearless of everything else they have to do, are afraid of asking for gifts. Development professionals have benefited from special training and experience that has empowered them to overcome this fear. It is difficult for many leaders to admit their fears and shortcomings. How can non-profits create a culture in which the development professionals -- not the CEOs or Board Chairs -- truly take the lead in designing, carrying out and evaluating fundraising activities?

When the development professional has a seat at the table, they are more likely to be heard -- virtually or in person. It is important for this professional to be viewed as a key stakeholder and accountability partner enterprise wide. Ask yourself, what would be the impact to the entire organization, internally as well as externally? Together with the other C-Level Leaders, the development professional collaboratively crafts strategy for a fundraising plan that lives beyond placing it on the shelf. Ideally it is included in the strategic plan.

5. What is your advice for development professionals who have CEOs or Board Chairs who resist managing up, which culminates in fundraising failures?

·     Learn from the failures and engage the Board Chair or CEO and work together to create and implement a turnaround plan.

·     Communicate with each other frequently, listen to understand and align with the organization’s vision, mission and values.

6. What are good, perhaps, even baby, first steps in building a culture in which managing up is embraced?

Let’s reflect upon the values of the organization and align the values with the culture. Typically, values are a guide to how each person across the enterprise will behave. What is the behavior that is expected that demonstrates the organizational values, especially from the C-Suite as well as the Board of Directors?

7. Of course, managing up doesn’t just apply to fundraising. Strong leaders will take full advantage of their direct reports who have expertise in other fields such as legal, finance, HR, IT and others. Do you feel some disciplines lend themselves to managing up better than others? 

We all have someone we report to -- including myself. I report and am accountable to my clients. We must remember that managing up is about relationships, leadership and followership.

8. At what point can the culture of managing up be taken too far? 

When trust has been broken -- if the direct report believes that the boss has not told the truth.

9. In general, compare and contrast effective leadership practices in for-profit and non-profit work environments.

There is no such thing as a honeymoon when leaders start their new role -- whether they were promoted internally or came externally. For-profit organizations seem to understand the ROI if they have an unsuccessful hire at the C-Level suite. It has a cascade effect -- people unhappy will leave. The cost of turnover -- when it hits the bottom line – shareholders don’t like it. Therefore, the for-profit organization is apt to have an onboarding plan with an internal core transition team and external coach. Expectations are discussed and listened to from all stakeholders. The team is engaged from the beginning, understanding what each needs from one another to be successful even with the challenges. This creates a stronger start in understanding the total environment, what the organization needs.  

10. Financial pressures forced a roughly 10% reduction in the non-profit workforce over the past year. How do you recommend that non-profits maintain morale operating with reduced budgets and staffs? 

·     Integrate compassion regarding the present challenge and connect to the future and how they can contribute.

·     Communicate. Listen and ask open ended questions. Ask yourself, what is the ratio between making statements that end with a period vs. asking empowering questions.

·     Engage them in a learning plan to help them keep growing.

·     Get on the front line -- serve others.

11. What general recommendations do you have for non-profit teams to function effectively working remotely and depending on virtual communication?

·     Thank you – how many different ways can you say it verbally and nonverbally? What about sending a thank you to their significant others?

·     Call each person spontaneously.

·     Open the window to learn more about each other.

·     Coffee Chats – focus on non-operational topics.

·     Emoji communication about how their day has started or ended -- no conversation, no judgement.

·     Trivia Huddles

·     Group text

·     Determine when to meet and how often each week -- rotate the leader in each meeting.

·     Adopt a charity other than the one they work for and establish a team goal to helping this charity.

·     Show your mugs -- coffee and otherwise.

·     Share a photo of a team member in action from the past year helping someone else.

·     Have team members start off meetings with a reflection or quote.

In all our webinars and programs, we firmly embrace the concept of an interactive “learning community” in which everyone shares their perspectives and viewpoints. Attendees are encouraged to appear on the screen during webinars to both raise questions and share comments to enrich the discussions. The March 17 webinar is free, but you must register. Sign up here for our monthly newsletter for non-profit leaders and to receive invitations to the March 17 and all our free webinars designed to empower non-profit professionals and volunteers to be more productive and effective in their roles of championing the missions of their organizations that touch, improve and save more lives.

Jim Eskin's leadership roles span more than 30 years in fundraising, public affairs and communications in the San Antonio area. During his career, he established records for gifts from individuals at three South Texas institutions of higher learning. He enjoys training non-profit boards on fundraising best practices and overcoming the fear of asking for gifts. His consulting practice Eskin Fundraising Training builds on the success of his fundraising workshops and webinars and provides the training, coaching and support services that non-profits need to compete for and secure private gifts. He has authored more than 100 guest columns that have appeared in daily newspapers and business journals across the country, and publishes Stratagems, a monthly e-newsletter exploring timely issues and trends in philanthropy. Sign up here for a free subscription.  He is author of 10 Simple Fundraising Lessons, which can be purchased here.