Clarity, Capacity, or Capability? 3 Methods for Improving Team Performance Today

Any nonprofit strategic planning, merger, or affiliation project brings to the forefront questions about fulfilling existing and new staffing needs. 

Who should lead new strategic initiatives? Who should lead a department? How can we service larger numbers of ‘customers’? 

As a nonprofit organization implements new strategy or experiences growth, there are oftentimes roles within that organization that require new skills and capabilities and deeper levels of understanding by management. Whether it be the ability to manage more complexity, learn new skills, increase the sphere of oversight, and/or operate with an increased level of strategic perspective, some team members embrace the challenge and exceed their perceived limitations while others may struggle to succeed in a new or expanded role.

How can leaders better structure roles within their organization to support success or identify areas where change is necessary? 

CLARITY

It is the responsibility of leadership and management to establish clarity and to make certain the position functions, decision making, budget responsibility, and outcomes are understood by each team member to level set expectations. When there is a lack of clarity it becomes difficult to build a culture of accountability and performance.

This begins with ensuring role clarity; what responsibilities come with the role, what is the reporting structure, how will job performance be measured?

If the scope of an existing role is being expanded upon as a result of the completion of the strategic plan, merger, or new service, then leadership and management must be clear about the changes to the position and then schedule time to review the changes with the team member to ensure they are willing and able to take on the additional or new responsibilities.

The same is true if key leaders are being asked to take on additional responsibilities as a result of being assigned a major goal of a strategic plan. Does their job description, performance metrics and evaluation, and budget reflect the changes? Is the executive clear about the expectations and in agreement to take on the responsibility? Many times, nonprofit strategic plans fail to be implemented because the organization does not make the necessary changes throughout their systems of management.

 CAPABILITY

In the case of a nonprofit merger or affiliation, there might be two of the same job functions that need to be consolidated into one position. For example, if two organizations are merging and they both have Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), who will be the individual leader to remain CMO, and what happens to the other? If the merger involves two similar-sized organizations, what will be required of any given role when the organization is double in size?

Additionally, as technology advances and the pace of change accelerates, do team members have the skills needed to meet the demands of the evolving market?

Any time an organization experiences an increase in the level of complexity, roles and responsibilities need to be revisited to determine what will be required or what the new or expanded scope will be. It is then the responsibility of leadership to assess whether those that are currently holding those roles, have the capability to continue to do so successfully. 

It is challenging and often emotional to ask the difficult questions but it is necessary to avoid the pitfall of leadership having to take on team member’s responsibilities or having to devote too much time to any one team member.

CAPACITY

Capacity is also a major factor in a team member's ability to succeed within a position. As an organization experiences growth, leadership tends to take on additional responsibilities. This can result in a leader reaching a point at which they can no longer make progress in any one area given they are managing too much. 

This is typically when a new team member would be hired to assume some of the responsibilities and to add additional value. As an organization looks to expand capacity the first two questions they should ask themselves are: Can we stop doing specific things that are no longer of value? Or can we operate more efficiently by changing the way we do things? If the answer is yes to either of these, the leaders may be able to find the additional capacity within their current team, before having to hire. But if the answer is no, then clearly scoping a new job function becomes a necessity.

It is inevitable that you will face the challenge of team members not meeting standards and this is one of the more challenging parts of being a leader.  As you constantly establish clarity, assess capability, and ensure staffing capacity, you are able to hold team members accountable to their metrics and identify areas where they may require additional support. In the end, leaders need to look out for their team, and they can do this by creating a management model to ensure their value and role is clear.