Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: Lessons from the Third Sector

Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations is about exemplary leadership as found in both corporate and nonprofit organizations. The authors take a fresh approach to the study of leadership: they perform research in nonprofits both to understand and appreciate their complexities, and to reachconclusions about the nature of leadership in any context, including for-profit and governmental entities. Moving from nonprofit to for-profit in this way reverses the flow of ideas as represented in the mainstream literature of leadership. The authors' journey leads through case studies of remarkable leaders succeeding in complex situations. The book explores contemporary versions of leadership as embedded in American culture. It develops the concept of good fit between the leader and circumstances in which she or he must lead; it reveals predictable leadership dynamics and cycles; it explains how leaders can increase the readiness for change in their organizations; it describes the felt experience of "flow" when successful leaders are lost in the moment. Although each chapter employs a different lens, the object is the same throughout-leadership as the practice of alignment. The result is a multifaceted view of leadership as a complex system of shifting interrelationships that yields insights useful to students, researchers and leaders themselves.  

Features and Benefits:

• Critical review of literature on leadership which encourages diversity in leadership models and approaches.
• Case studies of nonprofit leadership which affirm public-minded, mission-driven leaders and acknowledge their contributions.
• Chapters on leadershipconstructs such as fit, dynamics, readiness and flow which provide useful insights and methods to enable success.
• Overarching concept of alignment which reframes leadership as an active process where the awareness of and response to the interplay of multiple, relevant factors matters more than charisma, pedigree or power. 

Harry Hutson, is a leadership and organization consultant whose practice focuses on the human side of strategic change.  He designs and leads system-wide planning events, results-focused workshops and team-building exercises.  In addition, he provides individual coaching for executives.   

He performed in senior human resources roles for more than twenty years at three multinational corporations—Cummins Engine, Avery Dennison, and Global Knowledge Network.  A former secondary school teacher in Moorestown, NJ, High School, his doctoral research explored relationships between the views of influential people in a local community and what was being taught in the public schools.  He has served for many years on the Board of Directors of the New England Center for Children, a school for autism and other disabilities, where he is the Vice-Chairman.  

His publications include articles on teambuilding methods, continuing education, community building, readiness for change, and the relevance of hope for organizational renewal.  He has presented workshops at professional meetings sponsored by organizations such as Training Magazine, Organizational Development Network, New England Human Resources Association, Learning Conference (UK and US), Association for Quality and Participation, and Pegasus/Systems Thinking.