Greg Petersen

Well, this is a doozy of a first question, and the shortest answer I can give is that it's more art than science. The art is about ensuring all key leaders on the team—senior leadership, board, other key managers, and team members—have a shared understanding that this balance is necessary. Shared language, deep discussions, and examples of how this balance has driven success and how its absence has hindered success are crucial. From there, this same group must feel empowered to act on behalf of maintaining that balance.

On top of that, it's ensuring that all involved know that the mission can't survive long-term—and all of our missions are long-term in nature, as far as I can tell—without a well-designed and well-executed business strategy. The flip side is that no business strategy in our field can achieve its goals if it's not intentionally created to support the mission. Kind of a yin/yang thing, I think.

Let's say you get all of those pieces in place, then it's about regularly checking in to achieve ongoing, long-term balance. Being in this field is tough—the tightrope metaphor comes to mind—we need to attend to short-term mission and program matters as well as the long-term business of delivering programs in a way that's financially sustainable. And back. And forth. Until we've artfully wobbled our way to the other side of the tightrope, just to realize there's another one to cross tomorrow.

Collaboration plays a vital role. Full stop. There are a bunch of awesome and inspiring quotes about collaboration out there. But the brass tacks truth for me is I’ve never done anything on my own. Anything I’d define as a success has always had a collaborative, supportive, and smart team involved. The team accomplished the miraculous, seemingly impossible outcomes. None of us individually can do that.

Taken to the organizational level, the same principle applies. By connecting with collaborative partners, I’ve been involved in creating the Keystone Alliance, acquiring Mission + Strategy, and many other successes.

For instance, the Keystone Alliance, now known as The Alliance, began with two pioneering nonprofits, Glenkirk and Search, joining forces in 2009. This collaboration consolidated financial, IT, and HR operations into a shared-services platform, creating a support system that continues to provide strategic thought partnership and capacity-building resources.

In 2022, The Alliance expanded its reach by acquiring Mission + Strategy, a consultancy specializing in strengthening nonprofits through mergers, partnerships, and restructuring. This acquisition allowed us to offer a robust range of solutions to the broader nonprofit market, enhancing organizations’ capacity to make a greater impact.

These outcomes would not be possible without a collaborative spirit within—and among—organizations.

Time. Burnout. Succession. Vulnerability.

We're a wildly talented and hard-working field. Leaders wouldn't be in their roles if they didn't have an exceptional ability to achieve and work quickly. For me, my ability to work quickly was an asset in most of my roles throughout my career. When I joined the senior leadership ranks, it became a liability. Caving into time pressure prevented me from being collaborative. All the awesome things cited in the previous questions? Those came after learning this lesson the hard way. I'm lucky my teams were understanding and supportive, and now I have the perspective to model collaboration for our next round of leaders.

Burnout. See the previous paragraph, and then view it through the lens of burnout. Not. Good. I often feel selfish for taking time off, but regularly remind (nag?) teammates to take care of themselves. Huh. Our constant resource pressure in the face of mounting demands for our time and attention doesn't help either.

Then there's the idea of setting up the next generation of our organization for success. We're working on shifting our mindset from succession-as-event (e.g., this person is retiring, how do we plan for that single transition?) to succession as an ongoing program. It'll take a while to get it all set up, but our current scope is focused on board, leadership, and functional succession. This includes aligning evaluations with career paths and career goals, and making sure we're meeting everyone's needs on the team as best we can.

Getting into succession conversations can bring a lot of types of vulnerability to the surface. I report to my board—will they think less of me if I say I have a finite amount of time left? Will teammates feel uncertain about our future? Will board members feel threatened if we discuss their planned departure? Will teammates feel threatened when we get into the details of backing up their roles?

Yes, across the board, because that's human nature. But that's not a reason to avoid these critical discussions. I've seen succession-related challenges echo within organizations for up to a decade after the succession 'event' was completed. I've also seen thoughtful, well-planned succession processes act as the foundation for future growth, sustainability, and impact.

Reframing vulnerability-as-weakness to vulnerability-as-normal is an equally fun and scary ride to take. Given the nature of our work in the nonprofit field, it's a ride well worth taking.