Jim Daniell on Team Development for Nonprofits

Unique Challenges in the Nonprofit Sector:
Nonprofits are mission-driven, impact-focused organizations facing increasing external pressures. These include:

• Declining funding across all modalities.

• Scrutiny over organizational legitimacy and impact.

• Internal pressure to expand reach and improve impact, leading to unsustainable workloads.

• Underinvestment in people, process, and systems due to the "overhead myth."

• Hierarchical and patriarchal work structures.

Adapting Team Coaching Approaches for Nonprofits:
Respect and understanding:
Coaches need to invest time learning about the organization's mission and avoid condescending language like "giving back."

Individual support for team champions:
Invest extra time supporting key individuals on the team who can drive change from within.

Focus on tangible results:
Prioritize work areas that yield practical, immediate results, building confidence in the coaching process.

Gradual approach to trust and safety:
Address issues of trust and psychological safety indirectly at first, building foundational elements like mutual accountability and decision-making.

Flexibility and patience:
Be prepared for slow progress due to time constraints and fast pivots when urgent needs arise. Retainer-based engagements may be preferable to time and materials.

Long-Term Impact of Team Coaching:
Consistent, sustained team coaching can lead to:

Improved team dynamics and communication:
"The structure of the Voice of the Team... really helped us put a lot of issues on the table that I don't think we would have been able to surface." - Katie Grace Dean

Increased clarity and alignment around goals:
"The big question was, what were our goals as a leadership team? ... It got us to a place where we understood that the leadership team gelling was important because we needed to agree on what our shared objectives were and the mutual accountability that we needed amongst ourselves." - Tosca Bruno

Empowered leadership and increased organizational effectiveness:
"It allowed creativity to really take off, because the leadership team understood that the organization had their back ... and that they could go out and take risks on behalf of the organization, and it transformed the way we work, but it also transformed the impact of our work." - Tosca Bruno