Leaders Who Make a Difference: Essential Strategies for Meeting the Nonprofit Challenge

This is a great how to book in getting started in a new non-profit. Wish I would have had it earlier in my career.

If you're after a lot of theoretical hocus pocus, please look elsewhere. If you aspire to revel in charts and graphs, this book isn't for you. But if, by chance, you are looking for a straightforward, concise, and easy-to-digest discussion of what leaders in nonprofits (the most effective ones) actually do, I encourage you to read this book. Moreover, if you are an educator looking for a text-based catalyst for classroom discussion about nonprofit leadership, Leaders Who Make a Difference should be on your short list for consideration. The text is well organized, with each concept building on the next. There is no wheel reinvention here, with the authors instead boiling down some of the more prescient literature to a smattering of leadership roles, offering a listing of the more extensive works for the reader's consideration under "Additional Readings." For educators, the text's focus on some of the more mission-critical roles played by nonprofit leaders--visionary, strategist, change agent, coach, politician and campaigner--provides a good platform from which to integrate guest speakers who exemplify these roles, and who can amplify upon these roles in a classroom setting. As the course for which this reviewer used this text (among others) included students with significant nonprofit leadership experience, others with none, and everything in between, the authors of Leaders Who Make a Difference provided a reading reasource that was digestible and meaningful for both the experienced and aspiring nonprofit leader.

There is a dearth of leadership literature aimed at the non-profit and public sectors. Leaders Who Make a Difference by Nanus and Dobbs helps to fill that void. It is a very valuable leadership guide and reference book for leaders in the non-profit sector. Their synthesis of the leadership literature and their emphasis on shared vision, strategy, and team building with tools and guides is very valuable to students of leadership as well as current mangers who are enhancing their leadership skills. The roles of a leader that are emphasized - visionary, strategist, change agent, coach, politician, and campaigner - are useful reminders to leaders in all sectors about the importance and complexity of leading well with a full set of skills. This book is being used in the curriculum of an International Family Planning Leadership Program with great success - so it has global relevance and appeal. Our fellows have found the book to be full of tips and tools that serve to validate the skills that they already have as well as guide them to devleop more facets of their leadership. I highly recommend this book to leadership development programs and practitioners in the non-profit and public sectors.

"As Editor of the Not-for-Profit CEO Monthly Letter, I had occasion to review "Leaders Who Make a Difference" for our readership, which consists almost entirely of executive directors and board members. I recommended it enthusiastically, telling our readers that `this volume should be on your desk; not in the book case, but on your desk.' After the review was published, I received the following letter from a nationally known consultant to not-for-profit boards." George B. Wright, Editor, "The Not-For-Profit CEO Monthly Letter," C3 Strategies, Portland, OR"The challenges today's nonprofit organizations face make effective leadership a critical need. By combining relevant theory with case studies that exemplify leadership excellence, Nanus and Dobbs have created an invaluable and much-needed resource for all nonprofit leaders." Kathleen D. Edwards, consultant and author, Bowman-Edwards & Associates, Seattle, WA.

Academics and practitioners working in the nonprofit sector have long recognized that the quality of organizational leadership is a major determinant of agency performance. Much of the existing leadership literature has its roots in the corporate or public management fields. By contrast, Nanus and Dobbs have built up an analysis grounded in the experience and special institutional context of the nonprofit sector. As an academic teaching and researching in this area, I appreciate the focus on the nonprofit sector, the theoretical framework and the empirical accounts offered.In my current nonprofit management course (begun before publication of the book), I found that assigning sections of the book: Chapters 1,7,8,and 9 (the guts of the theory), to be especially helpful. Each student is required to do a descriptive, detailed NPO case study. An element of this study is a descriptive account of a recent or current organizational management issue. The Nanus and Dobbs theory section enabled me and the students to put these management issues into perspective and to identify the critical role of leadership. Next spring, I plan to use the Nanus-Dobbs book as one of my assigned texts and to enlarge on the course treatment of leadership issues. I suggest that other academics consider a similar use.I also expect that "Leaders Who Make a Difference" would be an effective and appealing aid in the recruitment and training of NPO board members. It offers a keen overview of the leadership roles the board can play; in addition it makes that role realistic, appealing and challenging.