Solutions

We partner with you to provide customized solutions. Generally, our work targets boards, leadership teams, and managers.

Board Training

Great organizations have great governing boards. These boards understand and adhere to solid principles of governance, balancing action with discretion.

Great boards aren’t great by accident or luck. Rather, they make a consistent investment in education and training for their board members, giving them with the tools needed to make effective decisions.

In a fast-paced, interactive 3 hour workshop, Darren can help your board gain a greater understanding of:

Effective Governance. Understand principles of governance. Learn how to perform oversight without micromanaging.
Group Dynamics. Create space for healthy dissent, minimizing “parking lot meetings”. Ensure all voices are heard. Commit to collective decisions.
Clear Role Expectations. Gain clarity of organizational expectations and individual responsibilities. Learn specific ways each member can contribute to the organization’s success.

Board members of all experience levels will find this training to be insightful, engaging, and even enjoyable.

Leadership Team Development

High performing Leadeship Teams are typified by healthy and productive conflict, commitment to decisions made, and a willingness to hold each other–and be held–accountable.

High performing teams don’t just happen. They are the result of intense training and development. With the right tools and strategies, your team can align around key objectives and focus on execution. Politics, personal grudges, and silos become a thing of the past and cross-departmental collaboration thrives.

Darren can work with your Leadership Team over one or two-day workshops to develop:

Trust and Psychological Safety.
Healthy and Productive Conflict.
Alignment and Commitment to key objectives.
Framework for Accountability.
Focus on Results.

These trainings are fast-paced, engaging, and NEVER boring. They will fundamentally change the dynamics of your group.

Board Chair Coaching

No one becomes a Board Chair without a degree of professional and personal accomplishment. This accomplishment undoubtedly is a result of deep insight into that person’s field.

Unfortunately, this does not automatically transfer over to being a Great Board Chair. Most successful Board Chairs have either observed a Great Board Chair or been mentored by one. Furthermore, structural challenges frequently stand in the way of Chairs admitting they need help.

Nonprofit Wizards Board Chair Coaching is delivered to you virtually in the comfort of your home or office. The content is dynamic and conversational. Typical topics include:

Running a great meeting.
Holding Committee Chairs accountable.
Confronting bad board behavior.
Giving your Chief Executive a meaningful review

Coaching packages start with a minimum 3 session commitment (one hour each). More can be added a la carte after that. Prices are affordable for organizations of any size.

Manager Training

Career happiness is a significant component of one’s overall wellbeing, as identified by Gallup. Managers play a crucial role in career satisfaction. Unfortunately, it is commonly believed that many people find their managers to be ineffective.

The Manager Training program has been developed specifically for nonprofit organizations and the nuances they present. At the completion of this program, managers will understand:

The importance of being a great manager.
What employees need and want from their job.
The difference between Leadership and Managment, and how to provide both.
How to give impactful feedback and coaching.
How to manage a department.

This transformative training is delivered at your site over 2 days. Additionally, the program includes follow-up coaching at spaced intervals over the subsequent 12 months (coaching delivered virtually). Participants also have the opportunity to enroll in Nonprofit Wizards’ virtual managers’ community.

Chief Executive Coaching

Executive Director. Chief Executive Officer. General Manager. Whatever you are called, you are the single point of delegation from the Board of Directors, overseeing the staff and budget for an organization.

It is a hard job. One Chronicle of Philanthropy study found that 96% of Chief Executives find their role as “very rewarding” but also “relentlessly demanding”.

Chief Executive Coaching provides a space for you to unload all of your worries and thoughts to find the throughline. Common topics include:

Resolving staff conflicts.
Running better team meetings.
Accountability systems.
Building board member engagement.
Positioning your board for success.

Coaching packages start with a minimum 3 session commitment (one hour each). More can be added a la carte after that. Prices are affordable for organizations of any size.

Organization Alignment

“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”

-Patrick Lencioni

Do you feel like your people are working at cross purposes? Do your departments function like silos instead of inter-connected teams?

Darren will visit your site for a half- or full-day workship. Topics include:

Understanding your working style/appreciated your peers’ working styles.
Elements of effective teams.
Elements of employee wellbeing.
Work-life integration.
Building organizational resiliency.

Organizational Alignment workshops are frequently paired with Leadership Team Development.

Darren is happy to discuss the nuances of your unique challenges to tailor-fit a workshop delivered in person at your organization. CLICK HERE to schedule a no-obligation consultation at a time which is convenient for you. Or send a message using the box below.

“I’ve been in academia my whole career, and have been forced to attend many ‘teambuilding’ retreats. To be perfectly honest, I was dreading our retreat. Instead, I found myself to be energized and inspired. We got aligned around the goals and resolved several nagging issues–which I feared would be combustible–without any angst at all. In fact, it was fun! Everyone left with a sense of energy and optimism, and the feelings have persisted into the day-to-day.

Darren is the best I’ve ever experienced and I can’t recommend him more highly.”