This compendium brings together 21 articles on leadership that the Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University and National Arts Strategies have identified specifically for busy arts and cultural professionals. It includes a mix of provocative articles and leadership classics on mission, organizational strategy, leadership skills and organizational culture. These writings together explore and, we hope, spark creative thinking about questions that are central to leadership in arts and cultural organizations today:

• How do communities define and achieve their goals? How can arts and culture organizations engage their communities and play a meaningful role in realizing these community visions?
• How do organizations achieve focus and remain nimble? How can cultural executives frame their thinking about organizational strategy to be more effective leaders for staff and board?
• How can executives actively develop leadership skills? What can arts leaders understand about themselves, about others and about the process of leadership?
• How does the structure of an organization support or limit a leader’s efforts? How do arts and cultural leaders craft a working environment that supports change and furthers their mission?

The 21 readings included in this compendium were selected through a deliberate research process. We started with the simple question, “What are the most pressing challenges facing arts and culture leaders?” We engaged a team of researchers to work with our staff to evaluate what the research-based literature on leadership had to say about these pressing questions. We looked at the ideas that professionals in the nonprofit, for-profit and government sectors find most useful, and we looked at the ideas being taught about leadership in business, public policy, education and other professional schools across the country.

We hope that you will find these readings as thought-provoking as we do. There are never easy answers to leading an organization or achieving a grand mission—and there are no easy answers in this collection. However, we do believe there are great questions here as well as great tools that can help arts and culture leaders think creatively about the challenge of cultural leadership.

We know that nonprofit organizations fit into this equation, as public participation creates bonds amongst community members, engendering tolerance and agency (capacity to act). Furthermore, leaders must know who their organizations are serving and what the concerns of those people are. The organization might not be explicitly involved in tackling problems, but the democratic nature of nonprofits spurs leaders to think about their mission in the context of local issues.

This piece is a bit of an outlier on our list. As Briggs notes in the introduction, it is written for scholars of civic life and social progress so it is slightly less accessible than other selections. However, Briggs’ insights draw upon not only his own international field research, but also some studies by ubiquitous authors such as Robert Putnam. You will come away from this selection with new ideas on your role as a leader in your community.

Available online »

Audiences and visitors are not the only lenses through which Brinckerhoff looks at the implications of generational differences. All the same influences are at play within cultural organizations’ boards, staff and volunteers. Generational data (demographics and psychographics) don’t argue for turning an organization’s strategy on its head, much less calling for modifications in mission and vision. For Brinckerhoff, the data should have an appropriate influence in six ways. The data should:  be included in planning, trigger intergenerational conversations within the organization, be used in marketing, broaden the concept of diversity in hiring decisions, influence consideration of ways technology might add value to cultural experiences or extend their effect following a performance or museum visit and inspire leaders to ask and listen more often.

Available online »

In this journal article, authors Elkenberry and Drapal Kluver examine the threat that “marketization” poses to democracy and citizenship. They argue that the commercial market is driven by a different set of goals and values which can compromise the nonprofit sector’s role as a guardian of values and builder of social capital. They maintain that leaders of nonprofits must understand their role as not only service providers but also keepers of civil society and democracy to continue to add unique value.

We mark this piece as provocative because it raises some rarely asked and possibly unpopular questions about the role our organizations play in the community. Leaders may or may not agree with Elkenberry and Drapal Kluver, but reading this article will certainly get anyone thinking about the wider role and responsibilities of nonprofit organizations.

Available online »

This chapter from Sheehan’s book Mission Impact provides two important pieces of information: a reinforcement of the notion of nonprofit organizations’ role in society and a definition of what strategy means for those organizations. Sheehan writes in a simple and straightforward manner, citing preceding publications on the subject. We consider this to be a contemporary classic, as its recent publication date belies its timeless lessons on leadership. You may need to order this one from an online seller or university bookstore because it has limited availability in public libraries.

It is enlightening for leaders to revisit this foundational subject in order to refocus the organization on its core reason for existence: its mission. Sheehan argues against other proposed measures of performance, such as the goal approach or internal process approach. Many other elements such as programs, personnel and finance are important to consider, but these are all means to achieving the desired outcome of mission fulfillment—the unique premise of the nonprofit sector.

Available online »

Collins’ little red book has been widely and usefully read by executive directors of museums and managing directors of performing arts organizations. It has added value to their professional development as leaders. However, they have paid little attention to the book’s very important subtitle, Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer, and, therefore, the book’s high potential for stimulating a shift in a board’s default mantra. Collins, highly respected in the for-profit world, offers an at-a-glance summary of the crucial differences between business and the social sectors.

Available online »

Drucker would be no stranger to the tensions in almost every cultural organization: continuity and change, financial sustainability and honoring the muses, and the collisions of value sets among the various professions staffing the organization. Drucker’s questions often both surface these tensions and offer the superordinate values in which differences might be resolved.

The book also includes Peter Drucker’s organizational self-assessment process—not so much a questionnaire as it is a potentially transformative organization-wide process. The process has a strong focus on goals, emphasizing commitment to direction and flexibility in execution. It places ownership and accountability with individuals and leads participants to results monitoring that—in turn—closes the loop with an improved strategy.

Available online »

Liedtka brings the concept and tools of design to shape strategic thinking in the nonprofit sector. Thinking about strategy as design is a way to move from talk (how many nonprofits are driven by endless conversations with no conversation ever quite final) to experimentation and action. Design is tailored to dealing with uncertainty; design understands that products, services and cultural experiences attract real human beings, not target markets segmented into demographic categories.

The four questions of design correspond to the key questions of strategy: What is? (Current reality is analyzed honestly and thoughtfully.) What if and what wows? (The inspiring possibilities are conceived.) What works? (How can we make an exciting future our next current reality?) In service of these four key questions, Liedtka offers a variety of design tools that include visualization, journey mapping, value chain analysis, mind mapping, assumption testing, rapid prototyping and customer co-creation. The tools enable what Liedtka calls the “small bets” and “experiments” that trigger wise choices about sustainable futures – the key challenge to nonprofits.

Available online »

Three research streams inform this work. Lipman-Blumen has done qualitative research—mostly interviews with leaders from the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors. The second research stream involves historical, biographical and autobiographical sources. The third is quantitative, based on two instruments: the Achieving Styles Inventory and the Organizational Achieving Styles Inventory. The author uses more than five thousand cases collected and analyzed since 1984. Lipman-Blumen’s perspectives also draw on a wide range of her consulting experience in government, business and the social sector. Part One examines the origins and evolution of the human need for leadership. Part Two presents the Connective Leadership Model in detail. Part Three explores the empirical organizational results and the philosophical implications of the Model.

Available online »

“Diagnostic Work: Determining the Principal Challenge” discusses why leaders should take a bird’s eye view of the terrain before leading their team into a challenge. Using a variety of actual leaders as research, Williams builds a framework for diagnosing the challenge, assessing the environmental factors and determining what actions to take. Interestingly, Williams notes that one of the steps in diagnosis is actually putting aside the intuition inherit in most leaders and listening to others. Gathering this information reveals aspects of reality team members are avoiding and shows how the group can collectively tackle the challenge.

Available online »