Future Leadership™ Vision
We believe the approaching retirement of long-standing executives across all nonprofit
sectors presents a critical challenge for the cultural field as well. New cultural patterns here
in the US and the globalization of culture in general will require new expertise and new perspectives in
our next wave of leaders. Smart investments today in the development of this next cohort of leaders
can help ensure there are exceptional professionals ready for these executive positions, tap the
unique experience of young professionals working in our field today, and help ensure the continuation
of our institutions.
Our vision for future leadership
Q: Who are the professionals we most need to
invest in today?
A: We believe new executive education efforts need to focus on developing the skills
of arts, culture, and preservation professionals who can be ready to take on a leadership position
in the next five to seven years. These are professionals who have worked in a cultural discipline
for five to ten years, with a moderate to high level of management responsibility. Some of these
professionals may also be in for-profit creative businesses, with a demonstrated interest in the
arts and culture sector through volunteer projects or other experiences. We anticipate these
professionals will take on new positions as heads of existing organizations, founders of new
organizations, and as senior managers in major institutions. We believe these experienced
professionals are best positioned to take this next step and lead cultural organizations with
multi-million dollar annual budgets.
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Q: How do current leaders – current
executives, board members, funders, search firms, consultants, and others – help realize
this vision?
A: If you take a random group of people and set them to a big task, some will become great
leaders through their own hard work and innate ability. But if you want to increase those natural
odds – and create more leaders who are even more effective – you need to create an
ecosystem that fosters leadership development. We think this requires the
perspective, expertise, and influence of current leaders across our community, including current
executives, board members, search firms, and funders. Your first step in realizing this vision
is sharing what you know: your experience of what the executive job is really like, and a clear
picture of what you look for when you hire an executive. The second step is actively changing
the environment by identifying talent, providing time – and money – for their
professional development, and creating projects specifically to help these high-potential staff
develop the skills they need in making this next step.
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Q: What are the immediate benefits for my work and
my organization?
A: The last thing any group of not-for-profit professionals needs is to find another
way to sacrifice for the general good. We believe great ideas for a community succeed
when there are great benefits for each individual as well. Future Leadership will
help our entire field by helping each of us succeed in our own work and our own visions:
Prospective executives:
Gain the specific knowledge you need most to win an executive position, and succeed once you
are there.
Current executives:
Move your own vision forward by building the expertise, loyalty, and motivation of your
most talented staff.
Funders:
Amplify the impact of your grants and support the long-term stability of your grantees by
sharing your expertise too.
Board members:
Provide long-term stewardship for your organization by ensuring a deep pool of prospects and
a faster transition for your next executive director search.
Search firms:
Identify high-potential staff beyond the usual suspects for your executive searches.
Agencies and services:
Discover key needs and concerns in our field, and develop additional services for this next
wave of leaders.
Consultants:
Connect to current leaders and the next wave of executives across the United States
and internationally.
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Q: Is Future Leadership™ just an online
initiative?
A: Our research and discussions with cultural leaders
and education experts have convinced us that a mix
of online and in-person activities are needed to achieve
this vision. Online activities reach professionals
across the broadest geography (anywhere in the world,
really), allow you to participate whenever the time
is right for you individually, create a public record
and history we can all use over time, and create a
“24x7” resource for the field. In-person
events allow us to teach complex skills and leadership
judgment that research shows are most effectively
taught in-person, and also create opportunities to
deepen relationships and networks built online.
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Q: How will NAS develop events and services for
this program?
A: We expect to learn a lot with each experiment
that will help answer this question, but our basic
approach is to use ongoing cycles of experimentation
and development to meet the needs of these prospective
executives and their organizations. We hope to use
community discussions, educational events, and rigorous
evaluation to build out a comprehensive leadership
development service for the next wave of cultural
leaders. We envision in-person and online services
that support individual needs assessments; in-person,
residential, and distance learning; peer-to-peer community
building; coaching; applied projects and fellowships;
and career advancement and placement.
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Q: Will NAS deliver all the services needed
for the next wave of cultural leadership?
A: Absolutely not. We are one player in the solution,
but there is no way we can realize this vision alone.
There are exceptionally smart people in and outside
our field who focus on professional development and
leadership. One of the great benefits of our Future
Leadership approach is that the knowledge this community
generates will be available to the public. The discussions,
the ideas, the complaints, the experiences –
they are all material for creative thinking and creative
solutions by our entire field. NAS will develop the
services we feel best positioned to offer, and we
will work with partners inside and outside the cultural
sector to encourage other services and help coordinate
meaningful investments.
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Q: What does our field look like when this vision
is realized?
A: One day, many steps further down the road, we
hope to see that succession isn’t a periodic,
urgent concern for individual organizations. Rather,
professionals throughout our field will talk about
leadership as a continuous set of cycles, where one
cycle naturally fosters and leads to the next cycle.
Current executives will actively foster this next
wave of leaders, with the help of resources from across
the sector, including a vibrant community of peers.
A rich mix of professional development services will
be available to help the highest potential professionals
make the next step in their careers. These services
will complement each other, thanks to the public conversation
about these professionals’ needs and their first
experience as an executive director. All together,
the investment by cultural organizations, grantmakers,
and service providers will help identify, support,
and retain the most creative and visionary leaders
for our field.
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