Social-sector organizations have to be better managed than for-profit organizations... because they have no margin of error.
Interpretation
Social-sector organizations must be managed with greater care due to their limited resources and higher stakes.
Frances Hesselbein emphasizes that social-sector organizations, which often operate on tight budgets and rely heavily on the impact they create, must be managed with stringent practices and excellence. Unlike for-profit organizations that can absorb failures and mistakes more easily, social-sector organizations cannot afford to make errors because their mission often involves serving vulnerable populations and addressing critical societal needs.
In practice
In a leadership seminar focusing on nonprofit management, this quote can inspire attendees to prioritize effective management practices.
When people are speaking, they require our undivided attention. We focus on them; we listen very carefully. We listen to the spoken words and the unspoken messages. This means looking directly at the person, eyes connected; we forget we have a watch, just focusing for that moment on that person.
It takes courage for a leader to identify and confront self-imposed barriers, to put in place the personal strategies required to unleash the energy, innovation, and commitment to self-development.
Women are working for part or all of their adult lives now. The possibilities are limitless, but you need to prepare.
The real leader redefines or defines the mission in a very powerful way so that people understand it; it permeates the organization.
Leadership is not a basket of tricks or strategies or skills that you pull out. Leadership begins with the quality of the person.
In my life, I don't have roadblocks and obstacles. I might have something you would call a 'challenge.' I throw that out the window, and I call that a wonderful opportunity.
Being a woman in control of a company - even a small private company, as ours was then - was so singular and surprising in those days that I necessarily stood out. In 1963, and for the first several years of my working life, my situation was certainly unique.
A society that respects women needs to elect leaders who care more about women's lives than they do about their or their company's bottom line.
For me, I've learned that the best thing is to focus on the team you play for and yourself and what you need to do.
I've been a medical and public health professional as well as a mother. I became skilled at juggling a number of priorities and competing interests. Like many other female leaders, I've tried to serve as a role model for the young women at my organization who are trying to balance a high-level leadership position and a family.
It's not enough to just have talent at Atletico Madrid. At other clubs it is, but we can't sign superstars and have to look for players with a good work ethic.
A nation' s strength ultimately consists in what it can do on its own, and not in what it can borrow from others.
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