Executive Leadership

Qm² consultants assist executive directors and other leaders as they work to improve their organizations. Our client organizations range widely in their disciplines, missions, sizes, age, but one thing their leaders have in common is a commitment to get better at what they do. They are generally successful, but they know they can do better, and are eager to learn, to seize new opportunities, and try new approaches.

How Leaders Bring Energy to the Organization

by John Durel and Michael Randel

A leader’s emotions affect the emotional climate of the group. Therefore, to improve productivity, a leader must lead with emotional intelligence.

MANAGEMENT BRIEFINGS to help you build a stronger organization.

Thank your again for spending so much time with us…. As I mentioned here the day after seeing you, you're one of the few people who parachutes in from outside and really gets it, as if you were here around the table day in and day out.

Brian C. Thompson, former Executive Director,

Museum of American Financial History

Civic Leadership

by John Durel

Leaders of nonprofit organizations must step up to become leaders in their communities. This presentation was made by John Durel at the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in 2008. It briefly outlines key concepts related to being both a museum director and a civic leader.

Telling Stories at Work

by John Durel

Choose your reasons for telling a story at work. Stories can be used as a leadership tool. Be intentional in using a story to achieve a specific purpose, and shape the story accordingly

Your Public Presence

by Anita Nowery Durel and John Durel

Authenticity is the key to a positive and powerful public presence. This briefing offers ideas for improving the way you are perceived by others. These techniques and tactics will be ineffective if you are pretending to be something you are not. You will be uncomfortable, and others will notice, if you behave in a way that is not sincere and genuine.

Leadership Challenge: Moving from Directing to Delegating

by John Durel

If you, as the chief executive of a nonprofit organization, are not spending at least 75% of your time on external affairs, you are impeding your organization’s success. If your focus is primarily on internal capacity and operations – managing people, managing money, working on systems and procedures – then you are failing to perform a role that only the executive director can play.

The Key Ingredients of a Strong Vision

by John Durel

The leader needs to articulate a compelling vision to drive the organization forward. Here are the key ingredients of a strong vision.

The JoHari Window

A model on how we see ourselves and how others see us.  It consists of  four distinct window panes.  As individuals engage in disclosure, feedback and play the size of the panes expands.  And we are able to more deeply understand and connect with one another. 

Innovation and Discipline

by John Durel

In great organizations leaders are both highly disciplined and entrepreneurial. Here is a way to assess the leaders in your organization.

How to Help Your New Boss Succeed

by John Durel

On average, when a new CEO takes over an organization, more than 25% of the senior managers leave within a year, either by their own choice or the CEO’s.  New chief executives tend to make decisions about who will be on their leadership teams within 60 days.How can you make the team? A better question, one that will help to ensure that you are on the team, is: “How can you help your new boss succeed?”

You and Your Boss: What You Need from Each Other

by John Durel

This briefing is written for senior employees who report directly to the CEO.  Use it to have a conversation with your boss. Bring clarity to your relationship by discussing what you need from each other.

Democraship: A Cooperative Decision Process

by Will Phillips

Democraship, one approach to decision making, combines the speed of strong leadership and the commitment of a democratic consensus. To combine leadership and democracy into Democraship, we distinguish three aspects in reaching a decision: making, taking and accepting.

Delegation

by Will Phillips

Delegation can be defined as the process of assigning various responsibilities to other people in an organization.  The most effective form of delegation includes the assigning of sufficient authority to complete the tasks whenever possible. 

Collaboration -- Negotiation

by John Durel

If you are going to collaborate with other nonprofit organizations, you need to know how to negotiate.

Be-Know-Do: Leadership the Army Way

By Frances Hesselbein and General Eric K. Shinseki (USA Retired)

Reviewed by John Durel

What can nonprofit organizations learn from the U.S. Army? Be-Know-Do: Leadership the Army Way describes how the Army builds leaders who can carry out a mission in hostile and rapidly changing circumstances. While few nonprofits face life and death situations, many experience unanticipated events where the ability to respond quickly and appropriately can make the difference between success and failure. Learning from the Army’s way of developing leaders may help nonprofits prepare for these eventualities.

A Pivotal Year

by John Durel and Anita Nowery Durel

We recognize that 2009 will be pivotal for many of you. This will be a year ripe with challenges and opportunities, and is likely to involve fundamental changes to the way you operate. This will not be about getting through a rough spot – downsizing until the economy recovers. Rather, it should entail new thinking and new strategies to place your organization on a stronger financial footing, so that when the economy revives you are positioned to become one of the strongest nonprofits in your area. Here are six ways you can use 2009 to build organizational strength. This briefing has also been included in Resources for Weathering the Financial Storm on the website of the American Association of State and Local History.

Challenging Times

In response to the economic crisis, the Association of Children's Museums asked Anita Durel and John Durel to moderate a conference call titled Challenging Times. Eighty museum directors participated on the call. Notes from the call, and a link to the podcast, can be found here.

A Golden Age for Historic Properties

By John Durel and Anita Nowery Durel

Historic properties are on the verge of a golden age. Over the next two decades Americans will turn to historic houses and sites as a source of learning, enjoyment, and fulfillment. Increasingly, people will choose to spend time in places that connect them to their past, to nature, and to beauty. They will provide financial support to help sustain the properties, so that succeeding generations will benefit from these places that they value so much. This future will occur only for the organizations that abandon the thinking of the 1980s.

This article appeared in History News (Summer 2007,) the journal of the American Associatioin of State and Local History, and Forum (Spring 2008,) the journal of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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Entrepreneurship in Historical Organizations

by John Durel

Published in History News, the magazine of the American Association of State and Local History, Spring 2009

It seems almost preposterous to describe historical and cultural institutions as entrepreneurial. The popular view of an entrepreneur in America can be seen any month on the cover of Inc. Magazine. Young, smart, ambitious, hard driving, probably living in California, with a bright idea or new product that will make millions. Not the kind of people one usually finds working in archives or at historic sites. Read More.