What Makes a Good Chapter Leader?
Leadership is just as important as funding and having an active and engaged membership are to the success of an ASPEN chapter. Leaders set the tone for each chapter and, through their personal style and level of commitment, determine a chapter’s ability to achieve its goals. In this section you will find useful tools and techniques to help you lead your chapter to succeed from the start.
Because leading a successful chapter requires commitment and dedication to advancing the mission and goals of ASPEN, be sure that you and your team understand ASPEN’s mission and vision as well as the Society’s strategic initiatives. You will also need a clear idea how your chapter compliments the programs and services offered by ASPEN headquarters and specifically the role your chapter will play in your community, whether it is a city, town, or state. One way to understand a chapter’s role is to consider the particular needs of the parenteral and enteral nutrition healthcare professionals in your community and what the chapter can and should do to meet those needs. Is there a niche your chapter could fill? Can you identify the missing piece in your community?
There are many different types of leadership and it is wise to keep in mind that there is no single correct way to lead. While some people are born leaders, most of us learn to be good leaders. According to HR World, an online resource for Human Resources professionals, good leaders possess or develop the following 10 traits:
- Vision: A clear and vivid picture of where to go.
- Integrity: The integration of outward actions and inner values.
- Dedication: Devoting the time and energy necessary to accomplishing the tasks at hand.
- Magnanimity: Making sure that credit for success is spread as widely as possible.
- Humility:Recognizing that leaders are no better or worse than the other members of the team.
- Openness: Being open to new ideas, even if they don’t conform to the usual way of thinking.
- Creativity: The ability to think differently and to get outside the box that constrains solutions.
- Fairness: Dealing with others consistently and justly.
- Assertiveness: The ability to state clearly what is expected of others in order to prevent misunderstandings.
- Sense of humor: Using humor to both diffuse tension and energize others.
Apart from their skills and expertise, every chapter leader contributes their own personal style to the organization. Remember: The messages you send to those around you, both intended and unintended, can have a significant impact on the success of your recruiting and fundraising efforts. This is why it is essential to ask yourself the following questions as you develop your own personal leadership style and role:
What does leadership mean to you?
- Do you believe you must bring a vision to the job? If so, how can you use it to motivate others?
- Are you a person who prefers to lead by developing a consensus among your team?
- Do you prefer to avoid conflict with your team, or do you know how to use conflict to benefit the team and its goals?
How do you plan to use your leadership?
- Will you work to create a strong chapter that succeeds with you as the chief executive or do you see yourself using your talents and skills to attract others to a leadership position?
- Will you focus on establishing the chapter so that once it has become viable and self-sustaining, those who follow can grow it larger?
- Will you keep your career duties and goals separate from your chapter leadership role or will you seek to use one of your roles to help you succeed with the other?
What will you do to cultivate and mentor new leaders and those who will succeed you in your role as chapter leader?
- Do you prefer to work with leaders in other organizations from whom you can learn and network?
- Do you enjoy being a mentor to young professionals as they assist you to help them develop in their careers?
- Will you reach out to those who represent the next generation of leaders to demonstrate to them how they can rise to positions of influence and responsibility or will you prefer to let others on your team focus on that area of leadership?
- Will you develop your own plan to cultivate and mentor new leaders or will you delegate that task to others in your chapter?
Leadership models
Leadership ladder
A leadership ladder is one— but not the only (see below) —method for organizing and running your chapter. It enables members to see both the opportunities and responsibilities associated with their continuing involvement in the chapter.
A leadership ladder is easily illustrated by the image of a stepladder with each leadership position representing a progressively higher rung. In this way, a member may join the chapter at the lowest rung of the ladder and see that, after a year or two, they are expected to take on the responsibility of joining a committee, then chairing that committee, and then eventually moving on to an officer’s role for one year or more before being expected to serve as the chapter president. A leadership ladder could be illustrated as follows:
Whether you use traditional nomenclature (president, vice president, etc.) or other titles such as team leader, it is important that members have a clear idea of how they can move into leadership positions as well as what will be required of them once they get there.
Succession planning
Chapter leadership can be time consuming and it requires a clear vision and sincere dedication. The energy that leaders (and especially founders) devote to their chapters varies, but it is critical that chapter founders remember that in a order for their effort to be sustainable, new members must be recruited, welcomed, and prepared to take on leadership roles.
It is especially gratifying when a chapter founder can witness the smooth ascent of others to the leadership roles they worked so hard to create. For people unaccustomed to working in volunteer organizations, it can be surprisingly gratifying when their colleagues honor and warmly endorse their hard work by infusing the chapter with new energy.
It is equally important that incoming and current leaders coordinate their efforts through the annual planning process to ensure organizational continuity. In other words, every new administration should ideally build on and extend the work of its predecessor rather than trying to introduce a totally new vision and plan.
New leaders bring new life to a chapter
They motivate members to become actively involved in the chapter and they bring fresh ideas and inspiration. That is why we recommend that you include plans for leadership succession in the beginning. Planning for new leadership (sometimes referred to as succession planning), such as with annual general meetings and elections, should be written into your chapter’s bylaws. That way everyone will understand that leaders serve for limited terms and,even if it turns out to be a rotating basis among a small group, that terms must end with new officers who will step into their roles with as little disruption to the chapter’s business as possible.
Succession planning can ensure that while a founder may imbue the chapter with their own personal sense of mission for the length of their term, new leaders are expected to step up to lend their own talents and motivations to support ASPEN’s broader mandate. This is important to bear in mind because ASPEN's mission and goals provide an umbrella large enough to accommodate many areas of focus for new and different leaders who may feel that other issues are worth their energy.
Once you have decided what your chapter can do to advance ASPEN's mission in your region and how your leadership style will sustain your chapter, the next step is deciding how to fund your work.
Also see Mobilizing Volunteers.