After working with scores of nonprofits all over the country, I’m no longer surprised at how many lack the foundational quality of clarity. In our work, we define clarity as having a shared, common understanding of the organization’s vision, mission, and purpose. Unless all your board members and key staff have this shared understanding, the your organization will certainly lack progress at best and will be fighting against itself–figuratively speaking–at worst. This is because everyone will be viewing their individual tasks in a different way.

Think of an organization that lacks clarity as an orchestra whose members are all playing from different sheets of music. Even the best of conductors cannot lead an orchestra that has differing perceptions of the music to be performed. It’s the same with your leadership: if you don’t have all board members and key staff leaders sharing a common understanding and belief of the direction your organization is going–and how you are going to get there–you’ll never fully succeed.

I like to explain it this way. Imagine a very large nonprofit animal rescue and shelter organization. Let’s call it Scott County Animal Rescue (SCAR). Now imagine the staff leaders: a vice president of intake, a VP of placement, a VP of prevention, and a VP of animal release. Ask each of them what the purpose of SCAR is, and you could get the following responses:

  • VP of Intake: “We accept unwanted pets.”
  • VP of Placement: “We make sure all dogs, cats, and other pets have good homes.”
  • VP of Prevention: “We spay and neuter animals that come into the shelter.”
  • VP of Animal Release: “We make sure unwanted animals are euthanized as efficiently as possible.”

All of these staff leaders are correct in describing a portion of what SCAR does. But what about the CEO’s view?

  • CEO: “We assure that all animals in our county are loved and well taken care of.”

Signs Your Organization Lacks Clarity

So, how do you know if you’re in danger of lacking clarity in your organization?

  • Your board chair is confused about your reports and seems not to remember what is going on.
  • You are constantly persuading your top staff leaders to go in a certain direction.
  • Your senior staff meetings seem boring and hollow; there is little engagement in one another’s reports.
  • You don’t have a strategic plan.
  • You do have a strategic plan, but you don’t review it and use it regularly–at least weekly.
  • Your front-line staff seem distant or uncommitted.
  • You are maintaining the status quo, spending your time pushing paper, holding unproductive meetings, or finding busy work.

A Simple Test for Clarity

If you want to confirm your organization has sufficient clarity, do this simple activity. Depending on the size of your organization, either go yourself–or ask your managers to go around–and ask all the staff to answer these two simple questions. And do the same with your board members.

  1. What does our organization hope to accomplish?
  2. What is our organization’s mission? (Don’t let them look at your website or other material to answer this one.)

Have your staff and board members write the answers on a sheet of paper. Or, better yet, do a simple Google Form, SurveyMonkey, or other free online survey tool. Then compare the answers. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do all staff members use similar words and phrases to describe what we hope to accomplish?
  • Do all staff members know our organization’s mission?
  • Do board members use similar words and phrases to describe what we hope to accomplish?
  • Do board members know our organization’s mission?

And, perhaps most telling:

  • Do the board and staff members respond to these questions in similar ways?
  • Do I as the organization’s chief executive see our purpose and mission in the same way as my board and staff members do?

Complementary Clarity Assessment

If you’d like a free, statistical text analysis of these two questions, email me before you do your own survey. I’ll be happy to give you access to your own online two-question survey and then provide you the results.

You may be surprised at what you learn–for better or for worse.