Executive Directors and CEOs: Share Your Perspectives with Your Teams

Executive directors and CEOs frequently confide in us that they worry about speaking their minds with their staff and boards. They worry about silencing other people’s alternative ideas, dominating the conversation, or having too much influence on decisions. These are very understandable feelings, especially given the work these leaders are doing to center equity, advance social justice, and build power and community among their staff and constituents. 

Nevertheless, we advise executive directors and CEOs to speak up and share their views. You have a unique, big-picture perspective that staff and board count on hearing. Moreover, inspiring the conversation with the CEO’s insights helps create a shared knowledge base that the whole team can use as a starting point for further discussion. 

This is especially true in matters where the CEO, from their particular vantage point, may have gathered enough information to form a position. We recommend you share this upfront — rather than asking for opinions on something you’ve already shaped a perspective about — while also inviting push back, edits, and alterations. 

Communicating your nonprofit’s strategy and vision is a central and unique role of a CEO and doing so keeps people energized and motivated. Also, staff like hearing from their leaders about a vision for the future and appreciate hearing their thinking.

So executive directors and CEOs, speak up and share your views, then invite your team to collaboratively make adjustments and build together from there!