Leadership · Direction
Direction, evidenced
The Leadership Survey reads direction and the team carrying it, through structured interviews with the people inside the organization. It is often where the constraint sits when the other four areas look fine and the company still is not moving.
What it is
The Leadership Survey is a structured read on whether the organization is pulling in one direction. We interview the chief executive, three to five board members and the leaders immediately below the top. We read the strategic plan, the org chart and recent board minutes. And we hold a defining-success conversation with the top executive, so the read has an agreed target to measure against. For a nonprofit weighing a campaign, a fundraising-readiness extension is available, scoped and quoted separately.
What you receive
- 01
Structured interviews
We interview the chief executive or executive director one on one, three to five board members and the two or three people who run the organization day to day, just below the top. The finding usually sits in the gap between what the top believes and what the layer below experiences.
- 02
The document read and the defining-success conversation
We read the current strategic plan if one exists, the org chart and board minutes or agendas from the last two to three cycles, to see whether the board decides things or is only informed of them. Then we sit down with the top executive to define what success means, so everything after has an agreed target.
- 03
The nonprofit fundraising-readiness extension
For a nonprofit weighing a campaign or a major-gifts push, we add confidential interviews with prospects and donors to read their capacity, inclination and connection. It draws on Joanna Wasmuth's record, running campaigns from $10 million to $300 million and raising more than $30 million a year. It is priced separately, so an organization with no fundraising question does not pay for interviews it does not need.
What it needs from you
- Access to the chief executive, three to five board members and the layer below them
- The current strategic plan, org chart and recent board minutes or agendas
- A defining-success conversation with the top executive, scheduled early in the engagement
- Confidentiality for the interviews, so people speak plainly rather than diplomatically
How it ends
The Leadership Survey ends with a written finding on where direction, engagement, decision cadence, bench strength and delegation stand today, and what to fix first. You keep it whatever you decide. If nonprofit strategy, fundraising or coaching is warranted, the proposal names only what the evidence supports.
Where it fits
The Leadership Survey is the first stage in Leadership: whether the people and the direction can carry what the other four areas are capable of. It often follows a finding in another area that keeps coming back to the team. See the three stages for the full sequence, or the Leadership area for the rest of what we look at here.
Where to go from here
One hour of your time, no charge: fifteen minutes on the Growth Check, then a forty-five-minute video call. We read every answer before the call.