Leadership

Monday Buzz: The Paradox of Association Leadership

There are skills required to get an organization going, and there are skills required to fuel it over the long haul. Unfortunately, they aren’t always the same thing. Also: ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference is off to a big start in Colorado.

By Raegan Johnson Mar 12, 2018

What’s one of the greatest ironies of association leadership? According to Jeff Hurt of Velvet Chainsaw, it’s that the skills that got an association off the ground aren’t necessarily the same skills that will take it into the future.

“An association’s Achilles heel flares when its volunteer leadership become entrenched in past practices as the only way to manage the organization,” Hurt writes in a recent post. “These leaders don’t want to give up decision-making responsibilities and want to avoid growth.”

He notes that many association volunteers rise into leadership because of their trade or professional accomplishments, but they may be less adept at running an organization. “Likewise, they have a limited amount of volunteer time they can dedicate to the organization,” says Hurt. “At some point, that association reaches its leadership resource capacity stage.”

The Scene From #Ideas18

ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference kicked off yesterday at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The annual event, which covers topics ranging from association leadership to technology to membership, is “designed to advance new ideas by working together.”

Check out what Sunday’s keynote speakers had to say about how diversity of thought fosters innovation in organizations.

And don’t miss a few of our favorite tweets from the conference so far:

https://twitter.com/DanScheeler/status/972944444667260928

https://twitter.com/Neaceay/status/972947156746285057

https://twitter.com/aubieknight/status/972972103006797824

https://twitter.com/JenShockley/status/973245296397266944

https://twitter.com/swhitehorne/status/973207652552470529

Follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #ideas18.