A degree of frustration with the “boomers” currently in executive positions (those aged 50 and 60) emerged from the NP2020 Conference, as well as a desire for further leadership opportunities, professional development, and mentoring. There was a focus on physical age and differences based on the context of life experiences of each generation.

As a “boomer” the gathering and subsequent conversations have caused me to reflect on my own journey, and how I could comment and mentor – as I have been coached and mentored. As a way to keep the “circle turning”, I am leaping into blogging.

This is dangerous territory. Not all advice from “boomers” is welcomed. Weird dynamics sometimes come in to play. Suggestions can sound like unsolicited motherly advice…and reflection can appear to be nostalgia. Knowing the potential pitfalls, I’m still pushing on. My wish is that in reading, you will assume “good will” in the sharing of ideas. I look forward to your comments.

Each month, I’ll tackle a topic with a comment or two about ideas or strategies that have been important to me on the issue of nonprofit leadership. I intend to quote liberally and anonymously from those who have helped me along the way.

This month, I’d like to reflect on the role of problem-solving as a part of being a youthful leader of a nonprofit organization. When I was young, my father’s advice was ” study and get ready and some day your chance will come”. This little homily is self-evident. It is also true. If you engage the world and learn from it with an open mind, when an opportunity comes for leadership, you will be ready.

One of my mentor’s has a bit of a different spin on the same topic. That spin is “homework before help”. This translates into very specific behavior on the job. It means that when you have a problem, don’ t take the problem to your supervisor. Take the solution. Solve the problem.

A reoccurring line in the movie “Disclosure” is advice from an unknown online source, “A. Friend”, trying to assist Michael Douglas in his quest for a promotion. He has a technical problem with an important project that is his responsibility. He also has personal issues that consume his attention. As the plot unfolds, the daily message comes up on his computer “Fix the Problem”. He is only promoted after he turns his attention to the problem at work, his responsibility, and solves it.

The world is full of lots of problems. From the mundane…who will pull out the ink cartridge in the printer and shake it so we can get five more copies before buying a new one? To the extremely complex…how will we solve global warming? In between are a myriad of daily dilemmas, trade-offs, relationship issues, power dynamics, and just plain problems. It can be exhausting.

To become a leader in your organization, it is as simple as leading. This means studying to be ready. It means facing problems and solving them when you can. If you can’t solve a problem yourself, then investigate the alternatives and provide pro’s and con’s for why one solution might be better than another. Begin to define yourself as a problem solving resource. Focus on the problems faced by your organization, or the needs in the world that are served by your agency.

As you practice solving problems, it will become a habit that will support your career advancement. Assuming responsibility for solving problems means you’ll start to get better at identifying the real problems. Sometimes it takes investigation, reflection, and probing to determine underlying causation and to identify the actual issue. You’ll become more comfortable with taking calculated risks…for every choice you make there will be hundreds of other choices that might have been right. You may never know if your solution was the optimum solution. But, out of a range of options, you can become comfortable that it is “good enough “….because you’ve done the homework.

If problem-solving makes you uncomfortable, or you’re not sure you have the authority. Start small. Clean the coffee maker. Tidy up the storage room. Keep the brochure rack stocked. Take a small area of your work and ask yourself, how could this be accomplished cheaper, faster, better, more efficiently? Then make suggestions, or if you have the authority, begin to do things in a new way.

Move to medium sized problems. Notice that no one has the time to write the monthly blog – offer to do it; offer to recruit writers and organize the schedule; come up with a plan based on research on how to best communicate with your target audience. Every organization has greater ambitions and greater needs than it has time or resources, look for those unmet needs and meet them.

If you are a junior member of the staff, in an organization facing large, complex issues, provide resources useful to busy program managers. If your agency works with the homeless, for example, research all of the programs on homelessness in the nation or your state or region. Analyze the various strategies and approaches. Synthesize these approaches and provide a short, concise overview of “programs that work”.

Don’t do a web-search, download and print a 50 page document of examples. Don’t send an e-mail with links to interesting articles. The program directors could do this mass download themselves, and they don’t have the time. Fix that problem. Do the homework. Study up on the key issues of your organization. Provide a useful tool in a form that helps.

Age is not an issue when the person is a constructive, problem-solving asset to the organization. In fact, a major advantage of young leadership is the ability to analyze problems in new ways, to research alternatives and models through new technologies, and to innovate or create novel solutions. Sweet words in an organization that is focused on complexity and working “flat out” are the words…”no problem, it’s taken care of”.

In my “boomer” head, these phrases resonate daily: “study and get ready “; “homework before help”; and “fix the problem….fix the problem”. Two incredibly successful mentors, and one good movie, passed these strategies on to me. I pass them on to you.

- Kathy Agard, Boomer