Transcript of Interview with
Arto Woodley
Kirsten:
Welcome. You are listening to the Nonprofit Leaders Network
Podcast: Episode 1. Today we’re talking with Arto Woodley, former Executive
Director of Frontline Outreach in Orlando, Florida and currently a consultant
to universities and communities helping them build first generation leaders.
If this is your first time listening, thanks for coming. This podcast is produced
every two weeks and show notes are found at
www.nonprofitleadersnetwork.com. Come back often and feel free to add the
podcast to your favorite RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow me on Twitter
@KirstenBullock. Any links we talk about will be listed in the show notes.
Now let’s get on with the show. Thank you Arto for joining me today. I’m really
excited about the information and insights you’re going to be sharing with our
listeners today.
Arto:
Hello and thank you.
Kirsten:
Arto and I first met through a group in Orlando called Lifework
Leadership, a nine-month Christ centered leadership-training program. I can’t
remember how exactly it happened Arto, but a committee through Lifework
Leadership was formed to help Frontline Outreach on a project. Do you
remember what the project was or what we were working on?
Arto:
I sure don’t. There were a lot of different projects over the years,
but I think it may have been when Lifework got involved and we were building
our reading ministry, Read and Succeed. I think that might have been it.
Kirsten:
That sounds familiar. That was fun.
Arto:
It was a long time ago.
Kirsten:
It must have been 12 or 13 years ago. Through that, I gained a
great deal of respect for Frontline and for Arto. At that time, Frontline was
advancing a Cradle to College concept to develop a new generation of leaders in
1
inner city Orlando. You can read his full bio on the website,
www.nonprofitleadersnetwork.com, but I’ll go ahead and share a couple of
highlights here.
Arto has focused his life on fulfilling the vision God gave him to develop leaders
and rebuild cities. An urban innovator, he led Frontline Outreach from 1998 to
2014, and then later as an Advisor to the Mayor to develop public private
partnerships with Chester, Pennsylvania for a couple of years. Arto has degrees
from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Widener University in
Pennsylvania.
Arto is involved in a variety of civic and community activities. He is an
Emeritus Member of the African American Community Fund at the Dayton
Foundation, a past member of the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce,
Board of Governors, a founding member of the Governor’s Faith Based Advisory
Committee in Florida, and the Florida Department of Children and Families
Independent Living Advisory Council, just to name a few.
With all this experience and knowledge I’m really happy you’re here sharing
information with other people who are serving as executive directors now and
planning to serve as executive directors in the future.
So a few questions that I have outlined here. We might stick with these
questions or wander off a little, but I’m excited to hear what you have to say.
First question, what do you feel like was your greatest success in your work
with Frontline Outreach.
Arto:
Well there is no doubt that the greatest success is tied into the
outcomes for the children that we worked with. Our mission was preparing
tomorrow’s leaders with a vision for success and service starting in preschool.
Though we were able to raise millions of dollars, totally renovate the building,
built new structures and totally revamped the model, the greatest successes
are in the lives of the young people who started with me as afterschoolers and
preschoolers who have finished college. And those pre-school students who
have entered college, those who have graduated; who are around the world
working in their careers and in the areas of passion or in the military. I count
that as the greatest success.
Kirsten:
Of the kids that you’ve worked with you mentioned that some are
around the world. What’s the most exotic place that somebody has traveled to
and is living in now?
2
Arto:
Well one young man graduated from Widener U in New York and
he’s playing basketball. He’s played basketball in Ireland and Columbia. Every
time I look at his Facebook page, he’s in some foreign country. Of course, he’s
chasing the NBA dream and so he’s playing in those foreign places to get his
shot as a free agent. I shouldn’t say he’s the only one; I’d forgotten about all the
young men who are in the military who have been to Afghanistan, Iraq, and all
over the world, so there are probably places that I haven’t even mentioned. But
these young people originated in the inner city of Orlando and honed their
crafts as leaders and took what they’ve learned at a small Christ centered
ministry in Orlando and took it around the world. To me, that’s success.
Kirsten:
Then the opposite of that, what do you feel is your – I don’t want to
say failure, but…
Arto:
Greatest growth opportunity.
Kirsten:
Greatest growth opportunity, I love that.
Arto:
Well obviously, it is hard as a leader with the amount of experience
that I’ve had. Most leaders try to mask where they’re weak. I had a good friend
give me a book called Leading with a Limp. And it’s true, we should lead in light
of our weaknesses.
My greatest weakness as a leader was being loyal. Now some would say,
“Loyalty is a great trait.” It is a great trait and you have to be aware that
sometimes even being loyal to people who are on your team and Board
members who are not functioning well, that can be a detriment to the overall
growth of the organization or the ministry and that’s where I failed.
I held onto people for longer than I should have and I held onto people who
were beyond their level of functionality in that purpose. So that’s not saying
that they weren’t functional; every person has a gift and a plan for their lives,
but when they’re not producing fruit for your organization then it’s time to
transition. That’s a challenge and I didn’t do that as well as I could have
because of my commitment to the people.
So you have to balance the personal commitment to people to the commitment
to making the organization grow. And that’s where I was not as strong, so
that’s my greatest growth opportunity is before I lead another large or midsized organization in higher education, striking that balance between the
loyalty to people the ability to transition people when they are not as fruitful as
they could be.
3
Kirsten:
The phrase I’ve learned I think is “Bless and release.”
Arto:
Yes.
Kirsten:
…where, “Thank you for your service, it’s been great.” But a lot of
times people would be better served by each going off in their own direction
perhaps. Is that what I hear you saying?
Arto:
Well absolutely, and my motto was we never terminate anybody,
because you don’t terminate people; they continue to live afterwards. We did
release people and I did release a lot of people. I think that there were a few key
positions that needed to be transitioned in order for the organization to
continue to move forward.
It’s harder with Board members, and I know we’ll talk about Board Members a
little bit later, but you also have to hold to the term limits and tactfully
encourage people to make their transition to do what they have to do. So you’re
right, “Bless and release,” is a very important method in helping people to move
forward and for the organization to move forward.
Kirsten:
I was just listening to a podcast this morning with Michael Hyatt
and he talks about the importance of hiring slowly and firing quickly…
Arto:
Absolutely.
Kirsten:
…when you know it’s not a good fit. So transitioning into the
Board, how do you know that you have the right people on the Board and how
do you handle it if you don’t.
Arto:
Well, there are times I did it well and times that I didn’t do it as
well. The times I’ve done is well is – you want to make sure you have a Board
with people who have influence and affluence. That means they have the ability
to bring resources, people, other opportunities to the Board so that the Board
can effectively accomplish its work. Affluence means they have the ability to
give.
That is one of the biggest myths that exists, that Board members only come to
bring their expertise. Every Board member has to be committed financially.
There is no way you would be able to encourage others to commit financially if
the executive and the key leaders such as the Board are not 100% committed.
Now that may be different at the various levels of peoples’ capacity to give, but
there should be 100% giving.
4
I think when those things are happening; you know you have the right Board
members. I think the outgrowth of how you know, based on influence and
affluence, is you’re accomplishing your goals and your objectives with that
group of people and you’re able to do it affectively. When you have clear-cut
goals and objectives with measurable outcomes and you’re consistently moving
forward. I say consistently; you’re not stuck, you’re not in meetings having the
same conversations over and over and over about challenges and issues that
could’ve been addressed earlier.
Another way that I think you know that you have the right Board, as an
Executive Director, CEO or whatever your title is is you don’t feel overwhelmed
by challenges. You feel like you have a core group of people who are with you
and whenever you have a huge opportunity or challenge, whether it’s a new
building project or whatever, you have a core group of people because of your
Board structure, that can not only provide you brain power, but they can also
provide you resources.
Kirsten:
Right, and probably offer support for each other if things need a
little extra work or if something is not working and you need to tweak it a little
to have a group of people working with you.
Arto:
Yeah, especially in the nonprofit setting more than a university
setting because Board Members in the universities take on a different function.
But in a nonprofit setting, depending on the size of the nonprofit, Board
members may have to utilize their resources in their office; their assistants,
their office staff, and different people depending on what their business is, to
provide help.
For example, one company, which I won’t name, but it’s a sizable company in
Orlando; our Board Chair at the time, offered the ability of their HR department
to do a search for us to find a Director of Operations and that was a huge help.
So they did all of the initial screening. We had over 300 people apply and got it
down to five and it was a huge help. Plus it was additional verification of the
choice of the person. So it wasn’t just saying, “Well where did this person come
from? Did Arto find the person?” No, the Board was involved in the selection of
the person.
So it’s those types of innovative engagements that can really leverage Board
Members’ input and ability to help move the mission of the nonprofit forward.
Kirsten:
Now to build on that question a little. There are probably some
listeners now who are listening to the things that your Board members were
5
doing and they’re saying, “Wow, my Board isn’t doing any of that.” What are
some steps that you can encourage them to take to help start recruiting the
right Board members who have that influence and affluence and the ability to
really dig in and help the organization out. What are some first steps that you
can suggest that they take?
Arto:
Well, I usually never start with a negative, but I will start with
something negative. Don’t only look at people’s ability to give or the name of the
company that they work with. That’s a huge mistake, because many times you
can get people who happen to have resources or they work for a large company
or a foundation and they’re not committed to your mission. So the first thing I
would say is put together a Nominating Committee and begin considering
names of people who could be connected to your mission.
The other thing I would say that’s very important to do is to get as many people
as possible engaged in your volunteer side of the house. I know a lot of people
will think, “What does that do for our Board?” Most people who give and most
people who bring their resources to an organization started out as volunteers.
I had a core of Board Members who started as volunteers. They started as
reading mentors in Read and Succeed, or they were involved in Community
Christmas, and that engagement in the ministry and that engagement with the
people in the work solidified their commitment as Board Members. So they
didn’t have to wonder whether this project worked or that project worked
because they were familiar with it. Some of them were still involved with it. So
that’s very important.
So I would say, engagement as volunteers and making that part of your
recruitment process for Board Members, making sure that your nominating
process with your Board Members who help find people and begin to glean for
people, is to find people whose passion is connected to the work that you do
and not just going after the resources and their affiliation with a particular
company.
Kirsten:
As far as an ongoing process, I know some boards have a formal
process as Board evaluations. Is that something you ever tried or something
you would recommend?
Arto:
Higher education talks about it differently. They talk about
institutional effectiveness. I would borrow the higher education wording in
terms of what you should be looking at, so it should be broader than Board
effectiveness. It really should be a focus on institutional effectiveness and
6
looking at the effectiveness of the executives, the effectiveness of the Board,
from a strategic standpoint, and looking at are we accomplishing from a
strategic goal standpoint, are you doing what we said we’re going to do?
We did variations of that with our strategic plan and beginning to evaluate the
Board’s work. But we did not do it as deeply as I wanted to because I didn’t
challenge the Board to take more time to do it, to get deep because that’s
another challenge of Board work; they have to make the time to deeply
immerse themselves in the work.
Because Board members tend to be CEOs and busy people, they typically want
to come in for meetings and fly at the seat level. It is very important for them to
be able to be committed to the advancement of the work. Yes, they have to give
their support, their treasure, but their time is just as important, specifically in
the effectiveness of the organization. Because if you’re not effective, ultimately
it will show on a broader level.
So I think looking at it from an institutional effective standpoint where they
have a committee that evaluates the executives on a consistent regular basis,
just like all the people who work for the nonprofits should be evaluated. Then a
separate group that looks at the effectiveness of the Board itself, and the Board
members. Are we accomplishing what we said we were going to accomplish? Is
every Board member giving on an annual basis? Have they accomplished their
personal goals?
One of the things we did is we asked Board members when they initially were
coming onboard, what are three things they’d like to accomplish before their
tenure ended? Three things they’d like to be engaged in. So are they actually
accomplishing the goals that they set out to do initially when they came? Those
things help to keep you strong and it helps to keep your effort vibrant.
Kirsten:
I love that idea of asking them. That gives them ownership and
commitment that they need to have. It makes it more possible that the
organization will reach its goals if you have that ownership. I love how you ask
them for their three goals.
Arto:
Well the challenge a lot of times, and this is one of the mistakes or
one of the things I think that I encountered; I call it the Michael Jordan
syndrome. In the early days when Michael Jordan played for Chicago and his
support team was not as good as it was when Chicago won the championship,
most of the teams sat around and watched him score.
7
I remember watching him score 63 points against Boston. He scored 63 points
in the playoffs, but nobody else on the team really did anything. I kind of
remember some of the other people on the team, but not really. So he scored
63 points but they still loss. What happens with nonprofit Directors and CEOs
is they have the Michael Jordan perspective that the Board sit back and watch
the Executive Directors, “Oh, look at this person. She’s doing a great job. Look
at all the money she’s raised. Look at the buildings she built, look at all the
program outcomes. Wow, great job!” They’re watching but they’re not engaged
in it.
The CEOs have to be very careful that they don’t get caught in that trap
because ultimately if you get caught in that trap, then it becomes your work
and not our work and the Board will say, “Well why didn’t she get that done? I
don’t know why, she’s gotten it done in the past.” That happens and that’s the
trap, so you have to very, very astutely make sure that everyone is engaged in
the outcomes and that everyone is held accountable for the outcomes and
that’s an art.
Kirsten:
Absolutely. I think that’s a great closing thought for today’s
podcast; the importance of having ownership and not falling for the – should I
just call it the Michael Jordan Syndrome?
Arto:
Right. I may trademark that.
Kirsten:
So listeners listening to the Nonprofit Leaders Network podcast, if
you like what you just heard, we hope you’ll pass along our web address
www.nonprofitleadersnetwork.com, to your friends and colleagues. Be sure to
check out our archive section for other podcasts and join us next time for
another edition of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast.
[End]
8