Leading for Social Impact

This is the first book of its kind dedicated to leadership in the UK non-profit sector. It provides a practical guide to the challenges of leadership in this sector and new ideas and theories to stimulate a wider debate around leading for social impact.

The failure to acknowledge the distinct barriers that leaders face in the non-profit sector means that leadership theory and practice models are unrelatable and underserve the 5.5 million who currently work in UK non-profit organisations. Emerging from three years of research and a lifetime of experience, it introduces a new sequential four-stage leadership model, connecting personal development to operational execution: soft skills for hard targets. In doing so, it recognises that the commercial tensions on non-profit leadership are as severe, if not more so, than in the private sector. It also stresses the unique – contradictory and paradoxical – operating environments within which non-profit leadership is routinely required to achieve social impact.

The introduction of a new interrelated four-stage model, the Leadership for Social Impact Model (LSIM), ultimately closes the gap between theory and practice. This book is of interest to leaders and managers at all levels across the nonprofit sectors.