Strategic Leadership Bridge: Your Bridge for Nonprofit Leade
Pre-Leadership Transitions
Post-Leadership Transitions
Post-Leadership Transitions
We help bridge successful leadership transitions before, during and after leaders leave nonprofit organizations.
We focus on educating Executive Director's (ED's) before they are ready to leave. Many ED's feel isolated and sometimes don't have the full educational tools needed to be successful (and no one to ask).
We meet with ED's (through their own personal growth plans or Board Members seeking guidance and support) and help understand areas where additional expertise would be helpful.
Our primary focus areas include:
a) Financials 101 & initial review, Deep Dive Analysis for current budget year, and translating financials for long-term financial understanding and strategic decision-making
b) Strategic impact, through a programs lens (including community need and program true costs)
c) Realistic income, fundraising and event projections
By supporting leaders knowledge, we strive to keep ED's in place with new skills and tools to be successful.
Post-Leadership Transitions
Post-Leadership Transitions
Post-Leadership Transitions
Strategic Leadership Bridge is your partner in managing leadership changes in a positive environment. We help create structure and utilize strengths of your people and mission to create impact during leadership changes.
After an ED has left an organization, there are many strategic and operational decisions that need to happen as soon as possible, for the organization to stabilize.
After helping many organizations once a leader has left, we offer expertise in helping with Interim Leadership (as Interim Executive Director or similar Interim C-Level roles). We can help support organizations, as they prepare to search for a permanent ED. Through our network of consultants, we can help with the day-to-day operations or strategic transformation for your organization's leadership transition.
We also support new ED's (either new to an ED role or new to an organization) with coaching support and tailored education plan for the first 2 -3 months. We support leaders with best practices and priority "to do's" for the first quarter of their new role, for long-term success.
Strategic Leadership Bridge Philosophies
We like change.
We like managing change with a positive attitude.
We understand most people think change is hard.
We create stability, structure and calm in chaos.
We prioritize “why” and a learning environment as we manage change.
We bridge the communication gap between visionary leaders and operational expertise leaders.
We believe in strengths.
Everyone has different talents and strengths.
We encourage exploring strengths of leadership, staff, volunteers to make tweaks during change to be more successful in the long-term.
Strategic Leadership Bridge Leaders
Our Expertise
We are a team of community leaders who are Subject Matter Experts (SME's) in Nonprofit Strategy, Financials & Budget Management, Project Management, Marketing & Communications, Operations and more.
Shawna Muren, MBA, CMP, RYT created SLB, as a specialized arm of her successful consulting business. As a former Corporate Grantmaker, Executive Director, Instructor, and Entrepreneur, Shawna consults on a variety of projects and enjoys creating and teaching nonprofit management (and previous event management) courses at the college level. She is passionate about supporting great leaders in the Milwaukee community through strength-oriented leadership coaching to create long-term success.
Shawna has a strong group of skilled consultants who are brought in as needed, once the initial Strategic Bridge Assessment is conducted.
FAQs on change stages & how SLB can help
Change is coming. Or it's already here.
Let us know how we can help (send us a note below).
You realize the strengths of your current leader and want them to stay. You realize they have many great qualities, and might need some additional support to be successful with your organization, long-term. Let's start by having a confidential discussion about strengths and areas that could use additional knowledge. Many ED's have a lot of great qualities to lead, but may not have the knowledge or best practices for all of the things an ED has to do (with few people to ask for additional education or guidance).
You've planned ahead and have everything in order. Great! Contact us for the complimentary checklist of Best Bridges to make your transition smooth. We can also bridge the gap in leadership between your former ED/CEO and next ED/CEO.
Let's start with a deep breath. Contact us to talk through the Ideal Strategic Leadership Bridge Timeline. We created this comprehensive timeline to make sure we gather as much information as possible from the current ED/CEO and make sure we know how the processes (let's make sure programs still happen, employees get paid, we still are able to send out a newsletter and more) work.
This planning will allow for your organization to continue making the community impact, without a delay in programs or services. We tailor the timeline to your organization operations, and we can bridge the gap in leadership between your leaving ED/CEO and the next ED/CEO.
Let's start with a few deep breaths. Contact us to talk through how we can help analyze current processes (let's make sure programs still happen, employees get paid, we still are able to send out a newsletter and more) with a Strategic Bridge Assessment.
Our team balances the big picture with the day-to-day details. Sometimes the day-to-day can be overwhelming when there isn't a decision-maker at the top (and your Board Chair has a full time job and life). We can help create an Ideal Strategic Leadership Bridge Timeline and we start with operations and things we are concerned might fall through the cracks. We then take a moment, bring our big picture view into the planning and create a tailored to do list for the next month and few months (depending on when the next ED/CEO will be in).
This planning will allow for your organization to continue making the community impact, without a delay in programs or services. We tailor the timeline to your organization operations, as well as bridge the gap in leadership until you've hired your next ED/CEO.
Let's start with a full minute of breathing, followed by a sip of water/coffee/tea. Contact us to talk through how we can help analyze current processes (let's make sure programs still happen, employees get paid, we still are able to send out a newsletter and more) with a Strategic Bridge Assessment. We realize, depending on how long you've been without an ED/CEO, things can fall through the cracks. We do our best to come in and immediately assess where we can help keep things moving (program delivery, communication on the changes happening and our plan, any major events or meetings that need to happen and more).
Our team balances the big picture with the day-to-day details, but we also help stop the chaos. After we've created a "to do immediately" (through the lens of program delivery), we will work with your Board, staff, key volunteers to prioritize next steps (and/or create an Ideal Strategic Leadership Bridge Timeline). We concentrate on bridging the gap in leadership until you find your next ED/CEO.
We love celebrating new leaders (both new to an organization or new to an ED role) and want to make sure the support is there for the first month or two (or maybe a little longer) to ensure long-term success for your organization.
We are your bridge to providing support and education to new EDs. We create, with the new leader and key board/volunteers input, an initial strengths and opportunities list in 6 key areas for ED expertise. We then identify the top 2-3 areas for a custom learning program for your leader.
And when we are Interim ED's, it's not our style to meet the new ED/CEO on their first day, hand over the keys, wish them luck and walk out the door. We want to support your new leader in the best way possible, without stepping on their toes. This usually looks like us going through the operational analysis, Ideal Strategic Leadership Bridge Timeline, Financial Deep Dive Analysis, strength and challenge areas, and a few strategic pointers. Then we agree to an exit timeline to finish our work together.
We know it is hard to have a conversation about possible change. We are here to support your decision-making process, as you think about leadership changes.
When you contact us, we will have a confidential conversation about your current challenges.
After our initial conversation, if we decide to work together, we will determine the best way to proceed with confidentiality. If it serves your organization to have SLB publicly named, we will create a communications plan (org. website, meetings, etc.). If our decision is to not proactively communicate change, we will keep our work together as confidential as possible and create a plan around that decision.
We look forward to speaking with you and assessing how your organization could move forward for your unique situation.
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