10 Steps to Professional Success

Congratulations on your new executive position. By now, you have met the CEO, board members, key senior management, top volunteers … and possibly several other stakeholders.

The hiring process might have seemed like it would never end. But you survived and now you must thrive. You now have to determine how to have a positive impact during your first 90 days on the job. It all begins with a candid conversation with your direct report. You need to know the expectations of your boss so there are no missteps. The results of ongoing conversations should be documented for continual reference.

As you learn the ways of your new boss, find out his or her personality, communication style, background and history; who he or she depends on in senior management; who his or her executive assistant is; and how to best engage him or her in private and in public. Be sure to anticipate how to be a step ahead.

To thrive in the beginning of your tenure, follow these important rules:

1. Review the history, results, culture and opportunity for success, and determine a game plan for the total development process.

2. Meet with the CEO and determine his or her comfort level with philanthropy, and determine how to use the CEO on major-gift calls and other engagement opportunities with stakeholders.

3. Use the mission statement as the guiding principle for all fundraising and in all major communication vehicles.

4. Develop an integrated plan to include elements for annual gifts, major gifts and planned gifts, then research and determine after reviewing job descriptions how the staff can fill these roles.

5. Ascertain what resources are available to move the program forward and how to lobby for additional resources while maintaining positive program perceptions.

6. Meet with key stakeholder leaders, board members and major donors for advice, counsel and guidance, and determine how these stakeholders 
will fit in the new organizational plan.

7. Meet privately with each senior management professional, and determine how to use each leader in philanthropy, especially internally, with special emphasis on the CFO.

8. Make regular presentations at meetings of staff and volunteers, and ask these staff leaders to speak publicly, support and reinforce messages.

9. With key directors and managers, present a showcase of their operational programs at service club meetings to spread the word and 
promote major funding priorities.

10. Create a strategic/operational plan, evaluate it annually, and make adjustments along the way with all parties' input, plus make sure board of trustee financial presentations are simple!

It is critical that you view your new position with a global eye — with both short- and long-term goals in mind. Do not be afraid to talk to your peers and seek "best of class" models whenever possible. Consider implementing a development audit plus SWOT analysis early in your tenure that brings participation by stakeholders to the forefront. They have to understand business is not as usual and new expectations are being created. Make sure you and your CEO are on the same page and you have personal written goals and objectives from day one. Constantly critique your performance, and seek ways to obtain feedback and suggestions. Have a vision for your program at one year, year three and year five, as sample time frames.

Be innovative and flexible. Seek to make adjustments along the way. Be prepared that the major roadblock to your success and organizational success, based upon history, is the ability for institutional cultural change toward the concept of "immersed philanthropy." To make complete change and have everyone's acceptance it takes time, education, trust, faith and, above all, patience. FS

(This article is an excerpt from the article "How to Succeed in Your New Healthcare Philanthropy Role," which will appear in its entirety in an upcoming issue of FundRaising Success' daily e-letter, Today in Fundraising.)

Duke Haddad is senior director of philanthropy at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Reach him at fdhaddad1@aol.com.