Applied Wisdom for Nonprofits: Eight Practical Tools for Leadership

by James C Morgan

Applied Wisdom for Eight Practical Tools for Leadership is a compact and lively handbook for anyone who works in a nonprofit organization.

Jim Morgan believes that whatever your job title, you can improve your management skills with understanding and practice.

He shares his proven insights into management through easy-to-remember maxims called "Morganisms," designed to allow individuals or teams to think about--and then apply--management principles to complex, real-life situations.

Each of the eight short chapters includes "discussion prompts" for people at all levels of your organization, carefully designed to provoke a lively dialog between executive directors, emerging leaders and board members.

Genres: Nonfiction

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 2, 2018

Reviews

[Scott Bordelon]

I was surprised to find this short booklet listed on Goodreads. Goodreads must have everything. A Santa Clara County supervisor was handing out this booklet at a cycling event I recently attended. I wasn't expecting much from it but decided to give it a shot, and it blew away my expectations. It's written by James Morgan, longtime CEO of semiconductor giant Applied Materials from 1977 to 2003 and chairman of the board until 2009. Since then, he’s dedicated his leadership energy to philanthropic nonprofits.

It’s a quick read you can finish in one sitting, written as a concise, well-organized reference manual with practical advice for leading a nonprofit, although much of the advice is generally applicable to leadership anywhere. It’s divided into eight chapters that support one of three pillars for a successful organization - Culture, Planning, and Implementation.

Culture:
1. Cultivating Culture
2. Respect and Trust Your People
3. Bad News is Good News

Planning:
4. Develop Court Sense
5. The Whole Job
6. Prioritize and Focus

Implementation:
7. Book It and Ship It
8. Who Owns the Monkey?

Each chapter ends with a short list of reflective questions targeting each of Chief Executives, Staff Team Members, Board Members, Individual Donors, and Institutional Philanthropies. Since the questions are tailored to address the perspectives of each, it was interesting to view the chapters through the lens of these different entities.

Chapter 5 resonated with me because it addresses the problem I see most often with small nonprofits. They can be so driven by their sense of purpose, they forget about what it takes to fill out the whole job, like finance, fundraising, marketing, and recruiting. This results in an organization that withers away over time, or if they’re lucky, they might continue to operate sideways but not really achieving any growth.

The ideas here aren’t revolutionary, but I learned a substantial number of new lessons, and the rest were a good reminder of leadership lessons I’ve learned over the years.

You can download the ebook, audiobook, or request a hardcopy from appliedwisdomfornonprofits.org. I’m always skeptical of stuff like this and sense a money-grab looming in there somewhere, but after poking through their website, I couldn’t find it. Maybe it reveals itself once you sign up for the newsletter or gain certification from their online course, or maybe I’m just too cynical. Probably the latter. The booklet is definitely worth the cover price though, which is free.

[Chantal]

So good that I listened to it, and then went on to get the e-book version.
Short, to the point and very helpful for someone who feels lost in the sea of non-profit.
Definitely a book to bring to your next board meeting.

[Evan Okun]

Loved it. Short, sweet, and impactful. Will change you and the teams you manage.
(After reading it, I then ordered 6 copies to my workplace!)

[Ciara]

I've had the pleasure of meeting James Morgan and he and his wife, Becky Morgan have done a lot in the philanthropic, non-profit sector. They are very accomplished people when it comes to enhancing local economic development while prioritizing conservation efforts.

In this book, Morgan outlines 8 insights on how to be a good leader. My favorite of which being 'Bad News is Good News - if you do something about it.' Morgan teachers the reader how to be more intentional within the realm of culture, planning and implementation in order to develop a decisive, compassionate leader.

Highly recommend as a quick read to anyone curious about how to be an effective leader in the non-profit space.

[Albert Reyes]

This was an outstanding quick read with powerful wisdom and counsel for non-profit leaders. I found the principles in this book to be very helpful for leaders and board members. I would recommend this to any serious non-profit leader.

[Scott Williams]

I quite like this. It’s a series of eight, very concrete and actionable ideas. I look forward to putting them into practice.

[Rilla]

Great book to have handy in a nonprofit leadership role.

[Ryan Woroniecki]

Okay book. There was some sound quick advice that smaller orgs should hear. A disproportionate amount of the book focuses on the authors greatness which detracts from the book itself.