Anyone who manages people is sometimes frustrated and baffled by the task. Human beings are complex, unpredictable, and confounding – and there’s no operating manual to tell you how they work. Being a manager is hard, and it inevitably means making mistakes. Growing as a manager requires recognizing your mistakes – and learning from them. To help you do that, here are the ten most common pitfalls managers of nonprofits fall into, along with some suggestions for avoiding or climbing out of them.
Please note that our more recent publications have built on this, and other foundational pieces, written in the early days of Management Assistance Group (MAG) (now Change Elemental).