Steven McCormick spent 35 years in nonprofits and saw how their mission-driven culture creates consensus-heavy decision-making. Everyone wants a voice because they're underpaid but deeply committed. His father ran an engineering firm in the 1950s with clear authority, a contrast McCormick says forced him to either fight the culture or learn to live in it.
Chapters
Another challenge for nonprofit organizations is the candidly, the culture typically is one of consensus. And in part I think that's attributable to the ethos, the mindset of like, okay, I have devoted my life to a cause, to a mission that is sort of sanctified by the nonprofit status bestowed by the government on this enterprise. And consciously or unconsciously, people in nonprofit organizations, I think, feel they're a little special because they've sacrificed to go work for a nonprofit cause. They're cause driven. And that is a very admirable characteristic. And it is quite true. People who work in nonprofit organizations obviously are there for the cause, and nonprofits typically don't pay as well as a for profit. If you could benchmark. And so almost unavoidably, or at least I'd say understandably, a culture of a nonprofit very much is like, we're all in this together. And therefore I want to make sure I get to touch every decision and I want to make sure that I'm okay with every decision. And if I'm not okay with the decision, I sort of feel a sense of I have legitimacy in like not aligning with that. My father started and through his whole life ran a very successful business, engineering business, as a matter of fact, got his degree at Cal. My father was a great small business leader at that time in the 50s and 60s, but he very much had the outlook that this is my business, it's my capital in this business, I get to make the decisions. And he was not autocratic, but he didn't tolerate a lot of, well, you know, I don't think I align with that.
It's like you're on the bus or.
You'Re off the bus. So nonprofit organizations are challenged by that kind of culture. And I don't say that dismissively or derisively, it's just the reality. So being an entrepreneur in that culture can be a bit of a challenge. Candidly, I've looked back on my now 35 year career in the not for profit sector, thought, you know, I'm not sure I really had the patience over all those years to deal with that sort of culture. And I've made a lot of mistakes because of that. If you can't fight that, you've got to work with that.
