As president and CEO, Afira DeVries leads the community efforts of the United Way of Roanoke Valley in Virginia, part of the network of nearly 1,800 organizations worldwide. To continue to address the long-term challenges of her community, she thought it was important to have different perspectives from nonprofit leaders outside her own organization, so she enrolled in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM) at Harvard Business School. It was the perfect opportunity for her to connect with other nonprofit leaders, to reexamine her role as a leader, and to validate her efforts to bring about change. DeVries shares some highlights from the program.
I elected to participate in an executive leadership initiative facilitated by United Way Worldwide, because it included the opportunity to attend the SPNM program. As part of a big global enterprise, it’s easy for me to become myopic—to perceive challenges through one lens. I thought it was important to have insights from other nonprofit leaders outside my organization.
Yes and that was quite an achievement. Because this is Harvard Business School, there is a prestige about it that is sort of immeasurable. I entered the program with high expectations and was pleasantly surprised that the entire experience met or exceeded all my expectations. It was even better than I thought it would be.
The most rewarding aspect was the interaction with other people who perceive their personal mission in life to be socially motivated. And the diverse perspectives and experiences were invaluable. The program is structured in such a way that there's no point at which the learning stops, and there is just as much learning from one another in the living group as there is in the classroom. That's brilliant, and it’s a great construct.
I can think of two things that were incredibly valuable. First, I learned to be more conscious of and to value the importance of leadership style; it is not secondary to the mission-it's equal to the mission. So much of what we discussed was about contrasting leadership styles and how they affect work. That helped me to examine myself as a leader. And the second was the validation that movement, progress, innovation, and creativity are essential to effective social justice work. One of the professors reminded us that mediocrity is sometimes accepted in the social sector because it's comfortable. For me, that helped to validate the need for change and my efforts to bring about change.
I would say that you should never think you have nothing left to learn, regardless of the level of achievement you’ve attained. The program is the right choice because you are going to learn in many ways, around the clock. It is a multidimensional learning experience that is worth the time and resource investment, because there is no way to walk away without personal and professional improvement. The professors bring a dynamic energy to the classroom that adds to the experience. They’re almost as theatrical and funny as they are brilliant. They know how to engage a crowd.
