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Leadership in Focus: Lynne Toupin

By Elisa Birnbaum
May 7, 2007

This month in our Leadership in Focus series we feature Lynne Toupin, the first executive director of the freshly minted Human Resources Council for the Voluntary/Non-profit Sector. A true veteran of the nonprofit sector, Lynne has worn a variety of charitable hats over the years, including as executive director of the Canadian Co-operative Association, as director of Community Foundations of Canada, and as executive director of the National Anti-Poverty Organization. Always a positive and influential force in the sector, it is no surprise that in 1997, Lynne was appointed to the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector by the then-Minister of Finance, Paul Martin.

CharityVillage: Does the role of a leader in the nonprofit sector bring with it different challenges than a similar role in other sectors?

Lynne Toupin: I think that being a leader in the nonprofit sector is more complex in that you have to engage with a range of stakeholders. The other aspect is, because most organizations in the sector are small, it means you have to be both a good manager and a good leader. There are huge demands on leaders in terms of their capacity to be good managers but also to be the visionary, a strategic leader. I think that’s what distinguishes us from the private sector and the public sector. And, the third aspect is, given also the fact that most organizations are flat - you don’t have hierarchical structures for the most part - that means you can’t use your authority. You really have to be able to influence other people and I don’t say that in a negative way. You have to be able to influence, persuade, convince because oftentimes the other stakeholders you’re dealing with are also leaders; it’s a process of leading leaders to some extent.  

CV: What specific leadership challenges do you face in your role?

LT: Well, right now it’s quite interesting because, as this is a new organization, I’m leading an unchartered territory. That compels you to think about how you’re going to convey a message. In our sector we’ve talked a lot about, and paid a lot of attention to, volunteers and volunteerism. But now we’re thinking of the people who work in the sector. So, we’re into another framework, one in which we think about us as part of a labour force. We think about the workers in this sector as having - and we do have - the skills, the knowledge, and the expertise.

So, first of all, it’s compelling to run a new organization because you have to gain credibility, you have to have your ear to the ground, you have to be responsive to the needs of the organizations you’re trying to serve and the issues you’re trying to address. But this is also new territory for the sector at large: to think of ourselves as part of the broader labour force in Canada.

CV: Is there something organizations can do to foster young leaders?

LT: We’re certainly interested in this issue because there’s starting to be a hue and cry of, “where is the next generation of leaders?” For our work, it’s an important question that we’re beginning to ask and I think we really have to be much more conscious of what we have to do. In order to foster young leaders, I think organizations have to give them exposure to work outside of the office. So if you have promising people, you introduce them to your networks, you take them along to meetings that are outside the purview of your office, and you provide them with opportunities to stretch their skills and their knowledge. So, first, we have to identify those leaders in our organizations and then we really do have to give them the opportunities to become leaders. And that’s through exposure to new experiences as well as exposure to our networks.

CV: Are there specific traits that make leaders great?

LT: First of all, I’m staying away from the “vision” word; I feel it’s overused. Good leaders need a strong sense of direction because the changes occurring to our sector now are so rapid that, for me, the term ‘vision’ is too narrow. But, having a sense of direction and the ability to shift within that kind of broader pathway of a direction is important. So, yes, it’s still that sense of leading the charge but, instead of being visionaries, you can come off a few degrees because there are going to be changes that will occur.

The great leaders I know have great intellectual curiosity. They want to learn, want to know more; they’re curious, they ask questions, they engage people. I also think good leaders have good self-knowledge - they’re self-aware of their skills and their shortcomings. And great leaders also have the capacity to influence other leaders. That’s a different style; its not an authoritative style. And, last but not least, good leaders need a dose of humility. I think, in our sector particularly, we really are constant learners. You can’t go in there thinking you have all the answers; it doesn’t work in our sector.

CV:  Do you have any leadership mentors?

LT: I certainly have one person who I learned from enormously in terms of leadership. And it’s not someone who’s known to the sector. It’s a man named Harold MacKay, a lawyer in Regina who I got to know when I was on the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Service Sector. There was a whole range of characters at that table and this man was absolutely masterful in leading a group of people with very strong opinions and very disparate views. He was absolutely brilliant in his ability to get us to work together.

One of the things he did was help us find common grounds, oftentimes outside the meetings. He made us focus more on the points of commonality as opposed to the differences but did it in such a subtle way. He was hardworking, analytical, brilliant, but also very humble with a great sense of humour. While he didn’t go about trumpeting himself as a leader, by virtue of his skills and his style, he was a leader who had the most impact on my thinking about how you get to be a really great leader. And the fact that he doesn’t come from the nonprofit sector speaks to the fact that, yes, we have great leaders in the sector but there are also great leaders in other sectors that I certainly learned from. I’m beholden to him for almost 10 years now because of his profound influence.

CV: What is your leadership style and philosophy?

LT: I’d like to think I’m a collaborative leader and that I look at the strengths of the group. I try to work off my strengths, but I also try to focus on looking at all the strengths of the team together. I just don’t think there is this all-encompassing leader; it’s not a theme I adhere to. I think we really have to work at collaborative leadership processes in our sector. And I like to think that’s how I work.

CV: Why do you think so few nonprofits step up and identify themselves as leaders?

LT: First of all, it’s risky because, if you did, you’d be subject to criticism. Whenever you put yourself out there, you’re putting yourself up for attack. Second, any organization that puts itself up as a leader has to earn the trust of peers. So you have to be prepared for that. And that takes time.

In that regard, I think the third reason why there are fewer who are prepared to step up is that we’re all focused on our own work. We all have a lot to do and taking on a position of leadership, over and above your organization, is also time-consuming. It’s unfortunate because I think that in this context we probably need to rethink a model of collaborative leadership, but nobody really has the time to do that. And, yet, is somebody going to step ahead and say, “this still has to be done?” And can they influence other leaders to think about a collaborative leadership approach?

CV: What books or resources about leadership would you recommend?

LT: I read so many books, I lose sight of which ones are the most interesting, but one that stands out after many years is Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It certainly got me thinking, particularly the part about the values framework. I read it on a beach in New Brunswick one summer years ago but it holds the test of time. I go back to it every so often and it still holds up with some pretty solid principles.

CV: What practical advice on leadership would you offer others?

LT: As for advice, I return to the issue of fostering young leaders. There are young leaders out there but they are actually starting up their own organizations. And, certainly, a big question mark for me is why they aren’t coming into the established organizations. And if they are, we better do a darn good job of supporting and nurturing their ability to step up to the plate. So, for the ones we already have in our organizations, we should really think more consciously about what kind of supports and exposure we give to these people. Because I think a lot of us will hopefully go onto other things in five to ten years and that means we have to think of our leaders differently. They are not going to look like us; they’re not going to do business like us. They’ve come up through a whole different experience. Just think of the impact of technology - they’ll build networks differently than we have. So you have to nurture them but also give them the space to be leaders in their own right with their own sets of skills and knowledge.

Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance print and broadcast journalist living in Toronto.

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