Leaders have the ability to do right things and help others do right things. They choose a direction, build an inspiring image of what they want to achieve, and create something new. The main function of leadership is to choose the direction that a leader and his followers need to follow to achieve the best results and to win as an organization or a team. Thus, leaders must guide their followers to the right destination (Perumal, 2015).
Leadership and Advocacy
The notions of advocacy, leadership, and change are interconnected. Leaders must be capable of making innovations, developing strategies, and taking risks. Being an advocate at the local and the national level is crucial for any leader, and the leaders must have the ability to motivate their followers to be the advocates too. Advocacy encourages people to participate in the creation of changes (Homan, 2016).
Indian Creek Foundation
Indian Creek Foundation is a non-profit organization that operates on the local level. Its main purpose is to provide care for the mentally and physically disabled people, and it has been doing it since 1975. The employees of this organization help people with peculiarities find their place in modern society. The Foundation provides a comfortable social environment for the disabled people and helps them understand that they are unique and important for the society. However, now, Indian Creek Foundation’s operating plan is outdated and is not relevant to their current programs and services (Indian Creek Foundation, n.d.). A new strategic plan must focus on the creation of a client and family centered experience, development of a high-skilled care team, deliverance of high-qualified care, and support of the most favorable fiscal responsibilities in order to promote social acceptance and social change.
Differences between Leadership and Advocacy Perspectives
The influence of the leaders of non-profit advocacy organizations is crucial. Their personal preferences usually have implications for the organization’s policies and strategies. Thus, the first difference between the leadership perspective and the advocacy perspective on the strategy of the organization is the leader’s focus on the personal preferences and their making personal decisions on behalf of the organization rather than the preferences of the organization (Packard, 2009). In the case of Indian Creek Foundation, its leaders focus on the use of modern technologies to care for their patients rather than creating a more welcome and natural atmosphere, which is more important for them. The second difference – is the focus on the revenue, rather than on the voluntary work (Packard, 2009). In this respect, Indian Creek Foundation’s new strategy presupposes the increase of revenue and focus on the market growth. The third difference – is the focus on the advertisement rather than the quality the organization provides (Packard, 2009). For Indian Creek Foundation, it is not very negative; however, the leaders of the organization pay too much attention to its promotion developing its brand using all possible external communications. These differences usually occur when the leader of the organization becomes a politician, as politics changes the leader’s perspectives. Thus, these differences can result in the transformation of the voluntary organization in a company that tries to sell its product (Perumal, 2015).
Conclusion
In general, the Indian Creek Foundation’s new strategic plan is promising, but it has some disadvantages. In my opinion, the Foundation’s leaders should focus more on the voluntary aspect of the organization rather than on its advertising and financial aspect, as otherwise, it can become an ordinary corporation that promotes its products and focuses on the revenue.
References
Homan, M. S. (2016). Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real world (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
Indian Creek Foundation (n.d.). Web.
Packard, T. (2009). Leadership and performance in human services organizations. In R. J. Patti (Ed.), The handbook of human services management. (2nd ed.) (pp. 143-165), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Perumal, N. (2015). We continue to “manage”: A transformational leadership perspective on social work management in the NPO sector in South Africa? International Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice, 3(2), 63–70. Web.