36: Are You Leading... or Managing? (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

As nonprofit leaders, many of us assume we need to excel at everything.

Vision. Strategy. Fundraising. Culture. Operations. Communication. Systems. Execution.

But what if one of the biggest reasons leaders feel overwhelmed isn't because they're doing too little—it's because they're trying to do too much?

In this episode of Nonprofit CEO SPARK, Marcia shares a leadership lesson that transformed the way she built teams and scaled organizations: understanding the difference between leadership and management.

Many nonprofit CEOs unknowingly build organizations around their own strengths while leaving critical gaps in execution, communication, and operational infrastructure. As organizations grow, those gaps become harder to ignore.

You'll learn why leadership and management require different skill sets, how growth exposes organizational weaknesses, and why the healthiest organizations are built around complementary strengths rather than heroic individuals.

Whether you're a visionary leader who feels buried in operations or a manager looking to strengthen your leadership influence, this episode will help you better understand your natural strengths and identify what your organization needs next.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• The difference between leadership and management
• Why nonprofit growth often creates operational friction
• The hidden cost of trying to be good at everything
• How complementary leadership teams accelerate impact

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Because leadership is hard, but you don't have to do it alone.

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Follow Marcia on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/marciabeckner 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome back to the Nonprofit CEO Spark podcast. And this is a part of our Leading with Confidence series. Today we're going to talk about the real dynamics underneath healthy leadership, strong teams, and sustainable nonprofit growth. And today's conversation started with a puzzle piece. I didn't realize I was missing. Back in the day when I was an executive director and I had started an organization to help cancer patients, I really didn't know what I was doing. And I had never really thought about the difference between what a leader is and what a manager is. And the reason is I was pretty young when I started. I had never managed a team before. I had always reported to somebody else and never had direct reports to be responsible for training and leading and coaching through, you know, the work. And I had never really been, I'd been a leader before, I would say, in lots of different capacities throughout my life. I've always been drawn to leadership, but I didn't know the difference between leadership and management. And once I learned that, a light bulb went off in my head and it changed everything about how I thought about my role as an executive director. So the person that helped me understand this was a mentor who I was so lucky to discover. And he helped me understand. This was the one of the first mentorship conversations that we had. It really helps you think a little bit differently about the dynamics between what you're expected to do as an executive director and also kind of think through when you need your leadership hat on versus your manager hat because both are important, but it's good to know that distinction and nuance when you're leading people. Back when I was an executive director, before I met my mentor, I was frustrated. Like our mission was growing, people believed in what we were building, and we were gaining traction externally, but internally, things really did feel harder than I thought they should have. Projects took longer than expected, our systems felt clunky, processes weren't streamlined, important details like lived in my head instead of somewhere useful and organized. I could see the future of our organization really clearly. I could inspire people around it, I could build partnerships and momentum. But operational infrastructure, that was a totally different muscle that I realized was pretty weak. I hadn't been it like think of it like lifting weights. Like it's like if I've never worked out my biceps before and I picked up like a 10-pound weight, it would probably be too heavy. And I would need to start at a foundational level with lifting five, right? So that's kind of how I felt as a manager. I felt like like leadership was just a more natural thing for me, and management felt very hard. So my mentor said, leadership and management are different skill sets. You don't need to become a different person. You need to build a team who complements your strengths. And that notion in itself gave me so much relief and freedom. And that's why I'm sharing it with you today. Because up until then, I thought strong executive directors and CEOs were supposed to naturally excel at everything: the vision, the people, the culture, fundraising, operations, systems, strategy, execution, details, communication, finance. Basically, some mythical nonprofit unicorn who somehow color-code spreadsheets while simultaneously inspiring donors with a compelling vision over coffee. And once I understood the distinction between leadership and management, I stopped trying to force myself into strengths that didn't come naturally and started building skills intentionally around them. And that's when our organization truly began gaining healthier momentum. And it's not because I suddenly became an operations genius overnight. I absolutely did not, but because I looked for the right people and asked them to join me at the table. And I think this conversation matters because many nonprofit leaders unknowingly build organizations around their blind spots instead of around their complementary strengths. In the social impact world, we tend to overvalue self-sacrifice and undervalue strategic self-awareness. We may tend to assume, like, if I care enough, I should be able to do all of it well. I want you to take that in a little bit. If this thought crosses your mind often, I'm glad you're listening to this episode. If you quietly assume if I care enough, I should be able to do all of this well, then you're not alone because that's probably why you joined the nonprofit sector, is to help people. But leadership maturity often sounds more like this. This is where I'm strongest, this is where I'm weaker, and this is what the organization needs around me. That's a very different direction. And in other terms, like leaders will focus on the vision, the people, the direction, the culture in all capital letters, and long-term momentum. Managers are good at focusing on execution, systems, clarity, coordination, and consistency. Leaders ask, where are we going? Managers ask, how do we get there effectively? After a few minutes, most people listening probably already know which side you lean towards now, right? You can usually tell by which of these skill sets really energize you. And that's not to say that a leader can't be a great manager or manager can't be a great leader. There are some absolute unicorns that are in our world and I love those people. I am not personally one of them. I really need help with like operations and infrastructure when I'm building something new. Another way to think about it is if like if you walk away from like a strategic vision conversation, feeling energized and more alive, you may naturally lean toward leadership skills. And if you walk away from like reorganizing workflows, improving systems, clarifying priorities, and tightening execution, if that feels really satisfying to you, you may naturally lead toward management. And for the record, like I said before, I deeply admire people who love systems because they are the reason many of our visionary organizations can function at all. The strongest organizations are rarely built around one extraordinary person. They're usually built around complementary leadership at the top. Someone holding the vision, someone strengthening execution, someone scanning the horizon, someone stabilizing the runway. And when those skill sets work together well, organizations can operate at a completely different level. And this matters even more during the growth stage because nonprofit growth exposes weaknesses fast. A visionary founder can often get an organization from zero to momentum through passion, relationships, storytelling, and the pure force of belief. But eventually, growth requires operational maturity, and the organization outgrows improv. And like what once worked through hustle and passion alone starts to create friction. Communication can get messy as it's growing. Staff become unclear on priorities with the shiny object syndrome. Projects may like fill those like bottlenecks and get stuck, and eventually people burn out. And this is where the culture starts to decline. This is often the exact point when leaders mistakenly think we just need more hardworking people and push them on weekends and push them at nights. But many times what the organization actually needs is a stronger management infrastructure with clearer workflows, decision clarity, communication systems, role alignment as you grow, and priority management. So I was looking up some research around this, and Gallup's workplace research continues to show that managers account for roughly 70% of the variance in team engagement. Let me say that again. Gallup's research shows that managers account for roughly 70% of the variance in team engagement. This is why management is so crucial to success, because managers shape the daily experience of work. And the daily experience becomes your culture. And culture, remember, is not built primarily during retreats and with inspirational PowerPoint slides. It's built in recurring interactions, how meetings feel, whether priorities are constantly changing, how conflict gets handled. Another study found that 90% of employees who leave a job say their boss influenced their decision to lead, to leave. And their boss could be a manager, their manager, or their leader. They may just like lose faith and trust in the leadership, often because the leaders are not showing an intentionality around building a culture and a workplace environment where people can thrive. So that's the work that I do with leaders. Nonprofit leaders sometimes underestimate this because they think, oh, people love the mission. That's why they're here. And yes, mission-driven people love the mission, but they still need healthy work environments. Strong managers protect teams from unnecessary chaos. Strong leaders protect teams from losing connection to the purpose, and both matter. And one of the most like advanced leadership shifts I've learned over time is this. Great leaders are not constantly asking how do I become better at everything? They're asking, how do I build an ecosystem of strengths around the mission? Sometimes organizations have that strong management but weak leadership where everything is efficient, but people are emotionally disconnected, unengaged, uninspired, and unfortunately resistant to change. Other organizations have powerful leadership energy, but weak systems. Everyone is inspired but exhausted. And that's what I call mission-driven chaos. Beautiful intentions, 37 exciting ideas, and no one knows which Google Doc is final. I'm guilty of that for sure. So if we're being truthful, many nonprofits swinging back and forth between these two extremes, I want you to know that is completely normal. But that's why I wanted this exercise or this episode to help help you like think about it again and kind of recenter yourself and analyze the leadership versus the management and how to have a healthy balance between those. And ultimately, this is your spark plug shift. Confidence as a nonprofit leader is not built from pretending to be good at everything or even trying to be good at everything because it doesn't work. Confident leadership is built from self-awareness, strategic partnership with the right people with complementary skills, and building healthy teams that allow people to thrive together in their strengths. And that is what creates organizations capable of lasting impact. I want to thank you so much for being here today. If you're listening to this in the summer of 2026, know that I am launching my first group mastermind of CEOs and executive directors in the fall. It will start in September of 2026. I would love for you to consider being a part of it. I'm creating this like small cohort of eight to ten leaders, and I'm doing two groups only, so spots are limited. One group is going to be centered in Denver physically. We'll have a hybrid cohort where we'll sometimes meet in person and sometimes virtually, and I will have a 100% virtual cohort so that location does not bar you from joining us. It will be 10 weeks of connection, support, accountability, best practices, really knowing what others are doing, and most importantly, knowing you're not alone in these struggles. We're going to be sharpening our leadership and management skills, knowing where your strengths are and where you can lean on others and build that critical team around you to help you create the sustainable organization I know you're building. To get to that mastermind, go to culturecares.com slash mastermind for more details. Watch my video on it. Reach out to me on LinkedIn at Marcia Beckner Culture Cares Global and ask me any questions you want about it. It's a really accessible price because I did not want price to be a factor. It's only $997 for the six weeks, sorry, for the 10-week mastermind program. Super affordable, super powerful. You'll get 10 times ROI out of that. That is my promise to you. So please, if you've thought about getting engaged with us at Culture Cares, this is a really practical way to do it. And so please take a look at that again, culturecares.com slash mastermind. I'll put the link in the show notes. Until next time, keep leading with confidence, courage, and care. And remember, you are meant for great things and you don't have to burn out to prove it. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Nonprofit CEO Spark. If you're ready to turn burnout into boundaries and build a healthy, happy culture where everyone, including you, can thrive. Visit culturecares.com to learn how I support nonprofit organizations like yours. If this episode brought you value, share it with a fellow leader navigating stress and overwhelm. And remember, you are meant for great things, and you don't have to burn out to prove it. Until next time, keep leading with courage and confidence.