004 Asking a Beloved Board Member to Resign | Mission ONE President Olivia Mulerwa

Olivia Mulerwa spent months carrying a decision she couldn't talk about with anyone who didn't already have a stake in the outcome. She needed to have a hard conversation with a beloved board member. The rest of the board was unwilling to even discuss it. She had to decide in isolation.

This conversation covers how she made that call, the listening process she used in advance, and the one person she thinks of before making any major decision at Mission ONE.

Olivia also talks about stepping into the President's role just three months after being hired as a program director, rejecting some conventional wisdom about founder relationships, and how colleagues interpreted her actions differently the moment her title changed.

Olivia Mulerwa is President of Mission ONE, a nonprofit that supports over 600 local leaders across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Transcript

Introduction to Mission One and Its Mission

Adam Jeske 0:04

Nonprofit CEOs are constantly making consequential decisions, often under pressure or in isolation. I'm Adam Jesky, the Nonprofit CEO Advisor, and this is the Nonprofit CEO podcast, where CEOs talk about the decisions they carry. Today, our guest is Olivia Mulerwa, president and CEO of Mission One. Olivia, welcome to the show.

Olivia Mulerwa 0:26

Thank you, Adam. I'm thrilled to be having this discussion with you.

Adam Jeske 0:29

First off, what is Mission One?

Olivia Mulerwa 0:32

So, Mission One is a nonprofit organization that is positioned as a response to the traditional Western missionary sending model. You know, we asked the question 35 years ago: what would it look like if instead we came alongside the faithful men and women that God is calling in the communities where we seek to serve? And so mission one became the answer to that question. We serve a network of over 600 missionaries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, all of whom are planting churches where they are none, all of whom are seeking and leaning into how they can be sold and light in their communities with our support.

Adam Jeske 1:14

And how did you come to lead this organization?

Olivia's Journey to Leadership at Mission ONE

Olivia Mulerwa 1:18

That's a much longer story. Actually, uh it began with an unexpected friendship. So I, my husband and I have lived in Phoenix, Arizona for 10 years. And so 10 years ago, when we first moved here, I happened to live in the same apartment building as a couple whom the husband worked for Mission One. That's how I got introduced to Mission One. And so we stayed friends because we had kids the same age and we ended up moving to the same neighborhood. And so through the years, I sort of kept hearing about Mission One through this gentleman's work. And then eventually he rose to become the president of the organization. And so he was charged with building this next generation of the ministry, you know, after the founder passed the button and so on. And so he asked me then to join originally as programs director. And then there was this big vision that he had for leadership and so on. And then I bought into it. I loved him, I respected him, and was excited to work with him. And I thought that my life experience and professional experience probably could lend itself really well to the role of programs director at mission one. And then, of course, three months after he hired me, he left. And he said, Olivia, I'm really sorry to do this to you, but I need to go elsewhere. You know, my season at Mission One has come to an end. And I know that this sucks for you because you came on board to work with me. However, he also said, I believe that you're the best person to lead Mission One at this time. And I am going to strongly recommend to the board that they consider you to take the role. And so I stepped into the role of uh interim president in January of 2022 and then became president and CEO in April of that same year. And so it's been three or so years of me steering the ship, if you will.

Adam Jeske 3:10

In my research before this conversation, I found that you had an integral role to some of the human rights policies developed in Rwanda earlier in your career. Can you give me just a little picture of that?

Olivia Mulerwa 3:24

Yeah, so when I people know me now as, you know, Olivia from Mission One, but in a former life, I used to be a human rights attorney. And so that journey led me to the country of Rwanda, which is special to me because even though I grew up in Uganda, my family is ethnically Rwanda. And so Rwanda was home for me always and still is. And I got the opportunity, uh, well, very young, to join the office of the attorney general. And uh while there, I was responsible for all of the human rights policy of the country of Rwanda. So I got to be one of the key authors of Rwanda's first national human rights policy. And so, I mean, the reason why that was even possible in 2013 is because Rwanda is a post-conflict country. And, you know, after the genocide that happened in 1994, the entire country had to be reconstructed in every possible way, including public policy, including, you know, all forms of government. And so I was able to participate in that way, which was pretty great. And I feel very fortunate to have had that experience.

Adam Jeske 4:31

Oh, that's amazing. So tell me about a consequential decision you've needed to make as the president and CEO at Mission One.

Olivia Mulerwa 4:41

Goodness. Uh, fortunately or unfortunately, the last three or so years have been full of consequential decisions. But I'll tell you, you know, one in particular that I, you know, still reflect on to this day. I had the very, very difficult task of essentially asking a board member whom I loved and very, very highly respected to resign uh from mission one. And I, you know, it still kind of hurts to have had to do that. It was a very, very difficult decision to make. But essentially it came down to, you know, without going too much into detail, it came down to his values were not aligned with who the ministry is and who we're trying to serve. So he, even though he's somebody that I love, respect, enjoyed working with, his position on the board became controversial. You know, became controversial for the rest of the board, became controversial even uh for some of our field teams. And so it would have been divisive to continue to have him on the board, even though I didn't necessarily agree with the majority view. It was my responsibility to say what's the thing that most serves our mission? What's the thing that most serves the purpose for which God has called us in this season? And so we uh, you know, we had, and he was very gracious about it. He he fully understood what was required, but I think he was also very hurt that knowing him and knowing how much he cared, I wasn't able to sort of stand behind him and advocate on his behalf. Yeah. And so I our friendship has been a little bit strained since, but I hope someday he'll forgive me and uh he'll understand where I was coming from with that decision.

Adam Jeske 6:28

Yeah, that's tremendously difficult. How long were you carrying that decision? How how long did it take you to make it?

Consequential Decisions: A Difficult Board Member Dilemma

Olivia Mulerwa 6:36

It took months. And I think what was even difficult was as his own journey was evolving, I had a front row seat. So he was, we always had an open, candid relationship, right? As colleagues and, you know, as people that were pursuing this shared mission. And but then eventually I have to say that I didn't expect it to be as controversial as it ended up being with the rest of the board. I was blindsided by the reactions from some of the board members. And so I really took some time to think about it and to say, hey, what would be best? And I look at everything, you know, anyone who knows me that's associated with Mission One will tell you. I always look at everything through the lens of the people we serve. In particular, Janet. Janet is a real person who leads a mission team in Elderet, Kenya. And I think I relate so much to her because she's an African woman. I'm an African woman, and I feel such a sense of privilege to be able to serve Janet, to be able to walk alongside her because I know that, but for the grace of God, I am Janet, right? And so I always think is this decision faithful to Janet? She doesn't know this. We've never had this conversation, but she's sort of my person that helps me stay grounded and make sure that everything that I am doing, every decision is serving our ultimate beneficiary who, you know, are our field teams. And that's hard. That's hard to do. And that's that's a hard line to stick to all every single time because people don't get that.

Adam Jeske 8:10

Were there people that you could talk to about this decision involving your board member?

Olivia Mulerwa 8:16

Aside from my husband, not really. Not really. Because everybody else that was familiar with the issue had a point of view, right? They were not objective in this. Everybody else who deeply cared about the decision that had to made had a very specific point of view. So it wasn't like I could say, oh, you know, so-and-so board member or so-and-so leadership team member, what do you think? They could tell me what they think, but it came from a very specific, you know, point of view because they had a vested interest as well. And so, no, no, it was it was hard. I didn't really feel like this, anybody that I could talk to that cared enough and that could also sort of look at all the pieces and help me make the best decision, but also have like the appropriate amount of caring for me, right? For how I feel, for how heavy this is for me. I didn't think so at the time.

Adam Jeske 9:11

How did you go about actually making the decision about asking this board member to step down?

Olivia Mulerwa 9:19

One, I did a sort of listening survey of all of us stakeholders. So essentially I talked to every other board member individually. How do you feel about this? What's your perspective? What do you think? I talked to leadership team members, and I did not talk to directly to our field beneficiaries, but I had a good sense of what their opinion would be because of, you know, the deeply relational way that we work. So that's what I did. And then I sort of put all of that together. And of course, I talked with the board member concerned. I was very, very grateful that we had enough of a relationship that I knew he would understand and that he would be gracious regardless. So that was helpful. But in the end, I recognized that I had to make a decision. And the decision I had to make was A, let's have, you know, at our next board meeting, let's sort of have this big debate and decide what to do with this individual, or to use my influence to avoid a difficult conversation that was going to result in, you know, an outcome that was going to leave everybody feeling worse off than they were. I'm a very collaborative leader, right? And so the culture that we've developed, even with the Mission One board, is one of collaboration and one of really, we're all not to say that we don't disagree or we don't have heated debates, but we try very, very much to do so in an atmosphere of collaboration, in an atmosphere of mutual respect. And this particular issue was just too contentious that we were not going to be able to have that sort of a conversation. You know, I had board members saying, hey, this is this is not something we should be discussing at all. And so there was just that unwillingness there to even engage with sort of a more robust conversation around the issue. Um, and so then I just had to step in. And so I took this board member aside and said, hey, I've surveyed individual board members, I've surveyed, you know, our team, I've surveyed, you know, our beneficiaries. And ultimately, I think it's best for you to step down from being on our board of directors because that's what serves the mission best.

Adam Jeske 11:28

Where did you find courage to take that step?

The Role of Conviction in Leadership Decisions

Olivia Mulerwa 11:33

Where did I find courage? I don't know that I found courage. I think um one of my mentors likes to say, he's someone that I consider very courageous, right? He's an activist and he's very courageous and speaks out about things and that he cares about, even to the point of risking his own life. And I always talk when I talk to him, I say, Well, how do you do that? Like, how do you find the courage? How are you able to do that? And he says, he always says to me, Olivia, it's not about courage, but if you have enough conviction, if you believe in something enough, you will do what is needed. So for me, it's less about courage and more about having that conviction of, hey, this is the right thing. And in that moment, my conviction was this is the right thing for the sake of the work, for the sake of the mission, for the sake of the cause, this is what's best. And as long as I can get to that clarity of understanding, then whatever decision needs to be made, I don't want to say feels easy, but it feels inevitable to me. And maybe that's a very long answer for what courage is. I don't know, but I think it comes down to the strength of your conviction more than anything else.

Adam Jeske 12:46

I really like the picture that you gave earlier of Janet, this partner that was not in the room, that doesn't know that she serves this purpose, but you think about her frequently. I imagine that that served really well as you were going about the actual decision making. And I admire how you seem to ground your conviction in what's best for Janet.

Navigating People Dynamics in Leadership

Olivia Mulerwa 13:10

Thank you for saying that. I do think because as a leader, there's so many decisions you have to make every day, right? You have a team of people that rely on you that you care deeply about because now, you know, you're co-laboring over time, you're working together. You start to care deeply, of course, you know. But who is the ultimate beneficiary? What is the purpose for which you exist, right? Is it to give people jobs? Is it so that people can, you know, have board members on their resume? Is it so that we can raise a bunch of money and, you know, say that we're successful and keep growing in size so that we can say we're successful? That's not why, right? Every nonprofit exists for a purpose that ties back to serving people, that's serving a sudden group of people. We see a need, we see a gap, and we say, hey, we can try and help meet that need, we can try and help fill that gap. So I think it's for me, it's super important to stay committed to that.

Adam Jeske 14:17

What areas of your role leading mission one consistently produce the hardest decisions?

Lessons Learned in Leadership

Olivia Mulerwa 14:28

People, I would say all the people. And people in the sense of again, you know, we come up with this great sort of like strategies and theory of change and then impact metrics, and it's all lovely, right? But then we bring that against the unique different, multifaceted reality of we are in the business of people, real people with different points of views. It's almost like we're trying to sort of wrap around, hands around, and predict, you know, this action would lead to this response and therefore this outcome. But there's a lot of individuals on that path and a lot of details behind those individuals. So I would say, people, team, for example, you know, you have a great idea, or you think this is going to really resonate, or this is the direction we should be going. But if you don't have team buy-in, they don't care. They don't want that. One of my early battles was trying to get our team, our US team, to move from being in the office 9 to 5, that whole thing, to being more of a virtual team. Now, it felt super logical to me because we work in all these countries across the world and we are in meetings at 6 a.m. or at 10 p.m. So you would think that it's obvious that there's nothing about the work that we do that requires us to be in the office, right? And usually it's people on the team that want the hybrid work environment and leadership that's saying, no, we have to be in the office. That's kind of the trend, right? But that was not the case with my team. Turns out my team loved coming to the office because they are very relational in the best way, right? They're very relational. They love to collaborate, they love to be in the office and like hang out with each other and do things together. I had one team member saying, I have my whole library of books here. Where am I gonna put my books? And that was a very real issue that had to be addressed. Yeah, because he had his office and he had his library of books in his office. And I needed to come up with a solution that met that need. And so it was just really interesting. It's always interesting. I sometimes, you know, feel like I'm on this like deserted island by myself and nobody understands me. Nobody else sees things the way that I do. And it's been, it's just, it's always interesting. I'm always surprised. I'm always surprised by how people react to things.

Adam Jeske 17:12

What do you wish someone had told you before you took this leadership role?

Olivia Mulerwa 17:17

There's a lot that I'm learning now about hey, you know, leadership is lonely. You don't have a lot of peers. But I I'm learning it more now that I'm on this side of things. And I think I went through a period initially of confusion and somewhat feeling disoriented when I transitioned into leadership because I did not expect that. I did not expect that. It it didn't naturally occur to me that everyone now looks at you, you know, as their boss. So you your relationship dynamic changes immediately. You can't treat your colleagues as just colleagues because they don't see you that way. And everything that you say or do carries weight. And people will, you know, draw conclusions. And I'll I'll give you an example. I we used to work in downtown Phoenix, and so I would get up at a sudden point, you know, when I was done with my work day, I would just get up and I'd just rush off because I'm trying to get into the to my car, pick my son up from school, you know, beat traffic. And I used to do that and I did that and nobody minded. Then I became, you know, CEO and I continued to do that. Well, one of my colleagues came to me and said, Hey, Olivia, are you mad at me? And I thought, no, I'm not mad at you. Why do you think I'm mad at you? Well, you just, no, actually, not even are you mad at me, but are you mad at us? And I said, What do you mean? Why would you think that? She said, Well, you just always get up and leave. And I thought, well, but I've I've always done that. And she said, Well, no, when you get up and leave, it leaves us wondering if like somebody did something to make you mad or if you're upset. And I thought, Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry that I created that impression. No, I get up and leave because I'm just trying to be traffic and get to my son's school in time before drop-off is done. And so I kind of made a joke about it to the team and I gave a whole speech and I said, and then like for a few days or a few weeks afterwards, I would just like get up and say, Hey guys, this is me leaving. This is me leaving. Goodbye. But I was only able to sustain it for a few days, and hopefully everybody eventually was okay with it. But it's just little things, right? Or even the way, yeah, just the way people cater to you. I I'm not used to that.

Influential Books and Wisdom for Leaders

Adam Jeske 19:37

Olivia, let's jump to some quick hit questions. What is a book or two that has been formative for your leadership that's been helpful in this role?

Embracing Authentic Leadership

Olivia Mulerwa 19:52

Am I allowed to say the Bible? Is that is that okay? No, I I'll tell you why. And actually, I'll tell you why. Because I am always amazed by how much just ancient wisdom exists in, you know, whether you're a person of faith or not. These are ancient scriptures, ancient stories about human relationships. You know, you asked me what my biggest challenge is, I said people, right? And so even if you just look at it as, hey, here's a collection of stories about how humans human, right? And how humans react to things and how humans deal with this thing, you know, deal with issues in life. I found it extremely helpful. And I keep going back to that for wisdom. I recently read something that said, essentially, you know, to summarize what it said, it was always, you know, look at character over competence. And that's something that I've unfortunately learned the hard way, you know, when we talk about hiring. I'm in a season of trying to hire for a particular role. And so I'm constantly thinking about that. This idea of character over competence, right? I read it somewhere in the Bible, probably in Proverbs, and it really struck a chord with me. And if you read, you know, popular kind of business, literature, leadership wisdom, you will find this concept that character beats competence every time, because competence can be learned, but character, you can't teach character. And so that's something that has been super instrumental for me in this season of hiring and, you know, identifying who needs to be on our team. And, you know, so I'm always going back to that. I'm always going back to that ancient wisdom. I also love, you know, going the more traditional leadership book route. I love uh a book called Total Leadership by I think something Friedman. It's old. But Total Leadership is basically about this whole idea of, you know, you do your best work as a leader when rather than separating your life into these neat books. Boxes of work and home and whatever, if you create an environment where everybody can be their most authentic selves, including you. So every decision I make, everything that I do as a leader, I'm still doing it as Olivia, president of Mission One, but also I'm still doing it as Olivia, mom of two boys. I'm still doing it as Olivia, who was born and raised in Uganda. So that's all part of who I am. And when we try to sort of create this like boundary lines between this is why I'm at work and this is who I am, outside of work, it actually, one, it doesn't work because you spend a lot of energy doing that. And then you're inauthentic, right? And two, you're missing out on the opportunity of collecting or gathering wisdom from all of your lived experience and bringing it to bear for this one decision. That was very, very transformative for me because as a mom, you know, as that's trying to also be taken seriously as a leader, but also being female in like a male-dominated space, there's a lot of mental gymnastics I've had to do to figure out, hey, what's the appropriate way to talk about my family at work? What's the appropriate way to, you know, show up as a mom and so on? And so it's I found it very freeing to read total leadership and to be given permission, if you will, you know, by like people that are super smart in leadership and so on, to be given permission to say, actually, just showing up as your most authentic self is the best way to lead, produces the best outcomes for you as a leader. But I really needed somebody to give me permission to do that because prior to that, I didn't feel that I had permission to do that. In fact, I worked really hard, not to mention my life outside of working work. Like I, yeah. And so total leadership.

Adam Jeske 23:55

It must have been a big relief to read that and feel like you could release those gymnastics.

Olivia Mulerwa 24:02

No, it was. It was a big relief, and it just freed up so much mental space, you know, so much mental space that hopefully I can devote to making better decisions as a leader. And I and I'm also, I love the ripple effect that has on the team. You know, we all know that it's good to be, it's great to be authentic as a leader, but you can't be authentic if you have to live out parts of who you are. It's been really, really helpful, especially as somebody that looks like me and just has a different point of view. In any room that I'm in, it's very likely that my opinion is different. And I used to, I used to worry about that, but now I, as I grow up in, you know, in leadership, as I have, as I grow in confidence as a result of that, I find that it's okay. I keep reminding myself, of course, Olivia, you have a different opinion. You grew up in Kampala, Uganda, and that's what informs your life, you know. So of course you're going to have a different viewpoint from, you know, Joe Nice Guy from Middle Ohio. Like it's not, it's okay. And you already look different, and so no one's expecting you to be the same. Anyway, it's it's something that's has been very formative for me as a leader.

Adam Jeske 25:21

Is there a piece of conventional leadership wisdom that you ignore?

Olivia Mulerwa 25:28

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So unfortunately, I like I do think sometimes I like to do things the hard way. I need to prove the theory to believe the theory in all things, right? One of the pieces that I've ignored is with relation to kind of CEO founder relationships. This is big, right? It's big in the nonprofit space as well. Uh, because the popular wisdom is, you know, founder steps back, does a nice transition plan, and then retires and then leaves the scene. And then, you know, the new CEO, whatever, just carries on forward, right? And there's this sense of like if you're both there, it's not gonna work. Well, I rejected that advice pretty quickly when I started working at mission one. We had a founder that was still have a founder that's very active and very involved with the ministry. And so the common, I kept getting that advice, you know, over and over again. What's your what's your org structure? What's your dynamic? And then I'd mention, you know, how we have the founder and then me and so on. And then, you know, it was like the immediate thing that people would say, yeah, that's not healthy. That's not gonna work. And we continue to ignore that. And I I am so grateful that we did that because I love having a founder that's actively involved and that is passionate uh about the work. And now, has it required us to, you know, build clear relational boundaries about who does what and who's responsible for what? A hundred percent. Has it required both of us to like dig into our depths and find levels of humility we didn't know we could access? A thousand percent. But is it better for the organization? I think it is. It is better for the organization because we have the benefit of Olivia's leadership and we have the benefit of the longevity, uh, the wisdom that having our founder still, you know, full-time and actively involved brings. And we've we're now in a really sweet season in our relationship where we've sort of navigated some of the harder things that needed to be navigated. And so, you know, it's very rewarding and life-giving to me to see how honored he feels and how pleased he just is with where the organization is right now. Even though, you know, we're vastly different leaders with vastly different priorities. We've just gotten to such a good place that we're just enjoying, you know, just a really, really sweet relationship. But we wouldn't have gotten here if we had said conventional wisdom is X, Y, or Z. So that's an example.

Adam Jeske 28:10

Olivia Mulerwa, president and CEO of Mission One. What do you love about your work?

Olivia Mulerwa 28:17

Goodness, that's easy. That's easy. Very few people, you know, very few people get to draw a direct line between the work that they do and making somebody else's life better. And I get to do that. That's why I love this work. You know, you you talked earlier, we talked earlier about my work, working in kind of government policy stuff. While impressive, it's a bit abstract, you know. So when you're working on policy documents, it's like, I think this is helping, I think this is good, but it's very abstract. When you're working in helping start, you know, the first school for girls, and you know by name the first 17 girls that go to that school, and you get to watch them go through high school and you get to watch them get accepted and go to college. Hey, that's not that's not abstract. That is very, very clear. And that's a real story that I've got to witness at mission one. I talked about Janet at the start of this. I I get to see Janet becoming, you know, I get to see her growing as a leader. I get to see her just having all of this influence and it's absolutely beautiful. And that's why I do it.

Adam Jeske 29:30

Fantastic. Olivia, thank you for joining us on the Nonprofit CEO podcast.

Olivia Mulerwa 29:36

Thank you so much, Adam. This is this is such a fun conversation.

Adam Jeske 29:40

If you know a nonprofit CEO who's carrying something significant, send them this episode. And if you want more of the patterns I'm seeing across hundreds of conversations with CEOs and executive directors and presidents delivered each week, you need the nonprofit CEO briefing at nonprofitceo.com. I'm Adam Jesky, the Nonprofit CEO Advisor. Thanks for what you're leading.