Guest blog entry by: Lynsey Jeffries, executive director, DC Metro, Higher Achievement

One year ago, I was brand new to the world of Independent Sector, as a 2010 American Express NGen Fellow.  On Monday night, the tables were turned, as our NGen Fellows class shared the lessons from our project, "Changing the Status Quo: Intentional Succession Planning Through Leadership Development" at the 2011 Independent Sector Annual Conference.

Tine Hansen-Turton, Chief Strategy Officer of Public Health Management Corporation kicked off the session with paired discussions among the 35+ participants and reflected on mentors who influenced their careers.  Several categories of effective mentors emerged: from supervisors to family, from "near peers" to college professors, from community activists to elementary school teachers.   

Next, NGen Fellow David Smith, Executive Director of the National Conference on Citizenship, shared the highlights from our report including: how the succession planning by seemed to happen by accident, the need for intentional succession planning to happen at all levels through leadership development, and how we must think of leadership development as an investment across the sector, not just one organization.

MacArthur Antigua, Director of National Recruitment and Expansion for Public Allies then launched the participants into action planning.  The participants divided into four groups to discuss action on four levels: individual, organizational, funders, and sector-wide.

Small Group Commitments include:
-  Individual: seek and serve as mentors, develop a "personal board of directors", set aside personal development sacred time.
-  Organizational: rigorous and candid performance reviews, 360-degree evaluations, embrace mistakes as learning opportunities, job shadowing, invest in professional development and management training.
-  Funders: support leadership development initiatives at all levels, not just executive level.  And, consider what funders can do, internally, to develop leadership among their staff.
-  Sector-wide: highlight leadership at all levels, not just executive.  Share best practices.

Finally, Andy Ho, Manager of Global Philanthropy at the Council on Foundations, and myself closed the session with final reflections. 

The intention of the 2010 American Express NGen Fellows project is to lay the foundation for more disciplined leadership development, strong management training and personal mentor relationships, so that future "batons" of leadership to be passed smoothly and effectively.  And, now the baton for NGen Fellowship has been passed to the Class of 2011!