Partner at The Management Center (DC preferred)
Tasia Smith
Partner
The Management Center (TMC) is seeking a new Partner to help our nonprofit clients become high-performing organizations that deliver great results. Partners lead client engagements and serve as teacher/coach/trainer/nudge/confidante/advisor/thought-partner to senior client executives. Ideal candidates won’t be lifelong consultants or necessarily have any consulting experience at all. Rather, we seek experienced managers who have produced results and who have a passion for teaching others how to do the same.
Who We Are
Our mission is to help social change leaders learn how to build and run more effective organizations so they can deliver great results. We are a nonprofit firm founded in 2006, and we have worked with more than 100 client organizations, focusing in particular on leading progressive groups working for social change. Our clients work on issues – like expanding opportunities for people in low-income communities, protecting the environment, and promoting equal rights – where they face an inherently uphill battle and so must fight more effectively than their opponents if they are going to win. We aim to help them do that by making their organizations as effective as possible.
The majority of our work involves direct coaching of clients, and we also offer publications and training to the broader field. Along the way, we have built a strong reputation: on our most recent anonymous survey, 95% of clients said they “Strongly Agree” that they would recommend TMC to a friend. Such positive word-of-mouth has created fairly explosive demand for our services that the new Partner will help us meet.
What You’ll Do
Your job will be to instill the management practices that will help your nonprofit clients become high-performing organizations that deliver great results. You will work with CEOs and their senior teams to help them define ambitious goals; manage for execution; implement rigorous “people practices,” including selecting and retaining the best talent and letting go of people who don’t meet a high bar; and build cultures that reinforce excellence and constant improvement.
At any given time, you will lead roughly three to five intensive client engagements and several other less intensive relationships. Your work with clients might include:
- Observing them in action, diagnosing their needs, and designing the scope of our work with them;
- Delivering services to clients, including coaching senior executives one-on-one, designing new organization-wide systems, providing advice on challenges of the day, and conducting trainings for senior teams;
- Serving as the primary point of contact for clients and developing strong working relationships with them;
- In the friendliest way possible, nagging client leaders to make sure they are following-up on their commitments; and
- Prioritizing across client needs to ensure we spend our energy wisely.
Beyond your work with clients, you will help build and grow TMC. You might develop new tools for all of our clients to use, identify better approaches for how we engage with clients, or help us come up with more effective ways to assess our progress. You will also help shape the organization’s strategic direction, and serve as an external ambassador with key constituents.
You will have the dubious privilege of reporting to our CEO, Jerry Hauser, who will measure your success primarily by improvement in your clients’ practices, client satisfaction, revenue generated, and fit with our culture.
Who You Are
To be successful in this job, you will excel in three areas:
- Management instincts: You will have a demonstrated track record of success managing a high-performing organization, department, or team, and will therefore bring both a deep understanding of what it takes to produce results and instincts for going beyond the “textbook” to get to solutions that will work.
- Critical thinking skills: You will need the smarts to quickly become “fluent” in your clients’ contexts, analyze situations to see beyond the surface of challenges, and effectively customize general practices to fit clients’ particular needs.
- Interpersonal ability: You must be able to build trust and goodwill with clients and demonstrate deep respect for the clients’ work. You’re the kind of person who thrives on teaching and developing others, while bringing a healthy impatience to see progress.
We are more interested in these three qualities than in any particular type of experience. Prior experience in the nonprofit or progressive political arena is a plus, but not a requirement. You need to fit well with our culture, bringing a strong commitment to excellence, an ability to work in a fast-paced environment, and a cutting edge sense of humor!
What Else You Should Know
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we make a particular effort to recruit people of color to apply for open positions.
The position is full-time and is ideally based in Washington, D.C. (although we might have flexibility on location for the right candidate). The role requires moderate travel (about two days a month).
We offer excellent salaries and benefits, commensurate with experience.
What Now?
If this seems like you, please send a resume and cover letter to ali...@managementcenter.org.