How to Survive in the Non-Profit Workplace

(MoneyWatch)  Dear Ron,
I just moved to a non-profit organization from the corporate world and I'm afraid I've made a terrible decision. Even though it's a cause I believe in, I feel like I don't fit in and am having a hard time figuring out how to get anything done here. What should I do?
More people these days are making this switch in order to escape the rat race and/or do work that's more aligned with their values, and your problems adjusting are actually fairly common. Non-profits are different from corporations in how they work and are organized -- corporations tend to have more structure and levels of authority, while at non-profits, hierarchies are flatter and relationships are usually more important. Often you'll find that most of the power of the organization is in the hands of a single person, the executive director. And around him or her will be people with different levels of informal authority based on their relationships or expertise or ties to the organization, all of which you'll need to figure out.

I have a client now who recently moved over to a small non-profit after being a manager in the for-profit world. She was brought in with the understanding that the group wanted her for her corporate experience and rigor. And she went in there with her normal no-nonsense, results-oriented approach and was seen as a steamroller. Her presence was resented and her initiatives were resisted, and like you, she began to feel as though she had made the wrong move.

What she had to learn was to change her style and focus more on the relationships and needs of the people she was working with. In her fast-moving corporate organization, she didn't concentrate on this as much, but at this non-profit, which was smaller and more personal, that skill became much more important. (Also, since continual advancement isn't as much the norm at non-profits, employees there tend to be more motivated by feeling that they're good at their job and that they contributed to the organization's goals). Once my client adapted, she was able to build support from the people around her and harness their abilities, and now her department is viewed very highly within the organization.

The larger point is that while there's politics in every organization, they differ depending on the group's size and mission, among other factors, and so you need to spend some time to figure out what they are and how they affect how things get done. Until you do that, you won't be able to be successful there.

Send Ron your career and job-related questions.