Brand You 2

Following up on yesterday's post, in a more personal vein... To paraphrase a colleague of mine who recently saw this site and my personal site for the first time: "They're so evocative--your voice and your personality come through so clearly.  Why wasn't that the case with N-TEN'?"

N-TEN is the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, and for the last four years, I served as N-TEN's first Executive Director.  N-TEN's mission is to help the nonprofit sector use technology more effectively, and it essentially operates as an association that brings together a diverse range of constituencies--nonprofits, consultants, vendors, funders and others.

During my tenure at N-TEN, it grew from a one-man staff, with an office in my living room and no members, to a four-person staff, bolstered by about half-a-dozen contractors, with a membership of some 350 organizations and an additional 300-odd individuals spread out across the U.S. and beyond.  Although N-TEN's now big enough to be sustainable, for several years it was touch-and-go, and I was very focused on growth and reaching new constituents.

As a result, the identify that I established both for N-TEN and for myself was one that assuaged critics, established connections with new constituencies, and developed relationships with prospective members.  That emphasis on diplomacy and bridge-building opened a lot of doors for N-TEN, but it also defined the organization as an essentially ecumenical forum.

N-TEN has reached the point where it needs to do more than provide a forum--it needs to take  stands on issues that matter to its members--it needs to have a voice.  At the same time, I've been increasingly eager to speak my mind more freely, to be more candid and less diplomatic.  But paradoxically, although my personal goals parallel those of N-TEN, I decided to step down as Executive Director.

One of the reasons is potential brand misalignment, the same issue I discussed yesterday.   The success that N-TEN and I enjoyed over the past four years was due in part to the mutually reinforcing identities that the organization and I had established.  But both N-TEN and I are now engaged in the process of re-making ourselves, to an extent--we're finding new voices.  (As I've said to a number of colleagues, "I've been a bandleader for four years, and now I'd like to pick up an instrument of my own.")  To meet these challenges, we'll both need to focus less on relationship-building and more on critical thought, analysis, and advocacy.

But the mutual reinforcement that worked so well for N-TEN and myself in the past could have worked against us in the future as we sought to do different things.  I decided that the process would be easier, both for N-TEN and for myself, if we approached it separately, and it's looking like a sound strategy so far.  My successor as N-TEN's Executive Director, Joe Baker, is a great guy who's just the right person to build on the organization's accomplishments while leading it in a new direction.  And I'm having more fun than I've had in a long time--I feel intellectually liberated and much more free to be myself.  There's certainly some risk involved, but it just felt like the right time to roll the dice.

Comments

[Jon Stahl]

Right on, Ed! Very insightful. I look forward to your next chapter.

[Ed]

Thanks, Jon--I appreciate the thumbs-up (especially from you, someone who witnessed N-TEN's growth from the initial concept to the present day.)