Leadership and Change Management

Leadership is more of an art than a science and the way to approach it depends to a great extent on the situations that need to be dealt with. Each NGO, in accordance with its internal circumstances ¿ often related to the stage the organisation has reached in its evolution ¿ and also the challenges presented by the environment - requires a particular leader- ship style. However, there is a series of leadership roles or functions that must be carried out satisfactorily in all circumstances if the successful development of any NGO is to be achieved. Each leadership role requires particular competencies and skills, which are hard for a single person to provide. This is why shared leadership is important, since it enables a greater number of people with the necessary - innate or acquired - competencies to be incorporated, in order to carry out the different leadership roles. The following four leadership roles that are considered the most important for NGOs are selected: the visionary-strategist, the organisation builder, the entrepreneur and the political-social roles.