In September, Cambridge University Press published Leadership Standpoints: A Practical Framework for the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders by Don Waisanen. The book provides both a theoretical and practical guide on the massive and subtle challenges that current and emerging nonprofit leaders face. This Fall semester, Waisanen teaches Strategic Communication Management in Columbia's Master of Science in Strategic Communication program.
Leadership Standpoints offers a critical roadmap for the next generation of nonprofit professionals. The book introduces three dimensions and eleven themes for the theory and practice of nonprofit leadership, grounded in five years of data collected from the New York Community Trust Leadership Fellowship, an initiative designed to address leadership development gaps in the nonprofit sector.
"Leadership standpoints are a framework for practicing inclusion, building spaces for performance, and thinking and acting with range," writes Waisanen. "Those using leadership standpoints continuously interact with diverse stakeholders, constantly verify others' views and interests, and remain keenly attentive to power distributions, material constraints, and hidden or unacknowledged voices that need to be surfaced, while expanding their personal and social outlooks to elevate performance and meet pressing demands best addressed through broadly informed decisions." The title is also available through Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Dr. Waisanen also teaches at Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, where he is a Professor of Communications and received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching and Distinguished Scholarship. He teaches courses and workshops in public communications, including executive speech training, communication strategies, as well as seminars on storytelling, conflict, negotiation, and leadership and improvisation.