Cultivating Leaders From Within

When Kelsey Neilson walked into Elevate in 2014, she was a college grad with an English lit degree, a new apartment in the D.C. area, and a job.

She probably never imagined she’d be President one day.

But though she didn’t know it yet, she’d also found herself at an organization invested in cultivating leadership from within.

“Credit to Alayna Buckner, our CEO,” Kelsey begins. “She sought out people who were the best at what they did, and that meant mentoring and promoting internally rather than only looking externally for expertise.”

Kelsey is no overnight success story. Her path has wound almost twelve years, so far, gradually serving in higher and higher leadership positions along the way.

“It wasn’t an accident either,” Kelsey’s colleague, Jessica Culverhouse, continues. “She isn’t here because of tenure. She’s been leading from every position, building infrastructure and shaping the company at every step along the way.”

And now?

As President, she’s on the other side of the equation. No longer the entry-level talented grant writer asking how things work, but a leader shaping the organization. 

In a sector often defined by high rates of turnover, her story raises a hopeful question: what happens when an organization doesn’t just hire talent, but grows it too? 

When Growth Forces Your Hand

When Kelsey joined Elevate in 2014, she wasn’t thinking about delegation or leadership styles. She was a college grad eager to do good work. And at the time, Elevate was a promising, yet still fledgling, consulting firm.

But as they grew, the scrappy startup systems approaches that used to work couldn’t keep up with the growing complexity of the organization.

No. More clients meant more revenue, but also more complexity, and certainly room for more hands. Growth brought Kelsey a different challenge. Someone had to manage the growing process, but how do you delegate something you’ve been doing, and well, to someone else?

It wasn’t easy.

The Hardest Skill? Letting Go Without Losing the Plot

“Frankly, I failed the first time I tried to delegate decision-making,” Kelsey says.

Some growing leaders have trouble trusting. They hold on too tight. Micromanage.

Kelsey faced a different challenge, though. She trusts. She knows Alayna and Elevate only pursue the most talented professionals.

But in her effort to empower new leaders, she stepped back too much. Processes shifted, and early learning opportunities followed.

“In their own best effort to make things better, I let people change a lot of what I was doing. But after a while, we learned the hard way that some of the things I’d been doing were actually pretty important.”

So, she recalibrated.

The Realization: Context + Curiosity Matter, a Lot

Talent was never the issue at Elevate. It probably isn’t at most organizations, either.

It was information.

With context, Kelsey learned, teams can pull from the best of what’s in place while creatively problem-solving their way into, sometimes, even better solutions.

“Instead of focusing on process, I started teaching how to think. How does their role fit into the bigger picture? What’s our goal? With that in hand, people started seeing problems worth tackling, running off, and making beautiful things happen.”

It’s also why, when she’s looking for the next class of leaders to elevate, she looks for curiosity.

“It’s the first thing that comes to mind, because, in order to solve problems and come up with the best solutions, you need to be really good at understanding why something is happening in the first place.”

And finally, she looks for internal motivation and creativity.

“When people get stuck, if their first questions are ‘Is there another way’ or ‘How do I get out of this particular stuck place?’ I get excited. And frankly, I love a bad idea. I’d rather work with the person who has lots of ideas than someone, when they get stuck, just stops and waits for someone to tell them how to get unstuck.” 

How Kelsey’s Approach Changed

Instead of delegating and stepping back, she started delegating and leaning in.

“I have a much firmer stance now. We do things a certain way because they’ve worked. I’m open to change, but the team really needs to understand where we are, and how we got here, before we introduce change.”

She raised the bar. So while there’s still room for creativity and autonomy, the bar for ownership of the end-to-end process is higher than it once was. 

Parting Words

For nonprofit leaders looking to hire in leadership roles, consider if there are any motivated, creative problem solvers already on the team before you post that job ad.

“In startup world, it’s really hard to retain people. But I think we grew like we did, partially, because we retained people longer.”

And for emerging professionals?

Kelsey didn’t arrive at Elevate with a plan to become President. She was a grant writer with a bunch of questions.

“I’ve always worked from a place of ‘OK, my job description is this, but where can I have the most impact on the company?’ My advice is own your development, volunteer for cross-functional exposure, and pay attention to how and why decisions are made, not just which decisions are made.”