Business as a Second Language: Why Nonprofit Leaders Need to Adapt

By Ashley Sharp, Executive Director of Dwell with Dignity .

Language is the most powerful tool we have for communicating our innermost thoughts and ideas, building close personal and professional relationships, and developing a sense of shared identity across cultures and communities.

As Noam Chomsky once said: "A language is not just words: it is a culture, a tradition, the unification of a community, a whole history that creates what is a community." Being selective, intentional and knowledgeable about your language choices is one of the best ways to set yourself apart as a professional and as a leader.

Yet, despite the importance of language in the business world, association leaders often don't learn the vocabulary they need to run their business effectively. For example, you will rarely hear phrases like “bottom line” or “stakeholder interests” in the nonprofit world. Even words like "innovation" and "compensation" are relatively rare.

Rather than learning the language of business and, therefore, participating in the business world, nonprofit leaders are expected to conform to an old-fashioned “charity” model. We are trained to be modest and avoid talking about money (especially employee compensation) as much as possible. The model requires you to limit your business activities to a humble request for donations.

This approach ignores the fact that, like for-profit organizations, nonprofits must support themselves financially to survive. We can get tax relief, but we still have to succeed in the open market, like any other business. And to survive in the free market, you must understand the language of business.

Think about it: As a leader of a nonprofit organization, you often come into contact with people in the business world, trying to forge partnerships or raise funds. How can you expect to build strong and successful relationships with these people if you don't speak their language?

By adapting to the language of business, association leaders can better position their organizations for long-term success. Given the harsh reality that 30% of all nonprofits fail within the first 10 years, equipping leaders with the right language tools has never been more important.

Consider the term “stakeholder,” which is rarely used in the nonprofit sector. The meaning of stakeholder is simply someone who has an interest or concern in your organization - someone who has a 'stake' in its success or failure. In the context of a nonprofit organization, your stakeholders would be the individuals, families, or communities you serve.

I would say that we should talk a lot more about our stakeholders and their interests than we do in the nonprofit world. After all, they are our reason for being! Compared to stakeholders in a for-profit company, stakeholders in a non-profit organization typically have a lot more to lose.

A stakeholder who buys shares in a for-profit company risks losing the value of their shares if the company goes bankrupt, but a family that depends on a nonprofit for housing risks become homeless if this association goes bankrupt.

However, it is the leader's responsibility to learn the language. Just as a traveler uses DuoLingo before traveling to a country with a different common language, so does a leader in a sense. Read business publications: Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company are all great sources. Listen to professional podcasts, read websites and take notes on...