Reimagining Women’s Leadership Development in Your Nonprofit

Jan 26

How Nonprofits Can Support Women Leaders

Recent data shows that more than half of all nonprofit leaders in the US are women. Unfortunately, we also know that many nonprofit leaders are on the brink of burnout.

This calls into question what we are doing to support these female leaders and prompts us to consider how we can give them the support they truly need.

In this episode, I'm joined by Marisa Wheeling Ciesluk, a women's leadership development facilitator and coach, to help us figure out how to do that at a time when women's leadership development is under scrutiny. You'll learn practical strategies at the organizational and individual levels to make a difference.

▶️ Key Points:

00:00 From burnout to women's leadership coaching

09:33 Beyond skills: do the inner work, build capacity

18:35 How nonprofits are supporting female leaders

20:42 Organizational shifts to better support women

24:59 Ways nonprofit L&D pros can help women

29:19 A conversation that must continue to happen

Why We Need A More Holistic Approach to Women’s Leadership Development

In the nonprofit world, the mission is the heartbeat of everything we do. We strive to change the world, support our communities, and drive meaningful impact. However, a persistent challenge remains: while our organizations are growing, our people—the very engines of that growth—are often struggling to keep up. We see brilliant staff members fixing the same problems repeatedly, and many leaders are on the brink of profound burnout.

According to data from Candid.org, 69% of all nonprofit staff identify as women, and 62% of nonprofit leaders do as well. This means the success of the nonprofit sector is inextricably linked to the health, development, and sustainability of female leaders. Yet, despite these high numbers, we must ask: How are we truly developing these women? Are we merely teaching them how to execute tasks, or are we building their capacity to lead with confidence and courage?

In a recent episode of the Learning for Good podcast, I sat down with Marisa Wheeling Ciesluk, a leadership development facilitator, coach, and “compassionate disruptor,” to explore a more holistic approach to women's leadership. Her philosophy challenges the traditional training model and invites us to look deeper at the human behind the leader.

The Limitations of Traditional Training

For many, the default response to a leadership gap is a skills-based workshop. We teach people how to conduct performance reviews, how to give feedback, and how to manage budgets. While these skills are necessary, they represent only half of the battle.

Marisa notes that many organizations focus heavily on skills while ignoring capacity building. You can know the ins and outs of how to be a good leader and still fail if you haven't done the inner work of leadership. This inner work involves addressing the mindsets, behaviors, and patterns that keep leaders from the success they desire.

If we only teach people “how to do” without teaching them “how to be,” we create a workforce of “human doings” rather than “human beings.” We teach people how to do more, but we don't give them the space to hear their own inner voice or the permission to be still. This neglect of the human being leads directly to the burnout and disengagement we see across the sector.

Nonprofit Burnout: A Symptom of a Broken System

Burnout is a frequent pain point that brings organizations to seek help. However, Marisa points out that burnout is often just the visible signal of a deeper, underlying issue within the organizational culture. It is the thing that lies below the surface that causes disconnection and distrust.

For many women, this burnout is exacerbated during the transition from individual contributor to people leader. In the nonprofit sector, we often promote our best executors without providing the deeper leadership training they need to navigate the messy reality of managing people. Instead, they get a crash course in reimbursements and budget forms, leaving the foundational work of self-leadership to lapse.

More Effective Approaches to Leadership Development

So how can we change our approach to leadership development so we are building capacity and acknowledging the wholeness of the person.

Avoid This Common Mistake in Leadership Development

A common mistake in women's leadership development is the tendency to focus on fixing the person.

Especially for female leaders, we offer workshops on:

How to be more confident.
How to speak up in meetings.
How to negotiate.
How to manage imposter syndrome.

While well-intentioned, these programs often send a subtle message that women need to be more—more qualified, more polished, or more prepared to lead well. Marisa argues that the real question we should be asking is: Why do women feel that they need to be more, to do more, to prove more, to carry more in order to belong here?

Instead of trying to mold women into systems that were not originally designed for them, we must shift our focus toward fixing the system.

Address Systemic Inequities in Your Nonprofit

To truly support women in leadership, nonprofits must move beyond surface-level actions like ERGs and networking groups to address systemic inequities.

Here are four critical shifts organizations can make:

Redistribute Emotional Labor
In many nonprofits, women carry the invisible burden of emotional labor. They are often the ones planning the birthday parties, signing the cards, organizing team-building retreats, and maintaining the culture. This labor is rarely in a job description or recognized in a performance review, yet it takes significant time and energy. When it comes time for promotions, this unrecognized work is often ignored in favor of technical achievements. Organizations should audit this labor and ensure it is equally distributed across the entire staff.
Audit Workload Expectations
Burnout signals that the workload or organizational structure is out of alignment. Leaders must ask if workload expectations are equally distributed and if the right people are in the right places within the organizational structure. If everyone is well within the organization, performance improves; if they aren't, the organization will eventually fracture.
Ensure Diverse Voices at the Table
Systemic change requires looking at how decisions are made and who is at the table. True leadership development involves ensuring a diverse group of voices is not only present but recognized and influential in the decision-making process.
Foster Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is built on a foundation of trust. Without it, an organization is quick to fracture. Creating a space where people can stop pretending everything's fine and address the real issues is essential for long-term health and innovation.

Build Individual Capacity for Leadership

While systemic change is vital, we must also support the individual’s journey toward self-leadership. Marisa’s approach, influenced by the work of Tara Mohr and her book Playing Big, focuses on helping women see their own brilliance and overcome internal barriers.

To help leaders stay grounded, Marisa utilizes a "core nutrients" exercise. Just as we need food and water for our physical bodies, we need specific nutrients for our souls to feel alive and supported. Identifying these needs helps leaders maintain their well-being so they can lead from a place of abundance rather than depletion.

Marisa also helps leaders renegotiate with their Inner Critic. Burnout often makes the inner critic louder. Helping individuals recognize and renegotiate their relationship with self-doubt is one of the most powerful things an L&D professional can do. It isn't about making self-doubt disappear; it's about learning how to navigate it so it no longer dictates one's leadership style.

Finally, Marisa also helps women find their authentic leadership style. Many women lose their voices trying to emulate more masculine leadership styles. This creates a lack of alignment with their authentic selves. Marisa believes we need more feminine energy and feminine styles of leadership in our world today. She emphasizes qualities that focus on connection, intuition, and deep listening.

Ultimately, leadership development should help women be more themselves without compromise.

The Strategic Role of L&D in Leadership Development

For the nonprofit L&D professional, the message is clear: Self-leadership isn't optional; it's foundational. If your people aren't well, your organization, your clients, and the communities you serve will eventually feel the ripple effect.

To support women leaders, L&D must:

Help women see their brilliance: Actively point out what they are doing well and help them self-advocate in a world that often places cultural and societal barriers in their way.
Integrate "Being" into training: Create space in the workday for stillness, rest, and reflection. This isn't just a wellness perk; it's a performance booster that creates higher levels of creativity and innovation.
Address the whole human.

By shifting our focus toward holistic capacity building, redistributing emotional labor, and fixing broken systems, we can build the confident, capable, and courageous female leaders that our sector—and our world—so desperately needs.

To learn more about women’s leadership development, tune into episode 170 of the Learning for Good podcast.

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