Already feeling time constraints and maintenance demands, association executives suddenly had to lead in the face of chaos. They had to become the steady rock for staff and volunteer leadership while experiencing their own vulnerability. Since then, executives have been dealing with the resulting new demands in various ways. A new set of standards for behavior, attitudes, and performance is emerging. New pathways are leading to creative leadership.

Evolving values for the new order include speed, connectivity, future focus, and the ability to turn on a dime. Intangible assets taking on relevant new meaning include relationships among your members, your leaders, and your staff. Dot-coms promised connection but could not provide it. Now they are gone, while associations remain. Numerous forces command executives’ attention. Media attention on their industry or profession often demands deep thought and consideration. Fast-changing technology alleges solutions yet often disappoints. We must build on old strengths using new techniques and technology and learn to navigate among the morass of information thrust upon us.

Members have always turned to their trade or professional organizations for answers. That urge is even more compelling now. In this digital age, some associations have not met the sense of urgency that members feel. We must pick up speed even if we, too, are confused.

Take care of your organization
If you don’t have the answers your members want, be willing to say so. Establish new venues for seeking the answers. Engage members in establishing processes toward solutions. Become the catalyst to collaboration. Demonstrate that you can help members find the answers.

Bring like-minded people together to discuss options. Inject differing points of view. Establish new communication links. Seek compelling new voices of honor and reason. Be willing to tend to the emotional needs of members. Associations that perceive the need for spiritual connection and support are becoming unlikely heroes to members in previously untried ways. Consider holding a retreat for rank-and-file members in your organization. Offer programs of personal renewal.

Use open space technology to allow members to select the topics they want to address. You may be amazed, even shocked, at the new paradigms that emerge. Special interest groups may become peer support groups. Tribes may be formed within your organization to deal with temporary needs, then disband and move on. These new processes may help members cope with the chaos swirling around them. They may be much more profound than you think.

Engage members to maintain their allegiance. The association may not yet recognize or appreciate new methods of engagement. E-mail list contributors become the invisible heroes of lurkers. In task force work conducted electronically, new twists, concepts, or enticing new language may surface. They must be captured, not lost in cyberspace.

Members may experiment with nonassociation sources for knowledge and education. Be careful of dubbing this as disloyalty. Rather, seek collaboration with finer sources to continue bringing your members the best opportunities possible.

The measurements of success are changing. They no longer pivot on the number of seats filled at the convention or the amount of money generated by each event. Find the new metrics for your organization and be willing to change them frequently as you become more aware of member and leadership needs.

Take care of yourself
Seek new means to achieve and maintain your balance, tolerance, and soul. Start with two basic premises: Slow thyself and know thyself. All else necessary will follow.

For your well-being, turn to your counterparts in the association community for support and guidance. Seek help staying centered and focused. With a new generosity of spirit, industry peers are sharing fears, concerns, and solutions. Those who serve the association community are participating just as generously with personal and professional outreach.

Consider attending a retreat to give yourself time to think unencumbered. A group of peers can be strong medicine for a wounded ego or a tired soul. Finding that you are not alone can energize and open the door to stimulating new thought patterns.

Your steps through chaos may be simultaneous or sequential. They may be quantum leaps or baby steps. But let the process begin. Clear your head; take time to think and plan. That’s the skill for which you were most prized when hired and retained. Now it faces its biggest challenge.

you seek to influence the future. Be willing to take risks. Be bold and brazen, gentle and comforting, all at the same time.