The good steward

The alarm still goes off around 3:30 a.m. for Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers, although he no longer reports to work for the U.S. Air Force, where he served in numerous staff and command positions for 32 years. Sconyers was recently in Washington, D.C., to accept a large donation of prosthetic limbs — many of which will be sent to the Philippines — on behalf of Physicians for Peace, a nonprofit that trains and empowers health care professionals working with the world’s underserved populations. Sconyers doesn’t have a medical background, but timing allowed the retired director of public affairs for the secretary of the Air Force to step into the role of CEO for Physicians for Peace 10 years ago. The organization was looking for someone to take on the challenge of growing and branding the nonprofit — and Sconyers was looking to escape retirement and “alphabetizing the canned vegetables in my house,” he said jokingly. True, there are many differences between nonprofit work and the military — the latter’s top-down mentality, for one. But the two worlds don’t always clash; in fact, they overlap in many ways, and Sconyers said he’s been able to draw on much of his experience in the military for his current job. Similar values It was important for Sconyers to carry over the three core values of the U.S. Air Force — “integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do” — in his work for Physicians for Peace. But he soon realized: “You don’t have to instill those in people in the development world. They’re already there.” The nonprofit world mirrors the military world, he said, because work is driven by shared values and a focus on the mission as well as selflessness and less concern about paychecks than about how many lives can be impacted. “People come to development because they have dogged determination to make a difference,” Sconyers said. “That’s what appealed to me.” Sconyers has applied the team building and motivation skills he learned in the military as CEO of Physicians for Peace to create an environment where everyone contributes to the cause. “It’s important to get up every morning knowing what success looks like and know how to do that individually and collectively,” he said. Accountability is another area in which he sees similarities. The same way everyone is accountable up the chain of command in the Air Force, Physicians for Peace staff are accountable to the impoverished people who will benefit from the organization’s medical trainings and equipment, all the way to the donors who support their efforts. “We’re all trying to be good stewards of philanthropic dollars,” he said. Creative risk-taking Sconyers, who served as U.S. Air Force spokesman during the invasions of Panama in 1989 and of Kuwait in 1991, said his time in command positions taught him how much more important listening is than telling people what to do. “Good ideas come bottom-up, not top-down,” he said. “Create an environment where people are able to open up about their thoughts. It’s about the team, not one individual.” There’s more critical thinking in the military and more creative thinking in nonprofits, Sconyers suggested. A balance of both is ideal, he said, and development leaders should encourage more creative, innovating thinking. “We have a line item in our budget simply labeled innovation,” Sconyers said. “Some of that is opportune, but some you have to think about.” And being open to new and better ideas is crucial, he said. Physicians for Peace, for example, just purchased an anesthesia machine for its work in Malawi that can withstand power outages with the use of a foot pump and bellows. Failure often comes along with these risks, Sconyers acknowledged. But those risks are what will move an organization forward, and they’re a measurement of bold, creative thinking. Everybody wants to be successful and wonders what their performance evaluation is going to look like if they fail. Sconyers challenges his staff to “come to me with your crazy ideas.” “We’re going to celebrate your failures where it means we can learn from them,” he described his pitch to colleagues. This attitude, Sconyers argued, has helped his NGO to cultivate a good working relationship with Merck Foundation and its fellows, among other partners. But the organization wouldn’t be anywhere without its dedicated staff, he added. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, Physicians for Peace is not located in the largest of employment markets, so Sconyers said he works hard to find the right kind of people and employs a rigorous hiring process where every person in the organization gets to have some interface with a potential hire. “I can teach you skills, I can’t teach you fit,” Sconyers said. “If you come in with skill but you’re grumpy every day, you’re not going to fit here.” Adapting expectations The transition from military to civilian life is an interesting dichotomy, and Sconyers has also had to change some of his expectations to create a successful nonprofit work environment. “In the military, you tell someone to do something, they’ll do it,” he said. “If you call someone, they’ll call you back. If you send an email, they’ll respond to your email. And if you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re late.” He may now be at the mercy of civilian goodwill, but Sconyers’ expectations of himself haven’t changed. He admitted he’s never been able to embrace a proper work/life balance, and has received feedback from his staff to “quit sending emails at 3:30 a.m,” he said, because people feel they should be up to receive them. Staff members often feel like bosses set expectations for their work, but Sconyers doesn’t expect his 22 staff members to mirror his long hours. “The stresses are high, demands are great and outcomes are so consequential that if you don’t have that work/life balance, the stresses can be overwhelming,” he said. He has instilled “reading days,” where staff members can take a day off once a month to go home and do purposeful reading and send links to what they find to spark discussion and new ideas. “It’s important not to get so caught up in what we do to not have fun, celebrate each other and have events together,” he said. It’s much less common in the military to become friends with subordinates for a variety of reasons, but in the nonprofit world, those friendships develop naturally, Sconyers noted. He credits his senior leaders for their skill at motivating people, keeping up with staff members’ personal issues and looking out for each other. “This is hard work,” Sconyers said when asked what he might not have known when leaving the military world for development. “I think I get disappointed when I hear people imply that being in the nonprofit world is an easy job.” He doesn’t plan to start sleeping in anytime soon. Solidifying partnerships, improving monitoring and evaluation skills and continuing to work on branding Physicians for Peace are on Sconyers’ to-do list for 2014. 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