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Section Five
Running a Coalition

"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."
Robert Frost

Overview of Section

This section discusses several factors that are critical to the day-to day running of a coalition. It deals with the people of the coalition, the leaders, the members, the committees and its community allies, and the roles they need to play for a healthy coalition. The section also deals with communication and some of the obstacles to effective communication. Finally, it talks about conflict, inevitable when capable people come together to do something significant, and ways of handling that conflict.

A. Leadership in the Coalition

Who Makes up a Coalition?

This section of the manual examines the personnel involved in a coalition and their roles. Since there is a lack of consistency in terminology, we can begin by applying some titles to these roles.

• Staff—Individuals who are paid to organize and administer the coalition. This payment may come in the form of a full or partial salary or they may be given time within a current position to manage the coalition. On a day-to-day basis, staff are the leaders of the coalition.
• Members—Individuals who join the coalition and serve in roles assigned to them without compensation. Organizations and companies that join the coalition appoint individual representatives to serve as members for them.
• Participants—Individuals who, without being members of the coalition, agree to work with it in carrying out an action plan. Examples would be a school nurse who cooperates with new screening procedures or a parent who distributes brochures at a neighborhood meeting.
• Clients—Individuals who are the subject of the coalition's activities. This group is targeted in the action plan. The clients are a specific group such as, all children suffering from asthma under the age of 14 years.

What Do We Know About Staff?

The importance of the staff cannot be overestimated. Certain findings on the role from different sources are instructive.

Researchers in the field of coalitions have indicated two key roles for staff:¹⁶

1. The ability to guide and support the coalition during the difficult formative period.
2. The ability to shift responsibility from themselves to the coalition as the coalition evolves.

Researchers in the anti-tobacco coalitions in the South found that the impact staff had on the coalition was in direct proportion to the following two factors:

1. Time to work on the development of the coalition.
2. Community organization skills.¹⁷

What Are Common Obstacles for Staff?

The common obstacles faced frequently by staff members are similar to obstacles that managers face in most organizations, although with some different emphases.

• Resources. Progress is frequently slow and uncertain because of the large amount of time that is spent in search of funds and other resources. Only when the necessary resources are available can staff turn their attention time to developing the coalition. Most staff view the obtaining of funds and resources as an essential part of their job.
• Coordination. In health-related coalitions, advances in medical knowledge and in the processes for improving treatment far exceed the capability of those systems for delivering that service. Staff must mediate between the professionals prepared to deliver certain services and individuals whose work in classrooms, neighborhood centers, and other locations is essential for ensuring the services can be delivered.
• Human Resource Management. Staff are called upon to work with and motivate individuals with varying degrees of understanding and commitment to the coalition. Since the span of control held by staff is far less than that of managers whose decisions have some monetary impact, they are called on to be creative and understanding in dealing with different individuals and groups.

Who Are the Members?

Members of health-related coalitions are:

• For-profit organizations with a corporate or business interest in the coalition's work;
• Nonprofit agencies whose mandate overlaps that of the coalition;
• Individuals who have either a professional or personal interest in the work of the coalition.

Expectations of the Members

Coalitions attempt to make membership as broad-based as possible so that they can profit from the different skills, interests, and aptitudes of groups as widely varied as medical personnel, school officials, HMO executives, neighborhood leaders, and individual interested citizens. Because of that diversity, members will approach the coalition with a varied set of expectations. In an effort to provide a common foundation for all members, the coalition will need to be prepared to answer these questions for everyone:

• What is the plan of the coalition? What are we going to do next week, next month, and next year?
• Who will communicate with me and when will they communicate?
• What am I going to do? When am I going to do it?
• How much time will this take?
• Who will work with me? Who will supervise my work?

How Will We Deal With Concerns of Members?

1. Make careful decisions on the type of individual/group the coalition needs. Ensure that membership matches the profile of the plan.
2. Pay attention to the timing for the addition of new members. If you cannot tell people why they are needed and what they will do, it is probably too soon to involve them.
3. Conduct an orientation for new members. Seek to discover a) what the individual will bring to the group; b) why the individual wants to be a member; c) how the individual should best be used.
4. Avoid adding members who are wed to one specific solution. If you have to deal with individuals or groups who do not understand or accept the fact that there are many legitimate solutions to most problems, you face a long and probably futile struggle.
5. Develop job descriptions for key roles. While this may seem to be overkill, the more clarity that can be added to what people do and how they do it the greater the chance of success.

Board of Directors/Steering Committee

Most coalitions have organized themselves with some committee involved with general group decisions; the names "board of directors" and "steering committee" are most frequently used. There are a number of models currently operational with principal variations along the following lines:

• Decision-making. Some committees make key policy decisions and approve plans; others are involved in these aspects but are advisory to the director.
• Membership. Some appoint key members to the committee; others, usually smaller, include all members on the committee.
• Process. Some operate with by-laws, rules of procedure, and a very definite structure for meetings; others have a far more informal structure with rules and procedures evolving as the coalition matures.

Visibility of Structure

The structure of a coalition can be compared to that of a building. There is an internal structure with a foundation, a framework, siding, wiring, plumbing, and insulation. Once this is completed, an external structure begins to appear with a façade, paint, landscaping, and those things that realtors call "curb appeal." The coalition will have an internal structure of by-laws, staffing, processes, and procedures. The external appearance shapes the impression of the coalition shared by its members, its clients, and the community at large. This visible portion of the coalition must reflect not only the goals of the coalition but also the benefits to be derived from being associated with it.

Where Leaders Come From

Most coalitions begin with a core membership of a very few people. The initial coalition leadership emerges from this founding group. This is particularly true if one organization has served to nurture the formation of the coalition and is seen as its facilitator. As the coalition expands and additional members join the founding group, the concept of leadership within the coalition inevitably is subject to examination and review. Newer members test the style and direction of the leadership and make participation judgments based on what they discover. By the nature of a coalition, the leader of a coalition is a safe position; the leader is seldom deposed or removed. Rather the leader who is perceived to be less than effective is generally ignored. Individuals and groups take their energies elsewhere. Much then depends on the vision of leadership and the style in which an individual or a group exercises it.

Democratic Leadership

The nature of a coalition depends upon building a consensus. Individuals and groups come together to achieve something that they consider not only worthwhile but unattainable if they were to act separately. Any group or individual that participates in a coalition will find it necessary occasionally to put aside private viewpoints and individual goals for the collective opinions and goals of the coalition. They will do this only if a democratic leadership allows members to share opinions openly and to build a consensus. It should be immediately recognized that many effective management styles exist in both the public and private sectors. Not all of these are compatible with the type of open discussion and consensus building called for in a coalition. Generally, the operating characteristics of a democratic leader include the following elements: ¹⁸

• Flexible—promotes consensus building;
• Inclusive—promotes respect for all;
• Clear—promotes identical expectations in all.

Traits of Valued Coalition Leaders

Current research, as well research done in the recent past, shows that certain traits were consistently valued highly by coalition members in their leaders. These can be summed up:

1. Commitment and determination about the coalition's potential for success;
2. Optimism and a positive attitude toward the members of the coalitions and their tasks;
3. Ability to recruit members useful to the coalition;
4. Skill in locating resources for the coalition and ability in fund raising.

That these traits would be highly valued is not surprising. Coalitions are very diverse groups, sometimes with substantial obstacles to overcome. While the members desire to feel united, they frequently suffer from a lack of resources. Leadership must stress what can be accomplished while it attempts to harness the vitality of the coalition around achieving goals. Members respond to the achievement of some goals and the promise of future resources provides an indication that the coalition indeed has a future.

Traits of Community Action Leaders

A number of studies have concluded that coalition leaders need the same set of skills that community action leaders have. These individuals can successfully mobilize public opinion and bring people together in a way that is calculated to achieve results through actions. The traits of these leaders have been described as the following:¹⁹

• Capable of distilling complex ideas into simple messages;
• Unafraid to challenge the status quo;
• Empathetic with a highly diverse group of members;
• Able to prod and cajole members into action.

Styles of Leadership

Not every leader leads in the same way. Any leader has a natural style that corresponds with basic personality and training. Nor does every leader adopt a style and stay with that approach in all organizations and situations. The more skillful the leader, the greater the number of approaches the leader can call on. These stylistic approaches have been described in a variety of ways. The following chart gives an overview of some of them.

Leadership Roles

In a coalition, the quality of leadership is different than the person of the leader. Leadership is a series of traits and characteristics essential for the coalition to move forward. The coalition, like any other organization, will have an individual with a title or position implying leadership. It would be most convenient if that person was capable of exercising some of those qualities of leadership the coalition requires. We should not expect, nor is it desirable, for that individual be the only one capable of or permitted to exercise leadership traits. While the nominal leader may not be able to do all or most of these, the leader's role includes making sure that these roles get filled.

Leading With Groups

As the coalition develops, more and more of its work is done by and through committees or work groups. This not only serves to get more of the work accomplished but it allows leadership to be exercised by a greater number of qualified people. Effective committees give coalition members a feeling of accomplishment that does not necessarily follow from being a member of a larger group. Surveys indicate that committee members begin to feel a strong sense of identity with the committee and with the leadership of the committee. When there is good communication between the committee and central leadership, committees become a rallying point for coalition members and ensure that members stay active and interested. In such coalitions, committees will fill a number of functions in addition to the accomplishment of work.

1. The unity of the committee provides a source of support for members as they go about their difficult work. This feeling of support and solidarity serves as a type of compensation.
2. The committees allow individuals to develop a sense of identity with the coalition and the success of the coalition is reflected in their own feeling of self-esteem.
3. Committees allow members to test and confirm organizational reality in a safe environment. In many organizations, there is a gap between what is said and what is being done. In many cases, people in the group know what is working and what is not more clearly than the leaders.
4. Committees serve as a defense mechanism against forces and pressures members could not resist on their own.

Characteristics of a Successful Coalition Leadership ²⁰

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