Red Cross experience in Fiji

In my first mission with the International Federation of the Red Cross, I had an opportunity to work with Mr. G, a rare breed of nonprofit manager with solid business and financial acumen. As head of the pacific regional delegation, Mr. G managed to make dramatic improvements in the office’s financial position and in its credibility among its partners.

The Federation delegation assisted and advised 12 Red Cross societies in the Pacific Region with various humanitarian activities. International donors often chose to channel their financial support to individual societies through the delegation to ensure a level of accountability and supervision that many small societies lacked capacity to provide. However, due to lax financial management in the past the delegation sometimes failed to control national societies’ overspending and had accumulated a large deficit.

Mr. G immediately made it clear that solving the problem was at the top of his priority list. First, he tackled the unpleasant job of negotiating financial arrangements with international donors to write off the deficit. Pulling off the intricate negotiations involving multiple stakeholders including donors, their “back donors”, national societies, and the Federation’s secretariat in Geneva, and getting prepared necessary financial and narrative reports required strong negotiation skills combining tactful persuasion and tenacity.

Mr. G then made extensive trips across the region to personally understand the situation of each national society and establish relationships with its leaders. He made frequent contact with them to keep them in the loop. His diplomacy was instrumental in dissolving the sense of mistrust they held toward the Federation, and in building a spirit of cooperation. In his affable yet outspoken manner, he got the message across that improving accountability and transparency was of paramount importance for the delegation to bring back donors and thus to provide better support for them. Inspired by him, the delegation members stepped up efforts to enhance accountability by providing continuous support for national societies in program development, financial planning and management, and donor reporting.

By the time Mr. G left for his home country to assume the leadership role at the Red Cross Society in an African nation after less than two years of stay in the Pacific, the delegation cleared all deficit and had programs expanded and fully funded by a more diverse donor base. He demonstrated how an effective manager should lead an international team and work with diverse partners to achieve excellence. In international and cross-cultural environment, clarity is paramount. In order to motivate a team and mobilize supports, a manager needs to define a clear set of basic principles and objectives, and involve everyone concerned through open and proactive communication. Empathy, self-discipline, and a strong commitment to deliver results are the qualities that go a long way to overcome initial disagreements and inevitable misconceptions, and to make allies of stakeholders with disparate value systems and viewpoints. These are the lessons I learned through my experience of working closely with Mr. G, and that I believe have helped me to take a significant step toward becoming a great manager.