What We Are Looking for in Our New Executive Director

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Our next Executive Director will first and foremost be someone who can match the energy and enthusiasm for the rest of us at GDC and who sees their role as strategically and tactically elevating the company to the next level in Chicago and nationally. They will be inspired by the legacy of the last 60 years and excited by the possibilities for our future.

They may not currently live in Chicago, but they will have a clear ability to learn about new people and a new city and gain an appreciation of what makes Chicago distinct. On the other hand, our Executive Director will also have a clear national and international perspective that will be invaluable to us as we expand our touring work and national presence. Whether they have been working in dance their whole life or are new to the field, they will be motivated by being an active member of the dance community at all levels.

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Human Expectations and Personal Values

 

Our Executive Director will be someone who believes deeply in collaboration and who understands all the aspects and benefits of leading a group of passionate and creative individuals in a collaborative way.  They will appreciate that collaboration works best coming from a perspective of kindness, understanding, camaraderie, and empathy, and that the practical benefits of excellent collaboration include greater efficiency and focus in completing activities, ease in solving problems more quickly, reduced confusion, and overall greater individual and collective pride in what is accomplished.

Our Executive Director will be even tempered and positive in their outlook, unflappable and even joyful in a fast moving, fast changing environment. They will be inspired by the talent and big hearts of everyone at GDC, and will take true care in seeking authentic ways to connect to the rest of the team in a way that respects each person’s role, history, passions, and abilities.  They will understand fully that as a jazz dance company, our DNA is that each voice is its own and that each voice should be heard.

Their personal identity and self-confidence will be very strong, informed by their own history dealing hands-on with the realities of production and non-profit management. They will not have any hesitation to determine their own opinions and make their perspectives very clear, but they also will see their own worth as strengthened by being part of a tight knit group of dedicated partners.

The Executive Director will also viscerally appreciate that the dancers are the most visible part of Giordano Dance Chicago, and, with the artistic leadership, are the heart and the purpose of the company.  Understanding how to support the artists so they can function at their highest levels, in ways both practical and human, is the bedrock of the Executive Director’s values and heart. They will be appreciative and understanding of the full lives of the dancers, and how structures and decisions of the company impact not only the art, but also their health, financial stability, and quality of life.

 

Where Our Executive Director will be Exceptional

 

The next Executive Director at Giordano Dance Chicago will be a truly exceptional non-profit team and resource manager, who has a masterful ability to connect granular decision making and uses of time and money to big-picture strategies and trajectories for the company.  More than anyone else at GDC, they will be an expert at setting thoughtful and specific prioritization of activities, based on an understanding of the ambitious artistic vision of the company, its growth trajectory, and very real limits on the day-to-day resources of money and staff time.
 

Partnership, delegation and empowerment of others will be the basis of the Executive Director’s work. With the tight knit and experienced staff team, and an engaged and dedicated but volunteer Board of Directors, the Executive Director will center their work on a clear understanding of the capacity of every member of the team, as well as their perspectives, experience, and abilities.  Then the Executive Director will guide each person on where to focus their efforts so that GDC works together in a way that moves the organization forward.  For a smaller organization, avoiding duplication and time traps is essential and the Executive Director will direct resources and challenge habitual processes if necessary to create forward movement by helping everyone to work ‘smarter not harder’. 
 

 What Our Executive Director Will Handle Directly

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The Giordano Dance Chicago team brings many capabilities to the table, but there are specific tasks and responsibilities that our Executive Director will handle personally.  In these areas, established expertise and the ability to self-motivate will allow our Executive Director to excel without significant support from others.
 

These include:
 

• Financial management.  Chicago Transom Partners and other members of the staff handle the mechanics of accounting and financial processing, but the Executive Director maintains responsibility for the financial health and decision-making in the organization. This includes handling both long-term and short-term budget strategies. They also directly handle processes for the Board Finance Committee, audits, cash flow projections, payroll projections and approvals, fund management, and oversight on accounting coding to ensure clear financial pictures.
   

• Communications.  Clear, comprehensive, and intentional sharing of information throughout the organization and with external stakeholders is a great strength. They are very responsive to everyone and appreciate the most effective ways to communicate with different people.  They also can anticipate concerns or needs and know how to communicate proactively.
   

• Fundraising. Working closely with the Director of Development, Board, and Artistic Director, they need to prioritize personal long-term quality relationship building with donors and to support the structuring of internal development systems that can allow the development staff and board to be efficient and effective in their work. While taking the lead from the Director of Development, the Executive Director will spend a significant part of their time on fundraising, and will be the primary contact for many major donors and institutional partners.
   

• Centering Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access. Giordano Dance Chicago is a current Institutional Collaborator of Enrich Chicago, “an arts led movement to undo racism”, and the Executive Director will be one of the GDC representatives in that work.  The Executive Director will provide leadership and an engaged, continually growing perspective on how to enhance equity in all decision making and how to create thoughtful, intentional, long-term plans to expand diversity of identity and viewpoints throughout the organization. They will appreciate the importance of how these priorities impact day-to-day decisions and also relate to the long term viability of the company.  They will also have sensitivity to position-based, tenure-based, and identity-based power dynamics and will know how to lead in DEIA areas and how to step back and release some of the power and control associated with being the Executive Director.
   

• Staff management.  The Executive Director and Artistic Director are together responsible for HR policies and responsibilities, capacity management, defining roles and responsibilities, bringing people into or out of the organization, and maintaining open and honest dialogue with all team members for continual refinements of focus and operational improvements.
   

• Partnership with board leadership.  The Giordano Dance Chicago board is active and engaged. To be effective, they need the Executive Director’s recommendations for clear direction and goals for achievement that link board member efforts to successes for the organization and the artists.  The Executive Director will also focus on real-time collaboration with appropriate board members as the primary dynamic, rather than simply ‘reporting out at meetings’.

 

What Our Executive Director Needs to Understand

 

Working with and alongside the rest of the team, there are important areas where we do not expect our Executive Director to be more knowledgeable and capable than other people in Giordano Dance Chicago, but where we do need them to have enough expertise to collaborate with us effectively. 
 

These include:
 

• Data management for a non-profit organization with fewer than ten staff.  While the Executive Director does not need to be doing data entry or managing data systems on their own, they need a clear understanding of how data systems work and can be leveraged efficiently to the company’s benefit.  They will have a clear grasp of how to identify which data needs to be captured and utilized, which data needs to flow easily to different parts of the organizations, and which data may not be worth the time and energy to manage at this capacity level.
   

• Awareness of the national dance field. They will have (or will rapidly gain) a clear understanding of where Giordano’s particular artistic work fits into the national jazz dance and touring dance fields. The Artistic Director and touring staff lead GDC’s national engagement, but the Executive Director will connect national positioning and strategy to GDC’s operational and financial focus, and represent GDC in the national and local dance communities.
   

• Legacy dynamics. They will support the development of a specific strategy around how to enhance and leverage the dynamics of a longstanding and respected company in its 60th year, led continuously by the founding family’s artistic vision, but which is on a growth trajectory looking towards an expanding future.
   

• Physical building transition and capital campaigns.  The Board of Directors plans to engage a project manager to oversee the major building renovation, and a capital campaign counsel for the building capital campaign.  The Executive Director will not have to manage these directly, but will be the primary person responsible for interfacing the daily activities of GDC with these major multi-year projects, including navigating donor and funder relationships around the capital campaign and shifts of short-term office needs during the renovation.  Ultimately, once the building renovation is nearing completion, the Executive Director will be responsible to establish the staffing, procedural, and maintenance systems to activate, support, and care for the building in a sustainable way.
   

• Legal and contractual oversight.  The Executive Director will be comfortable negotiating contracts with vendors or presenters if necessary and adjusting standard agreements for implementation by other members of the staff. While they do not need direct legal expertise, they will be confident in understanding potential legal issues or pitfalls for a non-profit cultural organization.

 

How We Will Support Our New Executive Director

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We know that the arrival of a new leader at Giordano Dance Chicago means everyone will need to adapt to new ways of working and a different collaborative partnership. As we discover that together, it is important that our new Executive Director feels supported and engaged from all sides of the company. 
 

To that end, Giordano Dance Chicago commits to providing:

●    Annual salary beginning at $100,000, with an annual Board-approved performance bonus of $10,000 based on mutually agreed commitments, and the potential for additional strategic bonuses linked to organizational revenue growth. 
 

●    Benefits include a 25% contribution to individual healthcare premiums and paid time off including standard holidays (plus the day before Thanksgiving), two weeks of discretionary paid vacation plus an additional 1-2 weeks of paid team vacation in late December.
 

●    Office equipment and dedicated space within the current open floor plan office space shared with the entire staff team.  The work schedule is flexible and may vary based on artistic events, fundraising meetings, and community responsibilities at times and locations in Chicago.  Some travel outside of Chicago will be necessary as well and will be paid for by Giordano Dance Chicago.
 

●    An onboarding and transition plan, developed by the team and ready to adapt to the needs of the Executive Director.
 

●    Commitment to regular meetings with the Board President and Executive Committee. The Board is also appointing a Transition Committee specifically to support the period moving to a new leadership structure during 2023.
 

●    Paid project support for both the Building Renovation project and counsel for the Building Capital Campaign, beyond the full time operational and development staff.
 

●    Mentorship or Advisory support during the first year with Creative Evolutions and three industry peers (see the Search Process above).

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Statement of Non-Discrimination
Giordano Dance Chicago is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate and will take action to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment for any employee or job applicant on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.