If you've read many of my posts on this blog or heard me speak about organizational development issues, you know that I believe that business schools have a role in teaching nonprofit leaders; in particular, entrepreneurship programs in business schools address many of the organizing principles that nonprofits must embrace.

In these tough economic times it can pay to look at some of the advice available from these programs. One source for good information is Academic Earth. As a recent Slate online column put it, AcademicEarth.org is Hulu for nerds.

Academic Earth collects video presentations of some of the best lectures from a variety of university and college programs and offers them for free viewing at its website.

One lecture, which is rather short but informative, by entrepreneur Jerry Kaplan comes via Academic Earth and the Stanford University Entrepreneurship program. Kaplan talks about the five skills that entrepreneurs need to succeed. These five skills seem particularly important for nonprofit leaders in today's environment.

I recommend you see the lecture at this link, but in the meantime, here is my summary of Mr. Kaplan's remarks.

The first skill is leadership, which he defines as the ability to build consensus in the face of uncertainty. What could me more important now? Especially the skill of building a true consensus, which means letting people into the process even if you think they may be hard to deal with.

The second skill is communication. According to Kaplan, this is more about being clear and consistent than it is about being original. And the first task to being both clear and consistent is making a good decision and sticking with it, which is the third skill.

I would add another dimension to decision-making. In the nonprofit sector we often try to make the perfect decision and spend too much time making a decision. Several years ago I learned a great tool for overcoming this. When you are faced with a decision, think about how hard it will be to change direction if you change the decision in the future. If changing your mind won't cost too much time, effort, or credibility, then make a quick decision. If it doesn't work out, you can change direction later. What you gain by acting quickly will more than overcome the cost of changing your mind later. On the other hand, if a change in direction later will cost a lot of time and effort, then take more time on the decision now.

The fourth skill Kaplan cites is being a good team player by which he means be able to delegate and trust. That skill goes hand in hand with a willingness to share credit. Chuck Devine, the long-time CEO of United Way of King County in the 1970s had a poster in his office with the saying "You'd be surprised how much you can accomplish if you don't worry about who gets the credit." This skill is also important because every organization needs access to more skills than any one person could ever have.

Finally, the fifth skill is the ability to telescope. Telescoping is the ability to shift focus between the details and the big picture. I've always believed that a good leader has to understand a bit about how particular functions actually get carried out in an organization. You don't have to be good at them nor have the skills to do those tasks, but you do need to understand what burdens you are putting on staff, volunteers, or clients when, at the big picture level, you change a policy that impacts how a detailed process is carried out.

There is an entire section on the Academic Earth site for entrepreneurship as well as a wide variety of other areas to explore if you've got the time and the curiosity. And what could be better than free access to some of the best minds in the world?