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.
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
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
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 begins 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).
How to Express Your Interest
Email [email protected].
This email comes to Kim Davis, Calida Jones and Doug Clayton, who will respond to you to confirm receipt and who will stay in communication with you consistently throughout the process. You will not at any time go more than two weeks without an update on where you are in the search process.
With your email, please include:
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Your resume. The resume can be of any length and style, though we encourage you to adjust it as appropriate to help us see how your history and experience connect to the current circumstances, intentions, and hopes for Giordano Dance Chicago.
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Instead of providing a standard cover letter, please provide a written response of one to two pages that includes answers to the following questions:
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Who are you and what is most exciting for us to know about you?
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Why are you interested specifically in working with Giordano Dance Chicago at this particular moment in your career
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How have your experiences given you particular expertise in prioritizing short- and long- term activities in an ambitious mid-sized non-profit organization?
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How would you balance your focus on direct support to the artists and art-making, relative to your focus on the infrastructure needs of a lean non-profit organization?
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What makes you exceptional as a team leader and in your abilities to build foundations of trust and mutual support in fast-moving teams?
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If you wish, feel free to share how you self-identify so we can honor your preferences and perspectives in our communications with you!
If possible, please have any attachments be included in pdf format.
If you have any questions about the position or your submission, please feel free to e-mail and we will be happy to discuss with you at any time!
Email us at [email protected].
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, veterans status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.