Nonprofit experts often talk about how to develop good leaders. But Doug Sauer, chief executive of the Council of Community Services of New York State, says more attention should also be paid to the people in the trenches.

“We lose the connectedness between who we are as a community—the nonprofit community and the broader community—and what people are actually doing,” he told the closing session of the Nonprofit Congress.

Mr. Sauer said his organization spent two days meeting with employees at a legal aid society who handled cases involving juveniles—and were suffering “vicarious trauma” because the children were treated so brutally. He said the workers were burnt out, felt unappreciated by the legal system and the public, and did not see themselves as successful.

Not one could say what their organization’s mission or values were, he added. “What they knew was what they did on an every-day basis,” he said. “That’s what they were committed to.”

He added, “The reason we’re not effective is we don’t take care of our staffs, we don’t take care of our people.”