Flexible Strategic Planning
Rigid Strategic Plans are thing of past, but Flexible Strategic Planning often seems good in theory and murky in practice. We break it down in a practical way.
Building a Strong Strategic Plan
Ooof, creating a good Strategic Plan can be a bear. The main takeaways:
1) Hire a consultant you think you can trust to facilitate the process (but not create the plan).
2) Keep it simple. Overcomplication leads to difficulty in prioritization and accountability and hence in accomplishing the goals.
3) Include everyone in the process and have the tough, existential, status-quo-questioning conversations.
4) Done is better than perfect. Nothing kills morale and passion for the mission like a too-weedsy, drawn-out exercise in perfectionism.
Better Board Engagement Starts Before You Even Recruit Them
The key to a healthy, engaged, happy, and professionally-fulfilled board starts before you've even had the first coffee with a potential new board recruit.
How Can I Get My Board More Involved in Fundraising?
Fundraising takes practice, and building a culture of whole-team involvement takes time. But reminding board members that fundraising is really just about building relationships with people who care deeply about the same mission they do can help put a lot of unease to rest. As can reminding them that there are many ways in which they can be involved, matching with their individual skillsets and interests.
Why Punching Above Your Weight Isn't a Good Thing (Or A Love Letter to Small Nonprofits)
"If we don't stop expecting small nonprofits to be 'tiny but mighty,' all that effort and love you're putting into the organization is going to dry it out into a shriveled husk of itself. . . .
Separating salaries out as a side thought, as something to be sacrificed, or something that needs to be ratioed against 'direct program costs' makes no sense unless your organization is entirely staffed by independently wealthy professional volunteers. . . .
Put the (metaphorical) duct tape and shoestringy, MacGivery attitude away."
I See You Feeling Drained: Go for a Walk
Make it a habit to go for a walk around the block every day, not necessarily at the same time every day, but rather when you really need a refresh -- maybe after an emotionally-intensive meeting, or when you hit writer's block, or when you see the sun pop out of the clouds.
It is always worth it. You will never come back from a walk feeling worse than when you started. Maybe only the tiniest bit better, but never worse.
Failure is for the Privileged: Or How Not to Run Interviews
To fail and professionally live to tell about it means that you were in a position to enjoy the surety that you could experiment and push boundaries and be rewarded for your ingenuity. All too often, women, people of color, and other marginalized identities push through their whole careers without that surety -- instead, they get labeled as difficult, too risky, etc. In a coming article, we'll talk about how, as a leader, you can create a culture that supports innovation from *all* employees. But first, let's talk about a better way to conduct interviews. Get ready to break some molds.
Meeting the Working Parent’s Needs
Let's start by agreeing on this baseline: perfection isn't going to happen, and there is no magic formula (neither of parental habits nor of workplace policies) where the parent (or anyone, really) is fully rested, exercised, and firing on all cylinders all the time. But there are reasonably implementable steps we can take as parents and bosses to find a balance that can help stave off burnout for working parents.
Boldly Creating Work/Life Balance
It's that time of year when holidays, friends and family obligations, friends and family angst, grief and wistfulness, end of year deadlines, and disappearing daylight all collide together into . . .well . . . exhaustion.
That makes it the perfect time of year to intentionally think about work-life balance -- what it means for you as a leader and what it means for your team(s) -- and, then, instead of lamenting its loss, will it into being.
Giving Constructive Feedback Doesn’t Have to be Painful
Does anticipating giving constructive feedback tie your stomach up in knots? Or does it feel like it often goes sideways? Would you rather just avoid it? It doesn't have to be that way.