Desiree Adaway » Desiree Adaway

Wednesday Wisdom- Comfort is a Killer

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:06:43 +0000

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. -Anais Nin

True courage is risking being uncomfortable. True personal growth and organizational growth only happen when we move forward, and that only happens when we have strength and courage and face our fears. Usually, it is nothing more than being willing to risk being uncomfortable or looking foolish.

Attaining greatness rests on our ability to courageously take on risks and break free of shackles of courage killers:comfort.apathy and complacency.

Tips to being great:

Start identifying the ways in which “comfort” is holding you back from your goals and your happiness. Remember, that this can take on various disguises, like procrastination.
Quit putting it off and simply decide to finally tackle the situation head on.
Remember, you haven’t done it yet not just because it’s an unpleasant task, but because you are afraid to be uncomfortable or look foolish.

You have big plans…do not let your need for comfort kill them!

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

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Wednesday Wisdom- You Need A Coach

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:43:03 +0000

You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
—Galileo

You need coaching. You may have started off managing programs and now you are at the helm of a huge organization. The skills that brought you there are not the ones that keep you there. Again, you do killer work but sometime you feel overwhelmed keeping all the balls in the air everyday. Some days you just want a unbiased ear to help you think through next steps, or offer advice on working with your board or that difficult employee. Coaching can have enormous value as a stand-alone strategy for developing leaders and their organizations. Many organizations are waking up to this critical point and are looking for leaders that understand the value of coaching.

Statistical surveys and anecdotal evidence both make it clear that coaching is a great instrument for advancing nonprofit leadership and improving nonprofit organizational effectiveness.

When is a nonprofit leader ready for coaching?

When they:

Believe that coaching can help
Can expresses what is really going on (confidentially) i.e. not withholding
Commit to it (even if assigned by someone above)
Embrace the idea of self-improvement
Manage the time for it
Comfortable with the cost
Willing to learn

If this is you go out and find a coach that you have rapport with and get started!

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

Doing The Work

Desiree Adaway — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:54:27 +0000

It’s not what you did that got you here. It’s the thought you believed that made you do what you did that got you here.~Byron Katie

Post Traumatic Strength. A friend and client mentioned this phrase to me earlier this week and I kind of fell in love with it. We all know the phrase post traumatic stress. It’s normal to have a wide range of feelings and emotions after a traumatic event. You might experience fear and anxiety, a lack of focus, sadness, changes in how well you sleep or how much you eat, or crying spells that catch you off guard. You may have nightmares or be unable to stop thinking about the event.

But what does Post Traumatic Strength look and feel like?You experience happiness, joy, pride, elation from growing stronger and healthier. You are more aligned with your desires and feel at peace with your journey. From my perspective that is what happens when you accept your new position after quitting your old job with no clear plan or you moved to the other side of the world to volunteer for a year with an orphanage in Afghanistan.

It is what happens after you do the work. The hard, deep transformative work. It is when we do what scares us the most– we let go but have no idea what’s next. It is when we experience trauma but we do not let that experience define our existense. It is when our life is shattered but we get up the next day and create anyway.

Post Traumatic Strength

You have made it through the valley and are now on the other side- stronger, healthier, more confident and more optimistic than ever before. You see and feel progress, knowing that the days ahead are far from perfect but you KNOW you can make it through. Your thoughts- the way you treated yourself, the way you thought about yourself, the words you spoke, the people you surrounded yourself with, the books you read, the knowledge you consumed all help get you to this place.

You have failed before and you will again. And you are OK with that. You continue to do the work.

This is a key feature in your transition story- the evolution of you and your life.

The ability to find this place of strength, joy and celebration is within all of us… we just have to do the work and trust that the journey we are on will unfold for us with the best possible outcome.

If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

Wednesday Wisdom- Speaking With Conviction

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:14:20 +0000

Are you speaking with conviction?

Learn to say no more so that YOUR YES has a deeper, richer meaning. Learn the tone and sound of your voice.Learn its depth and know its magic.

Make sure that your organization understands why and when it should say YES and why their is power in saying NO.. Speak up. Speak strong. Speak truth. The world needs your voice because it’s unconquerable.

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

The Courage To Do What Is Necessary

Desiree Adaway — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:54:19 +0000

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition~ Steve Jobs

What do you think of when you think of courage? Who is the most courageous person you know? What makes them courageous in your eyes?

Some people on think of physical courage or a specific act of bravery. You know entering a burning building, jumping out of a plane, stopping a moving train from crashing into nuclear weapons. You know– regular stuff. All joking aside there are folks who show physical bravery every day -police man, paramedics, soldiers. I appreciate and thank them for their service.

The type of courage that I want to talk about, which fascinates me is the the silent moral courage that folks show everyday. You know when your personal values run up against day to day living. The person that quits the six figured job to start a school in Cambodia or the guy who decides too walk across this country because he wants to raise money and find a cure for cancer. Or the woman who works two jobs to put her kids through college.

These people – the nurse, social worker, non profit executive director, activist, refugee, social entrepreneur and unemployed they are courageous.

This is the most important thing to know about courage– we all have the ability to be courageous. It was not some big lotto happening in the universe that gave some of us courage and gave the rest of us the ability to sing or sew. We all have the ability within us to step up and be courageous.

Listen to your voice and your intuition

We just have to do one important thing– we have to show up. We have to show up and be OK with looking foolish, with failure and with being uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable does not kill us. It can be hard and sometimes difficult but it does not kill us.

True courage is risking being uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable with family, friends and colleagues. Being courageous could mean you are the odd man out, the weird one , the only one left standing.

That is not an easy place to be, but it is a place that you can move forward from.

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts~John Wooden

So know that you can do it…you can fight the voices from your past and in your head telling you you can not do it because really YOU CAN.

Create your courage mantra

A friend taught me the following steps for creating a courage mantra:

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of “creating transformation The word mantra comes from the Sanskrit “mantrana”, which means advice or suggestion. Today, mantras are more widely recognized as any statement that affirms the way we want to live our lives.

Create your own mantras Instructions

Make a list of three things you’d like to change about your life. Write them in the form of “I am,” such as “I am stressed, I am debt-ridden, I am stuck.” .

Beside each item on your list, write down its opposite, such as “I am relaxed, I am financially free, I am moving on.”

String these positive revelations together into a sentence in whatever order or form is pleasing to you, as long as it begins with “I am,” such as “I am moving on in a relaxed state of financial freedom.”

Hold on to this mantra for as long as it feels helpful to you. Anytime you like, repeat steps 1 through 4 to create a new personal mantra that can help you continue to be courageous.

Wednesday Wisdom- Ode To A Kick Ass Activist

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:57:05 +0000

Light the fire…. fight the fight.

This week my video is an ode to all of you kick ass activist. Some days we get lost in doing stuff…completing tasks, answering emails and prepping for meetings. Today I want you to connect back to that source. The passion that brought you here. The reason that you do this work. . You want to be successful and you want communities to be healthy and whole ?- Well it takes hard work, digging deep, making hard choices and calling people, institutions and systems out. You cannot shrink. You cannot whisper.

Take it personally….. Every program, every employee, every donor…. The work demands it. Your communities deserve it.

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

Wednesday Wisdom – Partnerships and Collaborations

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:38:40 +0000

We no longer have the luxury of an abundance of resources to stand alone.

Success will depend on building strong and sustainable coalitions both online and up the street. Time to stop being insular, our survival depends on it.

Outward is the new black.

Smarter people than I have said this, but it bears repeating.

This can be hard for some organizations to understand. We are so use to standing alone, feeling alone, being alone. Seems like our own voices are the only voices we hear some days. We spend so much time crafting messages that only reach people who look like and think like us.

New voices are mandatory and new language is required. New tools must be created.

Coalition builders will be the winners.

Will you be ready? Will your organization be ready? Check out my Wednesday wisdom to learn more about partnerships and collaborations.

You are never alone. Never have been. Never will be. Seek help. Seek connection. Seek support.

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

The Power Of Moneyball and Asking The Right Question

Desiree Adaway — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:57:10 +0000

Photo by Ericka Hines

If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.

W. Edwards Deming

What is the most important step in meaningful dialogue?

It also happens to be the most important step in organizational change. It is the Art of the question. You have to ask the right question to get to the heart of a matter. Yet many of us do not ask the right questions, not for our organizations and not for ourselves.

This past weekend I watched a movie. Those of you that know me personally knows that NEVER happens. I have the attention span of a gnat and I just am never able to focus longer than 30 minutes top– I can work on a project for hours, study and research for days, but watch a Rom-Com, can not do it.

I watched a sports movie- Moneyball. It was recommended to me by a genius friend, Angela Powell and written by one of my favorite writers of all time Aaron Sorkin. For those of you that have not seen it here is the plot summary:

Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane is handicapped with the lowest salary constraint in baseball. If he ever wants to win the World Series, Billy must find a competitive advantage. Billy is about to turn baseball on its ear when he uses statistical data to analyze and place value on the players he picks for the team

At its core this movie is about innovation and turning a traditional long held system on its head.

It speaks to an epic failure within the game to understand what was really happening. And this lead people who ran Major League Baseball teams to misjudge their players and mismanage their teams.

Does it sound like an industry I know and love? Oh yes it does.

Swap out game for nonprofit sector and major league baseball for nonprofits and you see where I am going.

It speaks to a industry whose thinking was medieval.They had no desire to change but even worst they were asking all the wrong questions. Billy Beane knew that.

They also knew that they had created a system where if you said anything against the status quo to anyone, well you were ostracized-not seen as loyal and in many cases asked to leave.

How many of us have worked in these organizations, where they did not value the question nor the person who was courageous enough to ask them?

But for me the BEST part of the movie was when they used statistical data to analyze what is essential their programs and made decisions based on data. I dream of organizations like this!

They saw things in the data that the naked eye could not see, including value in people that was not evident: it helped them see beyond age, appearance, and personality.

They believed the data, they used the data, they valued the data and the data changed their outcomes and impact.

My lessons from this movie are lessons I talk to organizations about everyday: Learn to ask the right question, believe your data, not your opinions and create a safe place so that everyone can share their ideas.

If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

Wednesday Wisdom- Organizational Growth

Desiree Adaway — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:21:32 +0000

Start-ups can take many paths and reach many different stages of organizational growth. Some organizations never need to grow beyond a certain size and others eventually close.

Some start-ups, however, do make it to the “post-start-up” stage of organizational life. Post-start-up organizations have different characteristics and face different needs than they did in the start-up stage and the way they get there is through planned growth.

This week I talk about core elements that contribute to organizational growth. I also offer up a little lovin’. I see you and all of your hard work and appreciate all that you do. Keep fighting the good fight,the world needs you.

PS. Excuse the shaky spots in the video– I just got so darned excited!

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If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.

Plan For Growth

Desiree Adaway — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:15:37 +0000

People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.
Brian Tracy

Confused about your strategy? Unclear sense of direction? No clear goals and objectives? What is the next step? No plan, then expect no growth. It’s that simple.

We all know that nonprofits have many barriers to growth.We have read all the reports, blog post and white papers that speak to lack of leadership, program stagnation, weak infrastructure or my all time favorite inadequate funding.

I am here to chat about one that does not get nearly as much attention but honestly its the organization killer: PLANNING

I know, its not sexy. If an organization is uncertain about its growth plan or how to scale its efforts, difficulties abound. Every time.

A clearly articulated growth plan, including goals, next steps, and organizational structure, is necessary for solid growth. You can do nothing without it. Before you write a grant or create a budget, create a plan. I hope it would be a strategic one, but if its not then create a basic road map to help guide you.

There’s No Perfect Way to Do It

So just DO IT! Don’t be concerned about finding the “perfect way” to conduct planning. You’ll soon notice that there are a million ways to do it, but you will also notice some concepts that need to be included.

Analysis

This activity can include conducting some sort of scan, or review, of the organization’s environment (for example, of the political, social, economic and technical environment)Organizations look at the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (an acronym for this activity is SWOT) .

Setting Direction

Organizations take all the yummy data from the analysis come to conclusions about what the organization must do as a result of the major issues and opportunities facing the organization. These conclusions include what overall goals the organization should achieve, and the overall strategies to achieve them

Action Planning

Now its time to carefully lay out how the strategic goals will be accomplished. Action planning often includes specifying objectives, or specific results, with each strategic goal. Often, each objective is associated with a tactic, which is one of the methods needed to reach an objective. Don’t forget to include specific responsibilities and timelines with each objective.

When your organization invest the time and attention into planning what you are telling your stake holders is that you have the capacity to endure.

If you want to build core nonprofit management skills crucial to your organization’s success you can schedule some 1:1 time with me here or learn about other ways we can work together here.