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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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.
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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.
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.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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
