Nonprofit Advising

He said it out loud, but wasn’t the first to think it. One of my clients admitted, “I don’t see the point in investing in training her if she is just going to use that training to leave us & get a new job.” Professional development might provide your team with more opportunities that allow them to leave, but here are 5 reasons it’s still worth doing: 1) The field is changing and your community is changing. There is certainly still something for your staff to learn tha

I work with a lot of helpful people, and I find what is intended as helpfulness in new executive directors can often look a whole lot like doing someone else’s job – sometimes a staff member’s, but surprisingly often, a board member’s. One ED I worked with would even sub in for board committee chairs that missed meetings and create detailed scripts for her board president who often flew into board meetings late and completely unaware of the matters up for consideration. But

Missteps happen. Misunderstandings happen. Plain old mistakes happen – big and small. Sometimes when I suggest a client acknowledge a mess up that impacted a member of their team, the suggestion is initially dismissed with something along the lines of, “I met with them about something else, and they seem fine.” I get it. Sometimes we just want to move forward, but in leadership if you don’t acknowledge the error and potential harm, you miss an incredible opportunity to make