If you’re dealing with a challenging professional relationship that’s sucking up your time and energy, here’s a practical tool that can help.

 Each time I begin working with a new coaching client through our Practical Leadership Advisory services, I make sure to cover this important truth upfront:

• We can’t control other people’s behavior,

• But we can control how we process and respond to it.

If you’ve been in nonprofit leadership for any amount of time, you’ve run into plenty of interpersonal challenges. These situations are stressful – and they can bring up big emotions like frustration, anger, hopelessness, and even despair.

Here’s something I first discovered as a parent of young kids that has helped me – and so many of my clients and colleagues – better manage these situations.

You've already determined 2025's priorities, goals, plans, and budget.

I'm guessing you've already communicated them with everyone in your organization, too. (If not, let's talk.)

But even when those guidelines for what your org WILL focus on are communicated effectively, the things that thwart success are the unexpected - and often self-imposed - barriers created when those plans meet reality.

I rearranged my schedule yesterday to take my dog on his favorite walk through the woods for his 13th birthday.

For years I've joked that Pete is the most reliable member of Team LaFemina. He always meets or exceeds expectations. We can always count on his quiet love, steady presence, and enthusiastic tail. He is independent, happy, and such an easy team member to have around.

Since joining our team 11.5 years ago, he's had his role handled.

But I realized yesterday that I can't remember the last time I spent 2 hours with just him - seeing how he's doing, observing what he's interested in, considering where he still feels strong and where he's made some adaptations based on his current needs and strengths.

Nonprofit leaders - you've probably heard the phrase "culture eats strategy for breakfast." But that's not really accurate - because culture IS strategy.

In this episode of the Learning for Good podcast, my colleague Heather Burright and I discuss how culture influences organizational strategy and team performance, including how culture can be a strategic advantage for nonprofits looking to attract great talent, and the elements of culture & strategy that often get overlooked.

We also talk about 4 practical habits you and your organization can start today to build a healthy, thriving culture and a strategy that succeeds - leading to greater impact for the people you serve and the people who power your organization.

What’s one of the most overlooked requirements for successful organizational change?

Executive stamina.

Whether I’m advising a leader who is new to the executive team or one who has decades of experience leading organizational change, they are always bringing important experience and perspective to the table.

But they’re rarely thinking about their own stamina and how it'll affect their ability to lead successful change.

It's Q4 and if you're like most leaders I know, the intensity of balancing big strategic work and a million tiny tasks is a lot right now.

Here's a quick video from the LaFemina & Co. archives sharing a strategy that has brought our clients some much-needed relief.

What if strategic planning could work better for your organization?

This week, I was on the Nonprofit Radio podcast to talk about one-page strategic planning and how it can help us let go of creating "perfect plans" and instead focus on building strong strategy.

This week marks the 50th anniversary of an incredibly powerful piece of legislation being signed into law, but it's likely flown under your radar.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on October 28, 1974 to prohibit creditors and lenders from discrimination against applicants on the basis of marital status or sex.

Soon after, Congress amended the law to further prohibit lending discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, the receipt of public assistance income, or exercising one’s rights under certain consumer protection laws.

Most nonprofit executives have no problem setting goals or defining success in broad terms for their organization.

But when it comes to actually realizing that success, I see leaders struggling with something important.

It’s translating that broad vision into the tangible ways the team will experience success once the organization gets there.

Here’s a critical mindset shift that will improve every aspect of your organization’s strategy, change resiliency, and organizational effectiveness.

Shift your focus from ideal to intentional.

Dreaming about possibilities for the future is important, joyful, and necessary.

It’s good to explore what our organization can do for the people we serve and can be for the people who power our organization.

But when we convert those dreams into an expectation that we will create an “ideal” organization, we set ourselves – and our teams – up for failure.