Strategic planning season is here — but is your plan truly strategic?
Before jumping into your next nonprofit planning process, make sure you're not just checking a box. Discover 5 often-overlooked essentials that will help you clarify priorities, align resources, and lead with intention.

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.

Strategic clarity starts with reflection.
In a fast-paced nonprofit world, it takes intention and collaboration to pause, ask questions, and uncover the insights that move your mission forward.

Strategy is a bet. When nonprofits try to do everything, the real cost is often your team. Strategy means making tough calls and choosing to focus can be the most compassionate decision you make as a leader.

Hope is more than a feel-good concept it’s the #1 thing your team needs from you. Learn what Gallup’s global research reveals and how leaders can foster real hope, even in challenging times.

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.