Who’s doing your mission better than you?

Put a different way - which organizations are you watching to see what work they're doing and how they're doing it?

They could be organizations that share your served community, your mission or issue area, your geographic area - or sometimes they could be organizations with an entirely different mission and position than yours.

When I was leading communications and marketing teams, one of my fantastic team members used to call these our "brand crushes." They were brands we tracked and learned from across many areas of our work. Keeping our eyes open to what they were doing helped us be clearer about who we were, how we were similar and different, where we could partner, and what we were and could be doing better.

Identifying the organizations you admire and want to learn from is an important part of developing your team's strategic thinking. It can be easy to get stuck with our heads down in the work - assuming that we're the only ones working on this issue - but when we do that, we're missing out on valuable information and perspectives.

Here's an exercise to try with your team.

1. Give staff 2 weeks to explore and identify organizations they admire.

2. Ask them to think about why they admire these organizations. Is it for:

   • their mission impact?

   • the culture they're creating?

   • the dollars they've raised?

   • the way they communicate?

   • the volunteers, supporters, and donors they've cultivated?

   • something else?

3. Spend time sharing these organizations with each other and asking questions. (BONUS TIP: This is a great professional development opportunity for staff who want to bolster their presentation skills.)

   • What's their special sauce?

   • What can we learn from them?

   • Could we try something similar?

4. After these conversations, walk away with one tangible action item for the team to research, do, or experiment with.

Scarcity mindsets can sometimes keep us closed off, feeling we need to prove our worth, thinking we already know everything others are doing, or rendering ourselves blind in other ways to what's happening around us.

But as a leader, your staff can bring your attention to organizations that may be new to you, which can lead to refreshing new ideas, inspiration, and insights.

You may also discover fantastic organizations to partner with so you can both grow your impact and better serve your community.

Do you have an organizational brand crush? Join the conversation over on LinkedIn to share.