When was the last time you implemented an idea that came from one of your frontline staff members?

Can't remember?

Okay—when was the last time you asked your frontline team members for their ideas?

Can't remember that either?

Look, you're not alone.

So many well-meaning leaders struggle with this important transition as they move up through the ranks of management and leadership.

If your team is looking at you with blank stares during meetings, or giving you exactly what you asked for and nothing more, it may be because they've gotten used to taking orders rather than activating their own experience and creativity.

Shifting this dynamic takes focus and practice—for you and your team.

Here's an exercise you can do to get started.

Nonprofit executives - here's one of the biggest mistakes established nonprofits make during budgeting season.

It’s not about the process - though that can almost always be more clear, transparent, and collaborative.

It’s not about the tools - though re-teaching staff how to use outdated budgeting technology every year instead of investing in cost-effective and intuitive tools regularly results in lost time, accuracy, and trust.

It’s not about the timing - though it can be incredibly hard to predict what next year looks like 6 months in advance if 65%+ of your revenue comes in during the last two months of the fiscal year.

It’s that you forgot about your strategy.

Nonprofit leaders - do you have an "all growth is good" mindset, or are you looking to strategically sustain and scale your organization?

Growth and Scaling are not the same thing.

Growth says - “We'll launch new programs, take on adjacent projects, move based on the suggestion of one board member or powerful donor, sell first and figure out how to deliver it later.”

Scaling says - “We're going to get really good at something that truly serves our community and the folks who want to support them. We're going to test and refine until we know exactly what it takes to do this well, and we're going to do it in a way that we can replicate over and over again.”

If you're looking to build a more sustainable organization or have dreams of scaling your impact, do not miss this We Are For Good episode on Sustaining + Scaling Your Mission.

Do you feel like there's so much to do, but nothing's actually getting done?

I'm hearing this from so many leaders right now.

When we feel overwhelmed by everything that has to be done, it is hard to make true progress. Prolonged lack of progress can negatively impact our motivation and engagement. And as leaders, overwhelm can make us question ourselves, feel like we're letting our team down, or feel like there's no way to win

But there's good news!

Our brains do better - and we feel more in control and build better habits - when we feel a sense of accomplishment.

You can get your leadership groove back and get your team feeling engaged and ready to tackle the work ahead.

Here's an easy process to help.

Do you want to get really good at creating effective strategy? Here's a critical skill you can start honing today.

Practice making trade-offs.

It sounds easy, but it's a skill many leaders struggle with, because they:

• Want to make everyone happy

• Feel pressure to "do it all"

• Don't feel comfortable pushing back against unreasonable requests

• Don't want to make the wrong decision

But learning how to make trade-offs is essential, because at it's core, strategy is a series of choices about what you will - and won't - do to achieve your goals.

Unless you've practiced making trade-offs in your day-to-day work, making the bigger trade-offs involved in effective organizational strategy can be really difficult.

To hone this skill, try practicing these day-to-day trade-offs.

Are you struggling with getting your team or Board to adopt new ways of working or to move beyond “we’ve always done it this way”?

Here’s a critical reframe that can help your organization move from stuck to strategic.

For several decades, nonprofit strategy has relied on the imagery of pillars to establish an organization’s core areas of focus, work, and investment.

Pillars are meant to show we’re well-established, strong, and clear about the foundation of our organization. Sounds nice, right?

But there are some big problems with pillars

All across the workforce, and especially in the nonprofit sector, we are soon to see a massive exit of experienced folks who bring a ton of value to our workplaces.

That’s a big problem for all of us, because turnover of leadership, subject matter expertise, and institutional knowledge can all be incredibly destabilizing for organizations.

And that kind of instability can have long-lasting - think years- and decades-long - impacts.

Best practices are data - not a dictate.

What's best for other organizations may be a bad fit for you and yours.

Who is the most important audience for your strategic plan?

• Some people will say it’s your funders and sponsors

• Some people will say it’s your individual donors and volunteers

• Some people will say it’s your community and stakeholders

• Some people will say it’s your board and top executives

All of these audiences are important - and have a role to play in co-creating or providing input to our plans. And it's essential that we communicate with them effectively.

But too often, strategic plans are created only with these audiences in mind - and they leave out the most important one.

Are you contemplating an important cultural or operational change initiative in this next year?

Then don't miss this episode of Carol Hamilton's Mission Impact podcast where she and I dive into what makes change stick.

We discuss:

😑 why big change initiatives often fail

• why executives need both self-awareness and stamina to lead change

• how to help your people managers be the leaders you need them to be

• how to switch from a "launch day" mindset to a "how humans change" mindset

And much more!