An opportunity from a phone call
One of the efforts that I always enjoy helping is the Paul G. Duke Academy for Community Leadership at Edison State Community College in Piqua. It’s a wonderful program that has been put together for the nonprofit community in Darke, Miami and Shelby Counties here in Western Ohio. I first went through the program about 10 years ago and I have always been willing to teach a session, or serve as a mentor, or just show up for moral support.
Last week, I stepped out of my comfort zone to do something a little different.
Each year, the academy puts on an annual conference. It’s a celebration of the new graduates of the academy and an opportunity for more seasoned nonprofit leaders to network and learn something new. It is a well run and well attended event.
Well, a few days before the conference, the event organizers called and asked if I would be willing to do a talk; “We know you are working on your Pinnacle Strategies materials, this would be a good opportunity to showcase that.” While I relished the opportunity to speak to my nonprofit colleagues, I was flatfooted. “What in the world could I talk about for an hour?”
After a good half hour of sketching out ideas and notes, I decided I was going to talk about being “Lost, Lonely and Confused” in the nonprofit world. Not exactly the most positive title, but if we are honest, it’s a place we have all been as we have been leaders of our organizations. I wanted my talk to be about those things we often don’t talk about in the nonprofit world; something more than just a new skill or the latest fad. I wanted to talk about us; our struggles and our successes. Lost, lonely and confused seemed like a place where we all have been in our nonprofit journeys.
We end up being lost because we aren’t always clear on the directions we are headed. Of course, we all talk about the virtues and the clarity a strategic plan can provide for our organizations, but so many times as an executive director, these plans aren’t liberating, they are paralyzing. They don’t provide guidance on how to do something, most just simply give us a laundry list of big things to do and when it comes down to implementing, we are often left with only ourselves to do the work.
It’s at these times, we almost need a strategic plan for ourselves individually as leaders of these organizations. We need to think through about what the most logical and productive steps for us to take are and how we can start pushing ourselves to get some sense of positive momentum. As great as strategic plans are, those things, like implementation strategies, aren’t always in there. We need someone to sit down with us and make sense of the plan on how we are going to put into reality these grand visions and wonderful dreams.
And many times, we feel lonely in this work. Terribly, terribly lonely. Beyond just a strategic plan, our days are filled with the challenges that leading any size organization brings with it. Add with it, the struggles of leading and managing a board of directors from behind, recruiting and motivating volunteers and securing philanthropic donations for our work and it can all seem to be all too much sometimes.
Our work is lonely because there is no one we can really talk to about these challenges. We can’t really talk to our spouse or loved ones about these challenges; they just don’t get it. Our work is so different and so varied that talking about these things often earn nothing more than pleasant platitudes, at best; blank stares, at worst. We can’t really go to our boards about this. Board members never signed up to be part of the micro-managing process of running an organization and once you let them into that role, it’s hard to get them out of it. It’s almost like inviting people you don’t know into your house for a wild party and they come in and make a mess of the place. Finally, we can’t always tell our staff about these things. Nothing is worse for organizational morale than having these types of hard conversations with staff members about your problems. It’s not good.
And let’s face it, many times in our jobs we are simply confused. We lack the technical skills we need to understand our organizations and communicate our work to both internal and external audiences. Do we know how to create an effective financial scorecard that can easily describe our financial story to our boards? Can we create a giving pyramid that can help us improve our fundraising capacity? Are we making matrix maps to help determine what we can do over those things we shouldn’t do as we tackle complex tasks ahead of us? Many times the answer to these questions is no.
I’ll be the first to admit, I am a bit lucky. I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. I took a few classes in nonprofit management and I was able to learn many of these tools before I entered the sector. I am also in the minority. Executive Directors of small organizations, rarely have the educational background I have. Many of these wonderful leaders just kind of fell into their role; maybe they were a board member, maybe they were a volunteer, maybe they answered a job advertisement. Whatever route they took, I never met anyone who in fifth grade shouted, “When I grow up, I want to be a nonprofit executive director!”
This work in challenging and it’s hard.
I want to be part of the solution and that is why I am here to talk to you and walk you through many of the challenges you are having; we have all been there. If I can prevent you from making the mistakes I made, it’s a win. If you ever need someone to help you out, reach out to me. Just shoot me an email at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
As for the talk, it went well. It was well attended and many of the participants came up to me afterwards and thanked me for the honesty and the relief in knowing that we have all been lost, lonely and confused at times.
Stay Well,
Bill