Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change

It's what you do outside of the office that counts

Often times what we do as leaders outside of the office is just as important as what we do in the office.

Important and productive things we do outside of the office are activities such as developing relationships and taking time to grow from reflection.

Developing relationships are often heard to do inside of the office. Human resource laws make it difficult for most people to truly express themselves, and it holds many people back from building authentic relationships.

The bottom line is that relationships are strong when people spend time with each other both inside and outside of the office. Think about the three people you consider to have the best relationships with in your office. I would be willing to bet you often spend time outside of the office with them going to events, BBQs, watching the Sunday football games, or attending your kids sporting events together.

When staff people are outside of the office they can be a little more free flowing and have fun, crack jokes, and make fun with each other in ways that help them bond.

The best ways to foster this interaction is to take everyone to dinner, go on a team building retreat, or go on a volunteer service project (which is naturally my favorite).

Taking time to reflect on experiences is an extremely important activity, not just for the entire team, but for the leader. John Maxwell has stated many times that, “Reflection turns experience into insight.”

I’ve heard several stories of Albert Einstein always sleeping with a notepad and pen on his nightstand so he was prepared to write down ideas and thoughts when we woke up. Einstein knew that his mind was continuing to think and process ideas, even while he was sleeping and he wanted to always be ready for them when he woke up in the middle of the night.

Thinking and reflecting allows you to learn from your mistakes so that you can avoid them in the future. It helps you improve your performance in the future so you might actually experience some new problems that you didn’t have before.

One of my favorite activities that I do every week is to go to Starbucks (thanks Jason for the gift card) with nothing but my journal, a legal pad of paper and a pen. And for anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours I will just sit, think, sip on my coffee, write and think some more.

I go with no agenda or specific topics to think and write about. All I do is sit and think and write about whatever is on my mind.

Learning and growing outside of the office is one of my favorite things to do. It’s what energizes me and gives me fresh ideas.

So remember, sometimes it's what you do outside of the office that counts!

Chapter 1 of Young Leadershp ebook

My ebook, Young Leadership: How a young person can make a difference in his organization and community which I gave away free has been pretty well received. It is a very short ebook, only about 17 pages, but it provides some simple principles that young leaders can learn and practice to do a better job of leading in their organization, regardless of their age.

Below I've given you the first chapter. If you're interested in reading more from the ebook, go here.

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Young Leaders Deal with "Stuff"

Hopefully I'm not the first person to tell you that being a young leader working for a nonprofit organization is difficult. I was given a reality check at the first nonprofit organization that I worked full-time for when two of my coworkers walked in the door and expressed their feelings of not wanting to work that day. I remember thinking, "We are working to make a difference in our community and in the world, how could they not want to be here? How could they say they would rather be at home than working here?"      

I quickly realized that everything which happens in for-profit companies happens in nonprofit organizations. Examples are:
- There will be people who hate their job
- Coworkers are going to fight with each other and not work as a team
- People will complain

As a young leader you probably have had similar experiences and I hope to share with you what I've learned that has helped me on my journey. As a young leader you will realize very soon that you are not the go-to person, you are the go-do person. There will be times where you're singled out and selected to do the grunt, nasty, non-fun work.

Sometimes there will be days where you give your very best effort and you feel like you did a great job on a task or project, but your Supervisor or Manager won't say anything about it. They might not even acknowledge the fact that you finished, but rather will just tell you what your next project or task might be.

The first job I had for a nonprofit organization was the lowest paying job I've ever had. I made more money by the hour washing dishes at a restaurant while in High School than I did with a full-time salary at my first organization. As a young leader that's the price you have to pay when you're new to the nonprofit sector. When you're at the bottom of the organization chart you are there for the reason that you haven't proved yourself yet. When you were hired you didn't have a prior track record of bringing and adding value to other organizations. Hence, you are paid as little as legally possible (which is usually the federal minimum wage) and you're given a chance to prove that you deserve more.

Nothing is more frustrating than working for someone who is less committed to making a difference than you. This often happens when a young leader works hard to grow and improve, but his Supervisor doesn't take the steps and hard work to improve. This causes the young leader to pass his Supervisor in motivation, skill, and leadership ability—which becomes the most common reason that a young leader moves to another organization or transfers to a different department within that organization. 

A good friend of mine was working for a company where he had spent half a decade of extremely hard work and sacrifice to do the best job he could. He had made every step and taken advantage of every opportunity to improve himself to do his job. As a result, when he approached his Supervisor to ask for a raise, he had outgrown her in ability to judge and recognize great talent and what it was worth. She responded by telling him he needed to stop worrying about learning and growing, and focus on doing and teaching what he already knew.

As a young leader he was continuing to develop, learn, and grow while his Supervisor was not. After this conversation he realized that his leadership ability exceeded her leadership ability, and as a result he went to another company where he could continue to grow and develop.

My  goal isn't to discourage you from leading. I want to convince you that even though you might be at the bottom of an organization, there will be times and circumstances where you will feel like giving up. There will be times when you're working hard, seeing zero progress, and feel that you are not making a difference. These things are going to happen, and they are just part of the price you have to pay to become a nonprofit leader.

I’m sure you’re filled with enthusiasm and passion to make a massive difference in the world. However, to make a massive difference in the world you first have to make a small difference—and you start that small difference as a young leader. There are several steps and principles that a young leader must acknowledge and use before he can expect to make a big difference. The first of these steps is committing to personal growth and development.

We Can Always Learn

One of the things I've learned from karate, leading, competitive golf and life is that there is always someone bigger, better, smarter and richer than you. As a golfer there was always someone a little bit better than I was. My Dad loves to fish, and there is always a bigger boat that he is thinking about purchasing. With leadership, there is always someone who has accomplished more and is a better leader than I am (and probably ever will become).

That's one of the great things about this world: there is always someone bigger, better, smarter and richer than us who we can learn from.

An Invitation to the Cataylst Conference

One of the benefits of coordinating our local Maximum Impact leadership event was the two free tickets I received to attend the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta on Oct 9th & 10th of this year.

I'm attending this year's Catalyst event in Oct, but I have been unable to find someone to attend with me as my guest. I've approached six different leaders in the faith based community, but none have been able to take the time away to attend the event.

I'm offering my extra ticket for free to one of my blog readers, or to anyone who submits information based on the following criteria to me by Sep 25th.

The person requesting my extra ticket needs to:

• Either be a staff member at a church, or volunteer at least two hours per week at their church
• Have a genuine interest in leadership and see it as something they want to learn more about
• Email me a list of the leadership books he have read
• Be able to attend both days of the Catalyst Conference on Oct 9th & 10th
• Provide his own transportation to and from the event, and have a place to stay in Atlanta
• Provide a brief explanation (less than 200 words) of why and how he will benefit from attending this event

This might seem like a lot of work, but I believe it's well worth the effort for someone who would like a free ticket to this great event.

If you meet this criteria or know of someone who would benefit from attending Catalyst, have them email me at christopher.lynn.scott@gmail.com with the information requested above by Sep 25th, and I will review all submissions and select the person I believe will benefit the most from attending the event.

Update on 9.28.2008 - All inquiries for the Catalyst Conference ticket I have are closed. If you have additional questions, feel free to email me.

Tom Peters on Leadership

If you're a reader of the Tom Peters! blog you might have come across his 459 slide Power Point "Master Presentation" on leadership that he recently updated.

Tom's leadership Power Point is packed full of short insightful thoughts and principles of leadership that is well worth the time it takes to read.

Enjoy. . .

Go Back and Learn More

I had some nice quite time alone over 4th of July weekend to go back and watch Jason Womack’s “Making Things Possible” and watch the Maximum Impact Simulcast via DVD.

Even though it’s been almost three months since I’ve watched either of these DVDs, I picked up some new ideas that I can use in my own life and with my team. The first time I watched both of these DVDs I listened attentively and took good notes on what was important and how I could use the information at that time. But since the last time I watched them I’ve had new experiences, learned new things, and I’m faced with new problems that I didn’t have at that time. Hence, the reason that I learned so many new and different things when I watched the DVDs again.

One of my favorite learning activities is to go back to my favorite books and look at what I underlined and look at the notes I wrote in the margins to see how I can apply that information to my life today.

If you’re committed to being a Learning Leader (which I hope you are) make sure you schedule time every few months to back and re-learn from books, audio programs, and DVD training kits that you have completed.

People Building

Steve Roesler, author of the All Things Workplace blog recently had a great post on People Building. Steve says the most important thing for an Executive Coach or Advisor is, "Seeing people for who they are, realizing what they can be, and helping to take them there."

Turning Followers Into Leaders

A topic that I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to lately is the topic of how to develop the people I lead into leaders. Basically I’m trying to find ways to turn everyday good-hearted volunteers into all-star leaders who can really grow and develop A Day of Hope.

What are your thoughts for this topic? I don’t have a lot to write and coach you on this, because I haven’t really mastered it yet myself. Any advice that you have on mentoring and developing other people as leaders would be greatly appreciated.

Difficulties

In M. Scott Peck’s book, The Road Less Traveled he opens the first chapter with three simple words, “Life is difficult.”

The Road Less Traveled is known as one of the best-selling personal development books ever. Well, Dr. Peck was right. Life is difficult; people get knocked down, trip over themselves, and they make mistakes.

The proposal you worked on for thirteen straight hours was turned down, the great leader you asked to work for you went somewhere else, and the person who donated so generously to your organization last year didn’t even return your last three phone calls when you tried to ask again this year.

But you know what, often what’s difficult becomes easy because it forces us to grow and develop ourselves as leaders.

Maximum Impact Summary

After hours and hours of hard work preparing for Maximum Impact, we had a great day. We had 48 people attend the event, and everyone had a great time and learned a lot about leadership.

In an effort for me to maximize what I learned, I’m going to share with you some of my new distinctions that I had at the event from each speaker:

Andy Andrews:

• “The economic downturn is a point on the graph.” – Not everyone is devasted during times of Crisis. In a slow economy there are always companies losing money, and there are always companies making money.
• “We don’t need to wait on God, most of the time God is waiting on us.” – We can’t just sit around and wait for God to make things happen for us. We need to make things happen for him.

    John C. Maxwell:

• “Don’t send your ducks to eagle school.” – Find talented people, and keep them in their talent area.
• “Follow the three L’s; Listen, Learn, & Lead.” – This is a simple three step process to get in touch with what you’re people are going through.
• “People who come to your funeral are going to summarize your life in one sentence. Don’t let them guess, pitch it to them now!” – Start to live your life the way you want people to describe you. Dr. Steven Covey calls this, Beginning with the End in Mind.

    Bill Taylor:

• “Don’t be a problem solver, be a solution finder.” – If you’re a solution finder then you find solutions before problems become problems. A problem solver is reactive, a solution finder is proactive.

    Andy Stanley:

• “Your organization is the solution to the problem” – This is the key to your vision, and it establishes a need and urgency with you and the people of your organization.
• “Vision begins with a burden” – That burden is two things: 1) The problem that your organization needs to solve; and 2) The talent and skills that God gave you to solve that problem.

    Kevin Carroll:

• “Find encouragement” – Get around encouraging people who will push and inspire you.

    Dick Vitale:

• “Leadership is the ability to set the pace” – Set the pace as a leader with your passion, work ethic, character, and teamwork mentality.
• “It’s an unbelievable ability to make a dream a reality.”

    Pat Lencioni:

• “Managing and leading people is probably the greatest opportunity that we will ever have to make a difference in the world” – This statement will make you think twice about retiring.

If you didn't have the opportunity to attend Maximum Impact, I suggest you add it to your calendar for next year. It's an amazing event where you have nine different speakers share the stage for 30 minutes each. With limited time, each speakers gives you his very best content on leadership.

Here's the link for next year's event.