Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change

Leaders Embrace Overwhelm

I believe there is a group of people who would like to be leaders, but they aren’t leaders because they don’t want to do the work.

As a leader I can admit that one of the many challenges I’ve had to face can be summed up in one simple word: overwhelm.

As the leader, (almost) everything rises and falls on you. You’re the dude who casts vision and sets the pace for your organization, but you’re also the dude who has to take care of many small details that must be done on a regular basis.

It’s a tough battle, because you’re the figurehead of the organization being pulled in so many different directions by everyone.

The key for leaders is to embrace overwhelm. Because I believe most leaders love what they do (I know that I do), they see work as something they look forward to doing. They look forward to work because they know it’s something that’ll bring them closer to their goals and visions they have for their organization and themselves.

They learn to associate good feelings to the massive amount of work they must do on daily and weekly basis to maintain and keep their organization growing.

So go and embrace the overwhelm!

Leaders Are Productive

Is it me, or does it seem that people who are productive are usually leaders? Not always, but most of the time this seems to be true.

Here’s the true question, “Is someone a leader because he is productive, or is he productive because he is a leader?”

I believe it’s a little bit of both. Leaders are naturally productive because they have to be. They are being pulled in a lot of different directions, by many different people.

It’s also a leaders productivity that helps establish him as a leader. If you are someone who can get the job done day-in-day-out and manage many projects and tasks while keeping them all moving forward, you're more likely to be seen as a leader.

Seminar for public health professionals living in California Bay Area

My friend and colleague, Jason Womack is going to be presenting a seminar for public health professionals on Tuesday, January 27th in the California Bay Area. To briefly summarize the seminar, it will be on what Jason calls, "Workplace Performance" where he teaches tools, strategies and techniques to be more productive.

Here are two places you can learn more about the seminar:

• Squidoo lens
• Jason's blog

If you're a long-time reader of Nonprofit Leadership blog, you know that Jason has presented two public seminars in Nor Cal for my nonprofit leader friends. Jason graciously volunteered his time for both of these events in order to keep the cost as low as possible for the under-paid nonprofit employees who attended.

Feel free to pass along the links to anyone you might know in the Bay Area that would benefit from attending Jason's seminar.

Making Your Best Better

I wasn't going to post any new content until April, but this can't wait!

Today I had the pleasure of spending three hours learning and growing in my ability to be productive.

My friend Jason Womack of the Jason Womack Company presented a three hour workshop to thirty of my fellow nonprofit leaders and I in what was one of the greatest workshops I've attended in a long time.

No joke, I could have listened and learned all day and all night.

The principles and ideas I learned today to help me manage what I do with my time relating to be productive was amazing.

The best part is that you don't have to attend a three hour workshop to learn much of what Jason teaches. Most of what his work is given away for free on his blog, which you can find here.

Time management for non-profit leaders

As I opened up my computer after being gone four days in Provo, Utah.  256 emails and about 30 minutes later I decided that time management is important for us non-profit leaders. 

In the future I will probably make a couple of posts on some time management tips that I have implemented and used, but for now cruise over to Jason Womack's blog.  I subscribed to it via RSS feed and take a look at it every couple of days and love reading the content.  He is always coming up with new ideas and strategies to help people make the most out of their day.