by Susan Detwiler | Jun 15, 2015 | nonprofit
My dad didn’t fish or play golf. The standard Father’s Day card was not really meant for him. Instead, he played a mean game of bridge and did the Sunday Times crossword puzzle in ink. He learned Spanish, so he could relate to the people he worked with in the NYC garment district. And his views on justice made me consider my own obligation to make the world better.
This Father’s Day, I want to honor the lessons we learned from our fathers. Every day, my nonprofit colleagues work to make the world a better place, so I asked them: What did you learn from your father, that you apply today in your work?
Fear of change is often a fear that we will fail at whatever it is that is new. That’s a lesson that Dennis Fischman learned from his father, that he now applies as he teaches his clients new concepts in social media.
From Lynn Calder, My dad was a master at reading people and assessing work situations. He would determine the best approach to working with each individual.
Loretta Donovan’s Dad taught her to appreciate loyal, hardworking volunteers. He painted my elementary school; he fundraised for his high school into his 80s. His time and talents were contributed with enthusiasm.¨
Rebecca Henderson shared, Most people do the best they can with what they have, and when someone does a good job, tell them.
Annette Sandberg had a wealth of stories about learning to appreciate yourself, imperfections and all; and at the same time, to listen to those around you, because you can’t harmonize if you listen only to yourself.
Notice a theme? Reading each response, I was struck by how my colleagues and I, each with very different backgrounds, have each been taught by our fathers to value the individual. To see each person for who they are. It is a trait that I see throughout the nonprofit sector.
As Lynn said about her own father, Dad was kind to everyone and treated them with respect–from the lowest paid position to the CEO¦everyone, whatever their title or position, has something of value to contribute in the workplace.
Our fathers taught us to value each individual for themselves, and to allow them to contribute their gifts as they are able. This Father’s Day is a good time to appreciate our fathers as individuals, not just as our dads, and to acknowledge their gifts to us.
Happy Father’s Day. If you can, thank your Dad for his gifts. If not, then may this Father’s Day be filled with good memories.
by Susan Detwiler | Jan 6, 2015 | governance, nonprofit, Strategic Planning
Doesn’t it seem like the main reason we go to sleep is to give our email boxes time to refill? Overnight, they fill with advice and articles about time management.
Whether it’s Harvard Business Review or NonProfit Times or any of a myriad of consultants and software companies, tips and tricks show up by the bucketsful in our Outlook and LinkedIn feeds. A Google search on the term time management tips turns up approximately 535,000 hits! The sheer number of electrons spent on the topic tells us just how out of control we feel. As a self-professed control freak, I empathize.
But aren’t they false promises? We can’t manage time. Time just is. We all have the same amount of time.
What we can manage is our attention. What do we pay attention to? What do we consider important enough to do first? In strategic planning, of course, that means setting milestones and holding people accountable. It’s incredibly helpful in getting our board and staff to focus on goals.
But we still have to spend some time keeping up with new developments. Otherwise, we risk falling behind in our field.
- How do we know the latest best practice?
- What are thought leaders saying?
- Which blogs are most relevant to nonprofit governance?
- Which writers have the best insights on board <“> CEO partnership?
Sometimes it seems like just more stuff to worry about and take our attention away from our goals.
One way I gain control is to let others do it for me. I follow a few people whom I know have their fingers on the pulse of what’s important to me. I don’t have to follow all the blogs they follow, because they separate the wheat from the 
chaff and only repost what they think is relevant. Colleague Beth Kanter says that
Content curators provide a customized, vetted selection of the best and most relevant resources on a very specific topic or theme.
By relying on others, I know I miss a few good articles. But that loss is far outweighed by the time I gain by not scanning absolutely everything “ not to mention the sanity I’ve kept by not trying to.
How do you find your curators? Ask your peers.
In fact, let’s ask each other “ right now. Let’s crowdsource the best sources so we each don’t have to wade through everything to find the gems.
If you tell me the most important resources you use for keeping up in nonprofit board and management issues, I’ll compile a list and post it so you can see what your peers are following.
Here’s two to start:
What should I add? Tell me what you follow and why. No one person can follow it all, so let’s learn from the ˜wisdom in the room.’
To contribute to the list, for more about board governance and nonprofit management, or to sign up for updates email me at Susan Detwiler, or go to www.detwiler.com.
by Susan Detwiler | Dec 19, 2014 | Communication, governance, leadership, nonprofit, Standards, Strategic Planning
It’s hard to write a blog post in December without somehow bringing in the winter festivals. They are hard to ignore. Whether we observe a festival or not, we get caught up in end-of-year fundraising appeals; endless staff, neighborhood, organization and family parties; last minute shopping, travel and cooking.
Yet with all this busyness, it is also a time when, regardless of your faith, it is a little easier to see the good will in others.
So today I refer to an earlier essay on Presuming Good Will. Originally written in 2010, the message still resonates.
No one is on a board of trustees because she wants to see the agency die. No one is on a board of directors because he wants to run it into the ground.
There may be strong disagreements, but it’s important to assume the disagreement is based on good intentions, and presume good will on the
part of the ˜other.’
Let’s use this time of year to really see the good will in our colleagues, friends and family. Let’s recognize that we can all agree that we want what’s best for our organization, even if we may not agree on what that best is.
Then let’s bring this perspective with us into the new year, and remember the good will we share as we build towards our respective visions for our communities.
If you are celebrating a holiday this season, I hope that it is warm and meaningful. If not, may you find the time to enjoy the lights and festivities that others provide.
Happy New Year!
Susan
Learn more on building a team out of your board members, and bringing together board and staff at www.detwiler.com or reach me at sdetwiler@detwiler.com.
by Susan Detwiler | Nov 22, 2014 | collaboration, Communication, leadership, nonprofit, Strategic Planning
Where there is no gratitude, there is no meaningful movement; human affairs become rocky, painful, coldly indifferent, unpleasant, and finally break off altogether. The social ˜machinery’ grinds along and soon seizes up.
Margaret Visser
Thanksgiving is an obvious time to write about being thankful, and it’s nice to have a time to stop and consider all that we have to be grateful for. We think about our friends, our family, our health.
It’s also not such a bad time to stop and contemplate how awesome your board is, and how much they’ve contributed to the well being of your organization.
When was the last time you thanked your board members? They’re each making your agency a priority in their lives, giving time, talent and treasure. They could be giving it somewhere else. They could also NOT be giving. But there they are, week after week, month after month, making difficult decisions, acting as cheerleaders, supporting your work, being ambassadors for your agency.
Each board member is the equivalent of a major donor. Whether or not the dollars are substantial, she has the capacity to make your life easier, introduce you to supporters, provoke new ideas, stabilize a situation. She should be told how much she means to you.
Here’s a simple exercise. If you’re the Executive Director, the next time you write a thank you note to a donor, also write one to a board member. Do that until you’ve written one to every member of your board. If you’re the board president, sit down and hand write a thank you note to each board member. If you can, name a specific action for which you are grateful.
Do you want to cultivate an attitude of gratitude within the board? At each meeting, assign one or two board members to offer a very brief statement of gratitude around the organization. It might be why they are grateful the organization exists. It might be what they appreciate about a staff member. It might be what committee they are particularly grateful to.
In many faith traditions, there is the concept do not withhold the wages of the laborer. It’s obvious how that applies to staff, but the wages of a volunteer are less obvious.
The wages of a volunteer “ the wages of your board members “ are the thanks he receives for his work.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The psychology of gratitude and its benefits are being researched throughout the fields of education, and migrating to the business world. Some readings on gratitude can be found at gratefulness.org.
Visionary strategic planning is easier when board members are comfortable with each other. Exercises in gratitude are one way to facilitate this trust. For more about strategic planning and facilitating retreats, please contact me at sdetwiler@detwiler.com or www.detwiler.com.
by Susan Detwiler | Nov 10, 2014 | innovation, leadership, nonprofit, Strategic Planning
Your future depends on having people around the table NOW who will be around when that future comes to pass. So the question is, have you involved any Millennials in building your strategic plan?
They’re the ones who have a vested interest in tomorrow’s community. They may not yet be able to write big checks, but as Atul Tanden said about Millennials and Nonprofits, Millennials want to have an impact. They want to know what their money is going to do, for whom. They like to dig into an organization’s mission before giving money or time.
Perhaps even more important, rookie board members bring fresh eyes to your organization. They’re free to question why and how because they’re not hampered by what’s happened before. Liz Wiseman, in her Harvard Business Review post, discovered that rookie engineers had no qualms in seeking guidance from others. In her study, the rookies were more likely to seek help beyond the usual suspects and brought new expertise to the organization that veteran engineers hadn’t considered.
Rookies forge new territory because they aren’t held back by experiences that didn’t work in the past. Because they are new, they a different perspective and high energy to projects, accelerating the pace of innovation.
A sound organization practice is to have board members from every decade of adult life. That way, you hear the voices of people who were NOT here at the beginning; people who don’t have the nostalgia factor pulling them back to the tried and true. You hear the voices of people who will be your future leaders, and you get to know the people to whom you will pass the baton.
When building your strategic plan, you have to hear the voices of the future. The women and men who have a vested interest in the community you are building WANT to be part of the nonprofit world. Invite them. Encourage them. Bring them onto your board. They’re the ones who will make sure you’re still here in 30 years.
Now’s the time to look for the fresh faces who will join your board in 2015. Let’s talk about how to build your board with Millennials, and hear their voices in the strategic plan. Contact me at sdetwiler@detwiler.com to hear more!
by Susan Detwiler | Oct 25, 2014 | Communication, fundraising, governance, leadership, management, mission, nonprofit
It’s human nature to group people and stick a label on them. We segment out individuals who are donors as being different from other people. We talk about ˜donor relations’ as if that’s distinct from building a relationship with everyone, regardless of who they are. Too often, though, we forget that this is just shorthand for real people.
Recently, Harvard Business Review blogger John Michel did an excellent job of explaining the positive impact of focusing on people and not their roles, in his post A Military Leader’s Approach to Dealing with Complexity. It made me revisit a post of my own, C’mon People It’s Not Donor Relations, and consider implications for board leaders.
Donor relations are people relations. Just like employee relations are people relations, volunteer relations are people relations, and board relations are people relations. Any time we interact with another individual we are in relationship with that person.
Michel’s post includes two gems that strongly correlate with board leadership, and the impact of the relationship between people who serve on nonprofit boards and people who are on the frontline of delivering the nonprofit’s mission.
First, if you focus on people instead of their roles, it promotes their inclusion when you craft your vision.
Or, as Michel writes:
“Making inclusivity a priority will increase ownership, enhance motivation, improve information sharing, and result in leaders making wiser, more informed choices.”
We’re all aware of trustees who operate in an ivory tower and create strategic plans without involving the people who are actually charged with executing that plan. Remembering that employees are people with their own ideas and thoughts makes it easier to bring them into the process.
Build your vision in pencil, instead of ink, so you can be flexible enough to hear and incorporate the ideas of staff and increase the buy-in of everyone involved. Increased buy-in leads to increased success.
Second, remember that every single interaction has an impact. Every spoken or written word and every non-verbal communication becomes a part of the whole image of who you are. Relationships are a result of both conscious communications AND unconscious communications. Every time a member of the board speaks to the person on the frontline, that conversation has an impact. All the more so when the communication is nonverbal. That’s when the leader is less conscious of what she is ˜saying.’
As Michel writes:
Effective leaders understand that every interaction is a potentially powerful means of nurturing a relationship, eliminating an obstruction to progress, or reinforcing trust.
John Michel based his observations on his experience in the military, relaying the impact of interpersonal relationships when confronting complexity. The situations and scale may differ but the principle is the same. People matter. Relationships matter.
Building relationships is a fundamental tool to make sure that when you lead, others will follow.
Have you seen the impact of leaders who build relationships? Or the impact of those who don’t build relationships? Let me know!
And I’d love to have a conversation about how your strategic planning can successfully include staff, board, volunteers and community. Contact me at sdetwiler@detwiler.com.
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