Discovering a New Prosperity: Leaders First!

A 103-year old woman in a retirement home where my mother lived cruised the halls everyday behind her walker - she was fast! ...always smiling and happy. On her
104th birthday I asked her suggestions for achieving a long life.

She said: "I don't do negativity. Of any kind. When I'm seated with people who are complaining, I get up and leave. No negativity. It doesn't exist for me."

Negativity becomes a default: "There's not enough money." "Our board doesn't get it." "Nobody's doing what they should be doing," "We'll never make out goals and it's going to be tough," etc.

Negativity is an energy drain and a choice that takes a tremendous toll on the body with headaches, sadness, frustration, sarcasm, resentment, and more.

The truth is, many of us aren't really aware of how often we take a negative stance. It's a default frame of mind. As a leader, it begins with you. Are you ready to shift from a negative stance?

An Exercise
For one day, write down every negative thought you have. Is your first thought in the morning something like, "good grief, another day at work." Write it down. Driving into work, you think, "this traffic is terrible and I'll never make it on time." Write that down. If, when the phone rings at your desk, you think, "oh, here we go, it's starting already," add it to the list. Looking at your desk you think: "I can't possibly get all of this done and here comes more" as you sit down to begin your day....make a note.

Notice every time a negative thought enters your head and write it down. At the end of the day, is your list longer than you imagined it would be? Do this for another day. Keep going until you notice the list getting shorter and shorter. You'll be surprised how easily you can shift your negative default.

What will happen is you'll re-program yourself to choose another perspective. You'll choose a more positive one and this will create a shift in subtle and profound ways in your life.

Are you ready for change? Choose it. You have to become aware of your negativity before you can change it. Just try this exercise and see how you feel after a few days. Getting out from under negativity changes everything!

You'll also set a new example with ripple effects in the office and at home. If you're a leader, your responsibility is to look at yourself first.

From Chaos to Peace

In the moments before childbirth, there is anything but peace, as one body rids itself of what can no longer survive inside. On the other side is profound beauty and grace as the newborn enters the world. We experience joy at new life. The cycle of life and growth is continued in that birth. It's time for a celebration! An ending of one phase of life, pregnancy, has ended so that life in a new form may begin.

The business world and, indeed, our lives in every respect, are changing that much, too. As familiar systems continue to break down, and morph into new processes needing different strategies for success and longevity, we must hold the same expectant perspective as when a child is born.....see it with eyes of wonder and delight of the joy that is to come, determined to support it with all of our resources. Determined to see it thrive.

The following is adapted from Gloria Karpinski's Blessings for This Time of Gathering:

May the fragments of our vision be whole.
May we simplify, clarify, love, and heal.
May we find peace in interconnectedness.
May we be poised in the chaos of change.

Childbirth is our finest example of change. From one perspective, there is discomfort, pain, anxiety, uncertainty. And even amidst all of that, there is joy ready to burst forward so that life may be fulfilled.

What is your perspective on change? You get to choose. Will you experience change as chaos or joy? How will you show up? As a leader with quiet confidence and poise?

Choose poise.

A Thanksgiving Question

Who is behind your success? Rarely is any achievement the result of the efforts of one person. It just doesn't happen that way, although, our society seems to encourage that singular view.

In nonprofit development,it is common for credit for gifts to reflect in performance evaluations. I've even heard professionals argue over who had the most substantive conversations and interactions with a donor and why one or the other deserved more credit for the gift. This is a sign of poor management. It's not sustainable either for the organization's fundraising track record or for employee retention.

Who gives you moral support? Who keeps you focused on why you work in nonprofit at all? Who gives you good ideas? Who do you turn to for a joke or to break the monotony of a bad day?

Thanksgiving 2009 is marked by another question: What matters? This question will come up over and over again as our world continues to change in unexpected ways. You're going to find that you turn back to a simpler life. One driven by values. You're going to find that you de-clutter your desk, closets, even your mind, and that this helps you focus on what really matters.

This Thanksgiving, consider people who support your success.

Be Inspirational and Do Good

Doing good is a matter of the heart- it's not only done when times are bad or even when times are good. It's just done because it's the right thing to do and because it produces such a high to help someone else.

I hear about all the trouble nonprofits are having and what I see is different. I see people coming together - more volunteers, more commitments, more reporting in the media about how a creative idea saved the day for a nonprofit. These times are challenges not because of the economy, but because we are experiencing a lot of change. The biggest change is a change of heart.

I think communities are taking stock of what matters at the local level and trying to make the most of resources that are available. The economy pressures this....it is good, and it is time we took stock of what really mattered. We have everything we need to take care of each other....if we take stock of what really matters.

For nonprofits, this is a time of true leadership, of being the voice of light in the perceived darkness. Maybe nonprofits should move beyond being recipients of generosity and use the support they have to express a new, stronger voice - a voice of hope, strength, love, and creativity.

Each nonprofit has the opportunity to stand out as a beacon of love and light and when it does, the others of us know that that beacon represents a network of other compassionate people, a board, volunteers, staff, donors, vendors, etc. That's heartening.

It's time to choose optimism. Decide that whatever happens to the economy, or the weather, or even with public health, that you, you will take your fuel from the voices of wisdom around you that express joy, hope, and love for the challenges of life that bring us closer together. Choose your sources of inspiration so that you may lead more confidently.

I liked what consultant Alan Weiss said in his Monday Morning Message: There are people who profit from a prolonged downturn, so their interest is in spreading only bad news and in perpetuating fear. There are others who profit from an upturn and who want to find places to add value as people are able to recover. Find, listen to, and associate with the latter group. There is no contribution in perpetuating and profiting from others' misery. As George Merck noted, "Do good, and good will follow."

Let people follow you. Be the voice of wisdom and hope in your community.

Go Gentle Into That Merger

In the banking industry, merger means one big bad thing: the big one gobbles up the smaller one and jobs are lost. Now, as the nasty "m" word highlights the headlines about nonprofit organizations, the automatic assumption is that the bigger organizations are going to swallow the smaller ones which will lose their identities in the process. This is not how mergers need to happen. It certainly doesn't serve communities to have more giant-box nonprofits.

Communities are better served by a series, a network, of smaller, well-connected nonprofits working at the local level, managed by passionate citizens who care about the outcomes.

Consider this article in the Davidson News about three nonprofits that are sharing resources....a merger of sorts....to raise awareness of their work through social media. Each retains its own identity, mission, leadership, and fiscal responsibilities while helping each other. Check here.

“It’s innovative because we are asking the public to understand that our strength lies in cooperation and not just in the individual work we do as agencies.”
Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, United Family Services/Tell Two organizer.

A merger is not a case of "We win - you lose," although it feels like that if you're the smaller nonprofit. Again, this interpretation of merger is a hold-over of a by-gone era. A smaller organization is usually more nimble. They can adapt quicker. They may not have the debt that a larger organization with its own building carries.
The element of creativity of smaller nonprofits is a valued asset. It's intangible and easily overlooked, but in a rapidly changing and economically volatile environment, creativity is a key to problem solving.

To reach a new level of effective organization, a re-ordering comes when the value of all parties around the table is fully understood and when the re-ordering emerges from mutual discussions about how all parties are served, rather than from a mandated process with a bigger-is-better mentality.

This natural re-ordering perspective was explained another way in an email arriving this morning: "Pirate societies, in fact, provide evidence for Smith's theory that economies are the result of bottom-up spontaneous self-organized order that naturally arises from social interactions, as opposed to top-down bureaucratic design. Just as historians have demonstrated that the 'Wild West' of 19th-century America was a relatively ordered society in which ranchers, farmers and miners concocted their own rules and institutions for conflict resolution .....(delanceyplace.com 10/2/09 - pirates and anarchy)

An open and creative approach to merger may produce a new and unexpected outcome: nonprofit leaders must be open to the possibilities. This means releasing the outdated modes of thinking that declare A winner and A loser. We can all win if we choose it.

Putting Your Quirks to Work

We have been programmed to weigh ourselves in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Strengths give momentum. We can be proud of strengths. We're more hesitant to look at or talk about our weaknesses. We are programmed to think of them as problems and so we: ignore them, deny them, blame them on others, justify or cover them up altogether. Since we all have weaknesses and since they are obviously here to stay, isn't it time we re-think their role in our lives? Can we think of them in constructive ways? How can understanding my weaknesses help me?

Enter David Randall, who sent me a link to his paper which I'm sharing below. David says weaknesses point out your strengths and that there is nothing wrong with you (yes!). He says you need to match your unique characteristics with situations that reward those qualities (yes!). He points out these things and more in a light and funny way that is important to anyone leading nonprofits and working with volunteers and donors.

More importantly, we are living in a time when it is important to challenge assumptions. How we think of ourselves can be transferred to how we work with co-workers, board members, and donors. As we build our resource networks, we're drawing all sorts of new and different people into our arena, and we need to tap all of these resources optimally. Let's challenge how we think about weaknesses. As David says it, let's "put our quirks to work." To read the article, click: here!

One way to challenge assumptions

The phrase, "challenging the assumptions" seems to be popping up everywhere these days. It sounds easy enough until I realize that some of the assumptions that need to be challenged are mine.

When the economy crashed in 2008, I challenged the assumption that someone else would have the answers. While watching financial and business experts point fingers of blame at each other, it became apparent that unlike in the past, no one had the answers. The problems are too big, they're too complex, and they're changing too rapidly to fix easily or quickly. The problems are of a global nature. They're on a scale that's hard to wrap your mind around. Until you look at the community level - where we see rising unemployment, cancelled programs for women and children, and services that enrich a quality of life we've come to expect.

Sitting and waiting for answers was not for me. These problems may be of a new breed, but I know that creativity, innovation, passion, determination, and hope are innate traits that are already organized around more than a million nonprofit organizations in the US. The nonprofit system is uniquely structured for adaptive planning and creative thinking. What assumptions need to be challenged there?

Are nonprofit leaders aware of the nature of change that is bearing down on communities? Are they prepared to lead with new skills? What new skills are needed? Are there other ways to mobilize the talent that is clustered on each nonprofit board? Are nonprofit leaders building resilience? Or, are they waiting for things to get better? Are they cooperating or competing?

For a new perspective, read this article about funding a new world: http://www.jeancraiglong.com/pdfs/COTFTHEUPSIDEDOWNOFFICUCIARYRESPONSIBILITY.pdf

If it raises more questions than it answers, then it served its purpose.