Relish Your Role

As a nonprofit Executive Director, you have a vision for your agency and the impact it can make. This episode explores the importance of communicating your vision to all your stakeholders, incorporating their perspectives and concerns to engage others with what you hope to achieve in a deep and meaningful way. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

There are many demands on your time as a nonprofit Executive Director. The way you spend your time in leading your agency sends a powerful message to the rest of the organization. If you are unaware of how you spend your time it is impossible to become more effective in your role and practice self-care. This episode outlines the ten major areas where nonprofit Executive Directors spend their time. By increasing your self-awareness of how you allocate your work time you can begin to exercise g...

It is never easy to fire someone. We tend to ignore employee problems until things reach the tipping point. This episode takes the fear out of the termination process by outlining the process of responding to employee problems, documenting your interventions, and preparing for and holding the termination meeting. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

It is the end of the year and you are probably deep in completing performance reviews for all your staff. This episode explores six steps that can make performance reviews a meaningful exercise for you and your staff. Given that reviews are often tied to staff raises or bonuses, doesn't it make sense to have a strong, objective, and thoughtful performance review? When done correctly the process and written document can strengthen your staff's commitment to your agency and convey your i...

Your Leadership team are your eyes and ears to ensure your agency is running smoothly. At the most basic level, this group shares departmental information and receives updates from the Executive Director about recent decisions. But you want to move past the basic level of functioning, you want a team that takes on tasks that transcend the work that these individuals do as department heads and work cross department silos to provide you with high level strategic problem solving. Thi...

Your leadership team is the engine to make your agency run. When things are going well they are a group of autonomous decision-makers who serve as your eyes and ears allowing you to focus in strategy. But often they bog you down with continually asking for guidance or enmeshed in personality conflicts. This episode provides five steps to help you develop the leadership team you deserve. Details are provides on how to: 1. Get your team aligned with your vision. 2. Empower your team. 3. Communi...

We all have staff in our nonprofits which refuse to hear the feedback you provide them to improve their work performance. It is frustrating for you and your team. The goal of our feedback should always be for staff improvement. This episode provides six characteristics of feedback you want to make sure you use to enhance the changes your feedback is received. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks...

The episode explores the primary benefits of a professional support system for nonprofit leaders. Specifically four benefits of having a support system; 1. Sense of belonging, 2.Thought partnerships, 3. Improved self-esteem, and 4. Creating authentic connections are discussed as benefits of a professional support system. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

A dirty little secret in the nonprofit world is that boards of directors do not always deliver. Most of the nonprofit women executive directors I work with identify frustrations with their boards as one of their greatest challenges. You need your board to help raise visibility and funds as well as advocate for your agency, and when they do not do their part, your life as the ED is so much harder. Today’s episode continues the theme of exploring ways to get your nonprofit board of directors to...

Today’s episode will look at ways as a nonprofit leader to strengthen your ability to persevere. Perseverance is necessary to be successful as a nonprofit ED. Lately I have been consumed with mastering perseverance and learning what it takes to stay the course. The Oxford English dictionary defines perseverance as ‘persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.’ This episode explores four behaviors which which will help you persevere in the face of obstacles ...

We all want more time. Time to complete a project. Time to spend with those we care about. Time to pursue an interest. Time to relax and re-energize. But as much as we crave more time, most of us, especially in our work world, do a poor job in managing how we spend our hours. For women nonprofit EDs the feeling of never having enough time is steroid-infused. In addition to work demands, they still shoulder the primary responsibility of tending to all the logistics and care-taking needs of the...

We know that interagency collaboration is best practice and smart business But let’s be honest, it can be such a tricky dance working with a partner. You can be one thousand percent committed to collaboration, but it is hard work to sustain a collaborative relationship over the long haul. You are often competing for the same grant dollars. You may be competing for donors, board members or clients. I know the words collaboration and competition don’t often go together, but it is true. I was th...

Like it or not, for most nonprofit EDs, managing their board takes at least 25% of their time. In my experience, less than half of nonprofit leaders feel their Board pulls their weight with respect to being effective agency ambassadors. So you have this group of well-intended volunteers who take a lot of an executive director’s mental energy with little to show for it. There are many levers to pull to get one’s Board engaged and active. Today I want to focus on the relationship between ...