Crosswalk Convert

This blog has nothing to do with strategy, leadership, or teamwork.  Then again, maybe it does . . .

I moved to a new neighborhood a couple of years ago.  This changed my commute and took me down a street with a crosswalk in the middle of a very long block.  I wasn’t used to a crosswalk that was not located at a street corner, so I did what everyone else did – I sped past the crosswalk even though there were people standing there waiting to cross.  I figured they would just cross when the traffic died down.

Surely I would have stopped for Captain James T. Kirk

Then one day, a guy gave me a particularly dirty look as I drove past the crosswalk.  I mentioned this silly man to a friend when I got to work.  “Well, Rob, that’s because it is a state law in Maryland for cars to stop at crosswalks when people are waiting to cross.”  What!?!

Sure enough, I had been breaking the law.

But later that day, I had another insight.  Not only was I breaking the law, I was being a real jerk.

I was in such a hurry to get home or get to work that I didn’t realize that these people were – essentially – being held hostage by me and the other cars on the street.  I didn’t think about their situation – how they would have to wait quite a while for the traffic to die down.  And with the current cold weather we are having that is no fun.

I am now a crosswalk convert.  I hope people are waiting to cross so I can stop and, thereby, encourage the other two lanes of traffic to stop as well.  I get many appreciative smiles and waves from people, which is way more gratifying than getting home sixty seconds earlier.

The bigger lesson for me is to remember to pay real attention to what is going on with other people in my world.  It is easy for me to get self-absorbed with my goals and plans.  I try to remind myself to slow down and look around to notice, appreciate, and empathize.

I think this probably makes me a better teammate.  And it certainly makes me less of a jerk.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Building Cathedrals

What are your dreams?

If you could have it any way you wanted it, what would your organization be like – so that you could make the greatest Mission Impact possible?

Dream and dream big.  It was Longfellow who once wrote:

“’Let us build such a church that those who come after us will think we were madmen’, said the old canon of Seville . . .  Perhaps through every mind passes some such thought, when it entertains the design of a great and seemingly impossible action . . . This divine madness enters more or less into all our noblest undertakings.”

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

When I read that quote, I cannot help but think of Sagrada Familia – the cathedral in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudi.  Construction began in 1882 and it is “hoped” that it will be finished by 2026!  It has been said that there is no other church building like it in history.  Talk about “divine madness!”

I think that maybe we need to tap into our own “divine madness” more often as we dream great visions for our organizations, so we can serve our missions even more effectively.

A woman came upon a construction site.  She asked a worker what he was doing and, with an annoyed look, said “I’m laying bricks.”

She came upon another worker and asked the same thing.  This person smiled, then looked up into the sky and said “I am building a cathedral.”

Our day to day work can look a lot like laying bricks.  But we need to keep in our minds the cathedrals we have dreamed and that we are building – one brick at a time – to make even more of a Mission Impact for those we serve.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

New Year Resolution for Excellence

It’s New Year’s Resolution time and here is a common resolution I hear:

Level 1:  “I’m going to step it up this year.  I am going to re-commit myself, work harder, and put in even more time.”

This one gets repeated annually unless, hopefully, a light goes on:

Level 2: “I’m going to keep working harder, but also work smarter!”  And the process of learning about best practices that others use ensues.  Many go off to get an Executive MBA degree!  Good choice if it is Maryland.

This is the best that most people do in their lives and careers.  And it is pretty good.  You work hard, you keep up on trends and best practices.  You’re probably a bit above average.

But let me ask you this?  Is that all you want?  And who are the people that invent “best practices?”  People who reach:

Level 3:  “I’m going to innovate.  I am going to set Almost Impossible Goals and then work to invent new processes, technologies, procedures to produce breakthroughs in performance – not just incremental change.”  Of course, this requires a high tolerance for failure, or even better – a different relationship with failure.  Read more about how to learn to Celebrate Noble Failure and set Almost Impossible Goals here.

I think you should work as many hours as you want.  And I definitely recommend studying best practices.  But the excellent performers are those who invent the best practices that others later read about and try to replicate.  I hope you make an Excellence New Year’s Resolution and wish you the best in achieving it.  Doing so, you will make even more of a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

When Your CEO Retires

You are a Board member for a nonprofit and, at a regularly scheduled Board meeting, your CEO gives her two week notice.  Even though she is 68 years old, you and other Board members are somehow shocked.

I hope this does not happen to you or your organization, but it could.  One reason is that many Boards and staff alike are in denial about leadership succession.  They don’t even want to talk about it.  “I just hope I retire from the Board before we have to deal with it,” I have heard some say.

How do you begin to prepare for the inevitable departure of a CEO?

My recommendation is that you encourage your organization to create an “Emergency Succession Plan” of what you would do in the event that your CEO has an unplanned illness that keeps them away from work for ninety days.

The components of that plan would be:

*A list of the key functions of the CEO

*A designation of who on the staff would temporarily take over each of those functions, including who the Interim CEO would be

*A plan to provide those people with the training/education/information so they can carry out these responsibilities

*A clear statement of which staff members will have authority for what

*A list of the most important organization stakeholders, how they will be communicated with regarding the “emergency” situation, and who will maintain relationships with them

It is simply “good business” to be prepared for a possible emergency situation with your CEO.  Actually the same is true for other senior staff positions.  Completing these plans will open the door for more expanded conversations about leadership succession.  What will we do when the CEO ultimately retires?  How would we handle that?

Seamlessly handling leadership transitions is a key to organization resilience and making a long term Mission Impact.

*For excellent resources on leadership succession, check out the Transition Guides web site.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Being Fantastic

The basic question is this – if you want excellence, awesomeness, fantastic performance from your team/organization then what do you need?

Talent & Teamwork.

Both of these aspects of performance are appreciated, but I am suggesting that the way in which they complement one another is underappreciated.

Some organizations tend to go the Talent route.  “Let’s just hire the most talented people and it will all work out.”  (New York Yankees, perhaps?)

Others value Teamwork.  “As long as we get our people to work effectively as a team, we will pursue excellence.”  (My Beloved Pittsburgh Pirates from 1993 – 2010, perhaps?)

The fact is that we need both to be excellent, fantastic.  Teamwork will not make up for Talent and Talent will not make up for Teamwork.

When you find a team – whether in Sports, Business, or Nonprofits – that exemplifies both, then you find winners.

What are the specific lessons here?

You need to invest in talent!  Yes, I mean paying fantastic people well in order to attract and retain them.  I know that this does not get my nonprofit brethren very excited, but it is a reality that you – and your Boards – need to accept.  The most talented people can do “good works” in many places.

You need to invest in developing teamwork!  And it does not just happen by sponsoring a quarterly Happy Hour or having a cake once a month to celebrate birthdays.  You need to take the time to develop teamwork behaviors and to create a culture of effective teamwork.  It will take time that you do not have, but you need to do it anyway.  Check out this blog for suggestions.

When your team is about to be eliminated in whatever your definition of the “championships” are, then you want to have the effective teamwork to know who to pass the ball to in the last seconds who has the talent to make the final shot and, ultimately, take you to victory. That’s a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.