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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share five leadership behaviors to lean into and five to leave behind.
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So stay tuned.
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If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are.
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To have them seeking you out as an equal partner.
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And to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath.
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Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode.
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What if one or two changes in your leadership behavior could transform the way you feel about the work, inspire your team and achieve new levels of success.
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I spend a lot of time with nonprofit leaders of all different sizes of organizations in all different niches.
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And what I've noticed is that there are very specific leadership behaviors that tend to produce extraordinary results.
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And then there are other leadership behaviors that tend to hold organizations back.
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And what's fascinating is that a lot of the time, the behaviors that are holding organizations back are the ones the leaders don't even realize they're doing.
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So I think it's time to take a look under the hood and examine the behaviors that make a huge difference in one direction or another.
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I'm flagging five behaviors to lean into and five to leave behind.
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There just might be one or two that will be the key to taking your leadership and results to the next level.
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As a leader, you already know that successful leadership is a combination of intent, skill, and regular behaviors.
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First and foremost, you must have the intent to have a certain kind of leadership and a certain kind of culture in your organization.
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Then you make sure you've got the skills to make that happen.
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And then you execute on the behavior, because the behavior is what happens all day, every day that actually determines how successful or not a leadership structure, a leadership team, and the overall organization is going to be.
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I want to start with the positive of the behaviors That are most helpful and most powerful when CEOs and the members of their leadership team really lean into these behaviors.
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Now the first one really is for the CEO, for the top leader in the organization, whether your title is executive director or a CEO.
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It's just shorter and easier to say CEO, so that's how I'll call you for the rest of this episode.
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The number one behavior to lean into is to cast a compelling vision.
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And inspire your team to live into that vision.
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Yes, the work is important and the people we serve are wonderful and all of that is great.
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But when the going gets really tough, a lot of times what really keeps teams reaching further,and trying to do even more and even better and create even larger impact.
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Is a vision of what could be.
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And in fact, your vision is of a future that doesn't yet exist.
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But by envisioning it, you create the possibility of its existence.
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If you and your team are living into that greater, more powerful vision.
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That has so much impact.That is so compelling and powerful for everyone who works in that organization.
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It's also, useful fact, very compelling for decision makers.
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For donors.
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For money decision-makers, for policy decision makers.
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If you can cast a powerful, compelling vision of impact.
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And then communicate that with, when we do these things or fill in these gaps, that we will get to that vision.
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That motivates everyone to think what can I do to help bring that vision into reality?
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Your number one job as the top leader in the organization is to cast that compelling vision for the future that does not yet exist, but that you are all living into and you are going to bring about together.
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Now by when is not important.
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Timeline is not important to a vision.
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What's important is the vision itself.
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Time becomes immaterial in the context of vision.
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The next most critical thing.
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And this starts with the CEO, but also then becomes part of the work of the leadership team as well.
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Which is to create an environment that is attractive to exceptional players.
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If you're going to get to that vision, you need an A Team to get you there.
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And if you want an A Team, you've got to create a culture that values the work of a high performing team.
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And that gives people a lot of room to lead and to grow, and to do exceptional work and to be creative in that process.
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So it's very helpful to take a look at your organization and the culture you have and to say, is that how we're operating?
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Is that what we're doing?
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Are we creating an environment where A players are tripping over themselves for a chance to come and work at your organization?
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Because the vision is so compelling, and the environment is such that they know as exceptional players, they're going to be able to do amazing work and be given the room to do that work.
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And to help chase that vision.
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So there are a bunch of pieces to creating that environment.
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And these are in no particular order, but they're all important.
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One of them is to share the work of planning how you're going to get to the vision.
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If you want an A Team, and exceptional players, it's not going to work for you to say to them, Well, Hey, I've already got it all figured out.
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Here's the vision and oh, by the way, I got a 97 point plan and it's all done.
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And you just come here and do your part.
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There is some of that.
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I'm not suggesting that you disrupt your existing plans and your existing structure every time a new exceptional player comes on the team.
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Because even when you are a super compelling environment and people really want to stay, life happens.
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You don't always get to keep your exceptional players forever.
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So when periodically you rotate new players onto your A Team, I'm not saying that you would then say, oh, okay, well, we got a new person here.
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Now we're going to let them start all over with the planning.
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What you do want to do though is give them room.
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First, they have to figure out how they fit.
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And an overall plan in service of a vision is a very helpful way for them to understand, okay, where do I fit into this?
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What are the general contours of my role?
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How does it contribute to the realization of that amazing vision?
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And what's the existing plan?
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And within the parameters of all of that.
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Once I get my feet under me and get settled into my role, what are going to be the ways for me to be creative in that role?
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Where is the room for my ideas once I'm well-grounded in the role.
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How can I help lead?
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So it's a balancing act.
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And I have observed that not all CEOs are comfortable with that balancing act.
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Of saying, yes, we have a structure and a plan in service of the vision, and we have structured roles within the organization.
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But we all know.
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that every time a new person comes onto the team, and they're coming into a role that was filled by another exceptional player who moved on.
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They're never going to be a perfect match.
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They're never going to be identical, in skills and passion.
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And the same exact creativity, the same exact everything.
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So of course, once they get their feet under them, the role is going to adapt to fit their exceptional skill areas, and that is as it should be.
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And so whoever comes in, as long as they've got the underlying skills that are essential to the role, there's gotta be room for them to shine as an individual in that role.
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They have to be able to make it theirs.
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And they have to have a certain amount of freedom to run with it.
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So that leads me to the next thing, which is to empower your team members to be the leaders of their work.
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Again, there's an overarching plan.
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There's stuff that has to get done.
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There's goals that have to be met.
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But with your leadership team, create performance metrics together.
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For what their responsibility is for a piece of the plan, a piece of the goals, et cetera.
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Establish performance metrics for them.
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And then turn them loose and let them go figure out how they're going to meet the performance metrics.
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They very likely will have ideas that have not been thought of before, or have not been tried in that particular way.
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Of course you want to be genuinely available for help.
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Particularly with new people, if you're handing them a portfolio of stuff and saying, Get to it.
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Expect that they're going to have questions.
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They're going to need some guidance.
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Anytime there's something new, either to the organization or new to the person in the role, you'll need to be available for guidance.
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And the team will need to be available to talk through strategic questions as they arise.
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And so one of the expectations you want to set for all the people on your leadership team is that first of all, they think strategically and ask strategic questions of themselves before they come to the team or come to you directly with that.
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And I'm talking to everybody here, I'm talking to CEOs, I'm talking to leadership team members, and I'm talking to aspiring leaders who are not yet part of a senior leadership team, but you'd like to be.
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One of the most critical skills across the board for any leader is to be able to think strategically, and to solve problems.
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And so it's a very good idea to create the expectation that if somebody comes to you wanting guidance, that they already have gotten as far as they can with a strategic analysis of the situation.
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To be able to say, I'm not sure which way to proceed on this particular question.
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Here are my thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of doing it this way or that way.
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I've taken this analysis as far as I can.
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I may be missing something I'd like your perspective and guidance at this point.
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That's the kind of questions you want people coming to you with, whether you are the CEO or whether you are a member of the senior leadership team, and you have direct reports who are coming to you.
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This expectation should permeate all the way down, all the levels of the organization.
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Even somebody working a relatively entry-level job.
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If they've been there a while, or even if they haven't.
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They're doing that piece of work and if you've hired well, they're going to have thoughts and insights and questions about, help me understand why this is the process.
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I'm wondering if there's any efficiency to be had here, if we did it this other way, but I might be missing something.
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So I wanted to float the idea and see what you think.
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And maybe it's that they just don't understand the other pieces of the puzzle, and then you can fill them in and now they know more.
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Now they're better able to think strategically within the organization.
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The more strategic thinkers you have operating within your organization, the stronger the organization is going to be.
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And the easier it is for the leadership to get the critical work done and not spend a bunch of time tackling small stuff.
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Related to this is to create an environment in which your team can excel.
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And that means cultivating an environment where every member of the team.
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Particularly the leadership team, but the entire team.
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Where they can thrive and do their very best, most brilliant work.
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Everybody has a zone of genius.
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And when you hire well, you're aligning something in your organization that needs doing with that person's zone of genius.
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Now I understand, especially in a difficult hiring environment, sometimes you just need a body in a spot to do some work.
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And I don't have to tell you what challenges come with that.
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That is not an ideal situation.
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My general recommendation for those kinds of situations is find a temp agency.
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And make clear that that's a temporary hire.
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Because you don't want to start bringing C players onto your A team, just because that was all you could find.
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You want to hold out for the A-players at every level.
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Now an A player will look different at an entry-level job than they will at a senior leadership position and everything in between.
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That's kind of a given.
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But be careful about feeling pressure to hire a C player when you are determined to have an A team.
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Every member of your leadership team should be operating in their zone of genius as close to a hundred percent of the time as possible.
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Now most people have multiple zones of genius.
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They're usually good at a bunch of things.
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And so the more you can align what's on their plate with their zone of genius, the more extraordinary their work and their contributions and their leadership are going to be.
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If you're not already doing this, it can be challenging to make this happen initially.
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But strongly recommend that you be at least on a path to that.
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And that you be talking actively with your leadership team about how can we do that.
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And maybe it will mean redesigning some positions and shifting work around.
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It may be that you have person A who's doing something that they don't really like, and it's a struggle for them to do it cause they're not in love with it.
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And person B over there next to them on the leadership team, that's totally their zone of genius and they really want to be doing that.
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Well, that would be a good switch to make.
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It's very rare in my experience with working with a lot of different leadership teams over the years.
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It's been rare when there was a situation where all the members of the leadership team had the same zone of genius and everybody wanted to do just like one or two things.
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And nobody wanted to do the other 80%.
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That just is very unusual.
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Most of the time, it will shake out pretty well.
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Now, of course there'll be a few things on each person's plate that aren't their most favorite perfect thing in the world to do.
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Oh, well.
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You know, that's life.
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But your target is, in their zone of genius as close to a hundred percent of the time as possible.
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And that also includes giving them the mentoring and the training and the support that they need.
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If they're good at something now, but there is a clear next level that they could accelerate to.
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Give them the support to help them do that.
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And then the other hugely important thing is to give your team members a reasonable set of expectations around how much they're going to get done.
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And not overloading them and not permitting them to overload themselves.
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This is, as you know, a chronic problem in nonprofits.
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A lot of it is because we are so dedicated to the cause.
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We are passionate about it.
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We want to help people.
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We want to make a big impact.
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And we're like, well, but this other thing that really needs to get done too.
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I can take that on too.
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Well, Okay.
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Maybe up to a point.
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But everybody has capacity limits.
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And it is not helpful to have people be overloaded.
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It only leads to a lot of stuff going undone and then people feel bad about it.
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And you wind up with the organization over committing.
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Saying, oh yeah, we could do you know, these 5,000 things.
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When in fact you could only do 3000 things.
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You can reach 5,000 things.
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But your plan for getting there better include more money, more resources, and more people to do the work so that you can get there.
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Now we all have cycles in our year.
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Every non-profit I've ever worked with has like a extra busy cycle once or twice a year, whether it's a huge annual fundraising event or something else that's an annual occurrence that's pretty much an all hands on deck thing.
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And everybody just, works their tail off for those two or three or four weeks, to make that thing happen.
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And then things settle back.
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So I get that, that happens.
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But there is a cost.
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Even when people are doing that with joy and passion, and they're excited about doing it.
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It's still exhausting.
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It still depletes people's reserves.
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And so we have to be super intentional and mindful about making sure that if we ask people to do stuff like that.
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Where they're working 12 hour days for three weeks in a row.
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First of all, not everyone can do that depending on what situation they have at home, depending on their own physical capacity.
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It may not be possible.
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And so we have to be attentive to that.
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But we also just have to realize that no human being can do that for a sustained period of time.
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We need time to rest and recover, in order to continue doing our best work.
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And so sometimes, the rest is the work.
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It is just as important to have that time to rest and recover as it is to have that period where people are going all out with enthusiasm and passion and making a really great thing happen.
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So we have to be so intentional about that.
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And we need to create time and space for creativity.
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People can't be so busy just doing the things all the time.
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Checking off the list, getting all the tasks done that there's no time to think strategically, think creatively about, Hey, let's revisit this grand vision here.
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Where are we now?
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How else can we move forward toward that?
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What about this opportunity that's come our way?
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So there has to be time and space for that as well.
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And one of the ways you create that time and space is you don't overload people.
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Another huge thing.
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And this may or may not be an issue for you, but for those for whom it is an issue, it's a big one.
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Which is to redefine failure.
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Making a mistake is not failure.
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Failing to learn anything from the mistake is a failure.
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And failing to be strategic in one's approach to any given situation is a failure.
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But if, as a team, you're taking some strategic risks and trying new approaches that are grounded in solid strategic thinking.
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Then you should know that you will need to adjust as you go.
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That not everything will go the way you hoped.
00:19:17.561 --> 00:19:18.761
Some stuff will be great.
00:19:18.761 --> 00:19:21.041
And other stuff will like really bomb.
00:19:21.521 --> 00:19:22.991
And everything in between.
00:19:23.412 --> 00:19:27.721
And so just go into it with the understanding that you're going to need to adjust as you go.
00:19:27.922 --> 00:19:29.632
And you're going to be learning along the way.
00:19:29.974 --> 00:19:36.759
And each time you have something go not the way you wanted, you assess, you refine, you redirect, you correct course.
00:19:37.148 --> 00:19:43.335
And you keep going until you've got everything dialed in in pursuit of that goal, whatever this new thing is.
00:19:44.051 --> 00:19:50.929
That learning process is essential to innovation and expansion of impact.
00:19:51.384 --> 00:19:55.555
If you do not allow for that there will be no innovation in your organization.
00:19:56.115 --> 00:19:56.595
And that.
00:19:57.082 --> 00:19:59.271
I can't even like sugarcoat that that's just bad.
00:19:59.922 --> 00:20:03.825
So the critical way you solve that is you redefine failure.
00:20:04.724 --> 00:20:14.224
And depending on who's on your team, you may have to really work on this to re orient their minds around how they view failure.
00:20:14.765 --> 00:20:21.288
Because many people have been told most of their life that if you do it wrong, you fail.
00:20:21.959 --> 00:20:32.959
And so we need to, not only as leaders reframe our own definition of failure, but we have to make sure that that redefinition is happening throughout the organization and it's built into the culture.
00:20:33.511 --> 00:20:39.969
And that we take time and care to make sure that everyone working there has that more positive definition.
00:20:40.479 --> 00:20:46.058
Of there's really no failure, except for not learning from your mistakes and not being strategic.
00:20:46.558 --> 00:20:50.865
So understanding that the iteration and learning is essential to innovation.
00:20:50.865 --> 00:20:52.394
It's essential to growing your impact.
00:20:52.964 --> 00:20:58.335
And eventually you're going to get there and eventually it's going to be awesome, but there's going to be some bumps in the road along the way.
00:20:58.904 --> 00:21:00.765
And those bumps are not failures.
00:21:00.795 --> 00:21:01.904
They are learning opportunities.
00:21:01.934 --> 00:21:08.325
They're an opportunity to course correct, refine and get better, and move you closer to the thing you're trying to make happen.
00:21:09.275 --> 00:21:11.285
And on those occasions.
00:21:11.825 --> 00:21:13.894
This is the other huge thing for leaders.
00:21:14.224 --> 00:21:21.275
On those occasions when a bump in the road happens, And maybe there's some blow back from hitting that bump in the road.
00:21:21.275 --> 00:21:23.944
Maybe some stuff hits the fan around that.
00:21:24.392 --> 00:21:30.249
It's the leader's job to, when things don't go great, you take the blame and you protect your team.
00:21:30.852 --> 00:21:34.692
And when things go awesome, you share that credit all over the place.
00:21:35.865 --> 00:21:40.332
You definitely want to model the behavior you want to see from your team.
00:21:40.865 --> 00:21:43.075
And this is a little bit of a trick item.
00:21:43.164 --> 00:21:53.875
Because that does not mean, and we just talked about this, that does not mean a model of working yourself to death and being constantly on the edge of burnout in service to the cause.
00:21:54.301 --> 00:21:58.912
You want your folks to see a model of behavior that is strategic.
00:21:59.275 --> 00:22:02.582
That values the rest, as well as the work.
00:22:02.791 --> 00:22:07.194
That understands that humans need a lot of things to thrive.
00:22:07.565 --> 00:22:11.585
And that working themselves to exhaustion is not one of those things.
00:22:12.169 --> 00:22:16.338
And so you not only are modeling non overwork.
00:22:17.239 --> 00:22:23.201
You're also modeling the strategic and liberal use of delegation.
00:22:23.654 --> 00:22:25.545
And occasionally deletion.
00:22:26.194 --> 00:22:33.781
There is almost certainly stuff on your plate and stuff on the plates of the members of your leadership team that does not belong there.
00:22:34.318 --> 00:22:38.898
That belongs on some other plate, or maybe it doesn't belong on anybody's plate at all.
00:22:39.692 --> 00:22:43.355
So periodically it's important to just assess.
00:22:43.692 --> 00:22:46.362
Are you doing the things that only you can do?
00:22:47.382 --> 00:22:50.291
Because there is a list of things that only the CEO can do.
00:22:50.652 --> 00:22:52.991
And there is a list of things that only the CFO can do.
00:22:52.991 --> 00:22:55.872
And there's a list of things that only the director of development can do.
00:22:56.321 --> 00:22:57.311
Et cetera, et cetera.
00:22:57.692 --> 00:23:01.422
Like job specific stuff that must be on your plate.
00:23:01.481 --> 00:23:08.701
And then there's also things that should be on your plate because you are the most skilled, the most talented, the best one at that thing.
00:23:08.731 --> 00:23:09.211
Great.
00:23:09.221 --> 00:23:10.902
Some of that should be on your plate.
00:23:11.531 --> 00:23:18.444
But be careful with that too, because this comes up in advocacy and strategic relationship building all the time.
00:23:19.224 --> 00:23:26.664
Almost by definition, CEOs and directors of development tend to be people who are very good at strategic relationship building.
00:23:26.875 --> 00:23:28.214
It's kind of a BFOQ.
00:23:28.771 --> 00:23:35.882
That's great, but that doesn't mean that all of the strategic relationship building should be on those two people's plates.
00:23:36.362 --> 00:23:41.505
It means that strategically selected targets for strategic relationship building should be on your plate.
00:23:42.194 --> 00:23:49.193
But you want to share the rest of that relationship building with other members of the leadership team and other members of the program team.
00:23:49.499 --> 00:23:51.211
Depending on what the focus is.
00:23:51.541 --> 00:23:56.192
So that's one of those where actually that should be delegated a lot.
00:23:57.102 --> 00:23:59.832
And some stuff, frankly, should just be deleted.
00:24:00.375 --> 00:24:06.345
Be ruthless about, is there stuff we're doing, you personally or anybody in the organization.
00:24:06.345 --> 00:24:08.714
Is there stuff we're doing that is not essential?
00:24:09.164 --> 00:24:16.971
And if it's not essential, and if there would not be significant consequences of not doing it, then seriously consider deleting those things.
00:24:17.402 --> 00:24:20.684
Or at least putting them on the back burner for a few months.
00:24:21.075 --> 00:24:23.432
If it's too uncomfortable to just say, get rid of it.
00:24:23.622 --> 00:24:25.909
Then back-burner it for three months.
00:24:26.209 --> 00:24:26.898
Check in.
00:24:27.138 --> 00:24:28.909
Could this be backburnered another three months?
00:24:28.939 --> 00:24:29.509
Okay, great.
00:24:29.538 --> 00:24:30.318
Then it's six months.
00:24:30.318 --> 00:24:30.618
Okay.
00:24:30.618 --> 00:24:32.148
This didn't get done for six months.
00:24:32.358 --> 00:24:33.409
Did anyone notice?
00:24:33.409 --> 00:24:34.278
Did it matter?
00:24:34.368 --> 00:24:35.148
Do we need it?
00:24:35.538 --> 00:24:36.048
No.
00:24:36.348 --> 00:24:36.949
Excellent.
00:24:37.038 --> 00:24:37.669
It's gone.
00:24:38.172 --> 00:24:43.838
And that should be a review that everybody does with the stuff that's on their plate on a fairly routine basis.
00:24:44.078 --> 00:24:47.828
So that's another behavior that it is very important for you to model.
00:24:48.249 --> 00:24:49.328
And to talk about.
00:24:49.628 --> 00:24:52.269
It's not enough to be doing it quietly in your office.
00:24:52.479 --> 00:24:56.439
You need to be telling people, Hey, this is what I'm doing, and I expect you to be doing it too.
00:24:56.942 --> 00:25:04.825
We have so much really important stuff that we can't afford to be doing stuff that doesn't rise to the level of essential and high value.
00:25:05.875 --> 00:25:09.654
Now let's talk about some behaviors to leave behind.
00:25:10.305 --> 00:25:18.652
And you won't be surprised to discover that these are in many ways, the opposite of the behaviors we want to lean into.
00:25:19.432 --> 00:25:29.535
The first thing we want to leave behind is anything we're doing to create a culture in which everyone is expected to do far more than will fit in a workday.
00:25:29.974 --> 00:25:33.845
And with fewer resources than they need in order to do a good job.
00:25:34.642 --> 00:25:42.575
Let that sink in a little bit, because that is probably the single most important thing for us to leave behind.
00:25:43.204 --> 00:25:51.368
If we want to be successful leaders of nonprofits that are reaching new heights, achieving even greater impact.
00:25:51.699 --> 00:25:58.211
And leading and rallying a team of exceptional players to come do this amazing work.
00:25:58.959 --> 00:26:01.479
There's so many reasons why we need to leave this behind.
00:26:02.078 --> 00:26:09.858
And much has been written about how and why Nonprofit culture is that way, and you know the whole song.
00:26:10.368 --> 00:26:12.108
But here's what I will say.
00:26:12.439 --> 00:26:14.019
And I believe this really strongly.
00:26:14.588 --> 00:26:18.035
Is that we as leaders have the power to change that culture.
00:26:18.785 --> 00:26:23.015
We simply have to decide that that is what we are going to do.
00:26:23.595 --> 00:26:26.721
And then set about the work of creating a different culture.
00:26:27.412 --> 00:26:31.439
That is easier said than done for a whole lot of reasons.
00:26:32.009 --> 00:26:48.798
And the weirdest one to me is that there are a lot of folks working in Nonprofit land who cling very hard to the culture of overwork, under resourced ways of being.
00:26:49.449 --> 00:26:51.345
And they're totally burned out.
00:26:51.615 --> 00:26:55.882
They're struggling as people working in nonprofits, they're struggling as human beings.
00:26:56.162 --> 00:26:57.182
They're exhausted.
00:26:57.501 --> 00:26:58.761
Their health is suffering.
00:26:59.092 --> 00:27:02.154
There's so much wrong with that culture.
00:27:02.424 --> 00:27:02.994
And yet.
00:27:03.288 --> 00:27:08.999
Because there's some lingering belief that sacrifice is noble.
00:27:09.088 --> 00:27:13.588
And if the cause is important enough, we will all just sacrifice whatever's needed.
00:27:14.318 --> 00:27:16.585
And in the short term, maybe.
00:27:17.065 --> 00:27:20.128
But in the longterm it's just utterly not sustainable.
00:27:20.474 --> 00:27:25.994
It's not sustainable by the humans who are being asked to do it, or the humans who are volunteering to do it.
00:27:26.432 --> 00:27:32.684
I fully acknowledged that there are folks who are very attached to this way of being in non-profits.
00:27:33.194 --> 00:27:35.709
And a lot of them are in leadership roles.
00:27:36.189 --> 00:27:42.999
So it takes a little bit of courage to say, That's not how we're going to do.
00:27:42.999 --> 00:27:45.818
That's not how we're going to be in this organization.
00:27:46.148 --> 00:27:55.538
We're going to be an organization and a culture that supports and sustains and allows everyone who works here to fully thrive.
00:27:56.108 --> 00:28:00.308
And we want everyone to be in their zone of genius as close to a hundred percent of the time.
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:05.979
We want people to have the tools and resources they need to do a really exceptional job.
00:28:06.378 --> 00:28:08.088
And we expect them to have a life.
00:28:08.511 --> 00:28:12.741
We want them to have a life because that's how you thrive as a human being.
00:28:13.169 --> 00:28:18.778
You can't thrive as a human being if you're exhausted at work and you've got nothing left to give when you get home to your family.
00:28:19.224 --> 00:28:21.295
Or when you get home to whatever you want to do.
00:28:22.585 --> 00:28:26.459
Another one to leave behind is the myth of multitasking.
00:28:27.045 --> 00:28:35.951
This one you'll be happy to know is supported by brain science and by solid research that multitasking isn't really a thing.
00:28:36.429 --> 00:28:40.815
What we're actually doing when we're multitasking is, we are switching our attention.
00:28:41.474 --> 00:28:44.015
It doesn't matter which generation you're from.
00:28:44.345 --> 00:28:47.481
The human brain can't actually multitask.
00:28:47.929 --> 00:28:52.848
What our brain can do is switch our attention very rapidly from one thing to another.
00:28:53.275 --> 00:28:57.531
And most of us do quite a bit of this on a regular basis.
00:28:58.028 --> 00:29:00.994
And some days, there's not much to be done about it.
00:29:01.454 --> 00:29:05.358
But as a way of being, it is incredibly counterproductive.
00:29:05.929 --> 00:29:08.788
It does not support deep thinking.
00:29:08.878 --> 00:29:11.209
It does not support creativity.
00:29:11.328 --> 00:29:13.638
It does not support sustained action.
00:29:14.088 --> 00:29:16.511
And it actually kind of wears your brain out.
00:29:17.182 --> 00:29:19.548
Plenty of folks will swear up down and sideways.
00:29:19.607 --> 00:29:20.417
Oh no.
00:29:20.732 --> 00:29:21.741
That's not true.
00:29:21.771 --> 00:29:23.662
I'm an amazing multitasker.
00:29:23.662 --> 00:29:30.288
I can have five things going at once and I'm on the case with all of and da da da They may feel like that's true.
00:29:30.582 --> 00:29:37.481
But what is actually happening is that they are particularly adept at switching their attention rapidly.
00:29:37.964 --> 00:29:46.528
But regardless of how adept you may be at that attention switching, there is a productivity cost every time we switch.
00:29:47.001 --> 00:29:54.741
Because our brain has to refocus, recalibrate on the new thing, every time we switch.
00:29:54.951 --> 00:30:01.602
So if you're switching four times an hour, which is modest by many multi-tasker standards.
00:30:01.942 --> 00:30:05.541
You're losing productivity four times every hour.
00:30:06.204 --> 00:30:10.345
Instead of, if you had just said, all right, I'm going to spend one hour on this one thing and get it done.
00:30:10.585 --> 00:30:12.444
And then I'm going to switch my attention.
00:30:12.954 --> 00:30:15.595
I need to pay attention to three projects today.
00:30:15.948 --> 00:30:21.228
And here are the major steps forward that I want to make in each of these three projects.
00:30:21.602 --> 00:30:24.001
And let's say each one of them represents an hour.
00:30:24.346 --> 00:30:31.665
So the most productive approach that will yield the most creative and innovative and high brainpower thought.
00:30:31.961 --> 00:30:37.842
Is if you say, all right, if that's going to take an hour, then I'm going to carve out an hour in my schedule and that's what I'm going to do in that hour.
00:30:37.842 --> 00:30:39.582
And I'm not going to take any interruptions.
00:30:39.791 --> 00:30:40.932
I'm not going to check my email.
00:30:40.981 --> 00:30:43.442
I'm not gonna look at my phone at all.
00:30:43.442 --> 00:30:45.182
I'm not going to answer a call.
00:30:45.182 --> 00:30:47.276
I'm not gonna respond to a text.
00:30:47.622 --> 00:30:49.932
And if you're working from home, this is actually a lot easier.
00:30:50.261 --> 00:30:57.942
But if you're in an office and you need to put a little sign outside your cubicle or close your door and put a sign on your door, whatever your environment is.
00:30:58.301 --> 00:31:03.644
To say I'm not disturb-able from 1:00 to 2:00 PM, whatever.
00:31:03.644 --> 00:31:06.734
You carve out your hour and you stick a note on your door and say, that's it.
00:31:06.785 --> 00:31:09.605
Don't knock, don't call, don't text, don't anything.
00:31:09.634 --> 00:31:10.505
I'm not going to respond.
00:31:11.224 --> 00:31:13.625
Because I'm focusing on a thing I need to get done.
00:31:14.051 --> 00:31:15.071
And then you do that.
00:31:15.835 --> 00:31:17.394
You will achieve much better results.
00:31:17.698 --> 00:31:23.228
You will be so much more effective in the work that you do on that if you do it that way.
00:31:23.654 --> 00:31:27.570
Than if you say, okay, well, each of these three things is gonna take about an hour.
00:31:27.730 --> 00:31:30.101
I'll just kind of work on them as I go throughout my day.
00:31:30.101 --> 00:31:30.461
And yeah.
00:31:30.461 --> 00:31:34.221
You know, I gotta answer these emails and I got to do this and, oh, there's this meeting and da da da da.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:35.590
Oh, somebody stopped by.
00:31:35.621 --> 00:31:36.250
Oh, whatever.
00:31:36.825 --> 00:31:45.224
If you're diverting your attention constantly, you are not by definition bringing your full focus to the thing that needs your full focus.
00:31:46.050 --> 00:31:47.520
Multitasking is a myth.
00:31:47.845 --> 00:31:50.634
What it is is rapid attention switching.
00:31:51.115 --> 00:31:59.394
And what's important to know about it is that it causes us to lose focus, lose productivity, and lose creativity every time we switch.
00:31:59.978 --> 00:32:01.911
And so this is where.
00:32:02.285 --> 00:32:04.211
Leaders talking to you.
00:32:04.627 --> 00:32:10.357
This is a behavior that has to be modeled because it is going to represent a massive change.
00:32:10.958 --> 00:32:14.887
Leaving multitasking behind is hard.
00:32:15.347 --> 00:32:19.921
We've all been so programmed to do that, that it takes real intention.
00:32:20.401 --> 00:32:22.451
And people will have to ease into it.
00:32:23.090 --> 00:32:30.080
Most people who are really accustomed to switching their attention dozens of times an hour are gonna struggle with this.
00:32:30.498 --> 00:32:33.711
And they're going to feel like they're not getting anything done.
00:32:34.298 --> 00:32:38.921
But in fact, they're going to be getting done the work that is the most important.
00:32:39.431 --> 00:32:40.691
And this is the other thing.
00:32:41.015 --> 00:32:46.986
All of us have stuff way too much taking up our attention that is not high value.
00:32:47.659 --> 00:32:54.528
When you're just checking your email out of habit or you're answering texts because you're in the habit of answering texts when they appear.
00:32:55.002 --> 00:32:57.939
Those are habits we would like to think about breaking.
00:32:58.429 --> 00:32:59.419
And saying, you know what?
00:32:59.419 --> 00:33:01.969
No, I'm going to do these things on my schedule.
00:33:01.969 --> 00:33:05.911
I'm going to plan pieces of work that I want to do uninterrupted.
00:33:05.941 --> 00:33:07.500
I'm going to create ways to do that.
00:33:07.980 --> 00:33:12.060
And we as leaders absolutely have to be the first ones to take this up.
00:33:12.721 --> 00:33:13.861
And to model it.
00:33:14.340 --> 00:33:15.601
And to talk about it.
00:33:16.125 --> 00:33:22.865
And to help people understand that when they think they're being super efficient, they're actually being the opposite of that.
00:33:23.401 --> 00:33:27.678
When they think they're being super efficient by switching tasks a dozen times an hour.
00:33:28.367 --> 00:33:29.768
Oh, look at all I'm getting done.
00:33:30.428 --> 00:33:32.347
And it's like, yeah, but how much of that has high value?
00:33:32.768 --> 00:33:33.667
Almost none of it.
00:33:34.214 --> 00:33:39.950
And meanwhile, the high value task that needs your undivided attention for an hour to do it well.
00:33:40.272 --> 00:33:41.022
Isn't getting done.
00:33:41.242 --> 00:33:42.413
Or is getting done poorly.
00:33:42.717 --> 00:33:46.586
Because you're never focused on it long enough to actually accomplish anything.
00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:51.759
So this one is huge, and this will be a project to work on over time.
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:58.116
Another thing that would be very helpful to leave behind is perfectionism.
00:33:58.673 --> 00:34:02.676
One of the biggest issues is that it is a productivity inhibitor.
00:34:03.119 --> 00:34:09.969
We have to become much more willing to say that good enough is better than perfect.
00:34:10.300 --> 00:34:12.983
Done is better than perfect.
00:34:13.592 --> 00:34:16.083
And that is a hard one for a lot of people.
00:34:16.699 --> 00:34:23.626
And so if that's you, and you're in a leadership role, this is going to be a big one for you to pay attention to.
00:34:24.242 --> 00:34:27.603
There are very few things that require perfection.
00:34:28.197 --> 00:34:28.976
There are a few.
00:34:29.507 --> 00:34:38.429
I have worked on some massive federal grants that unfortunately, the review process was structured in such a way that perfection was rewarded.
00:34:38.831 --> 00:34:52.262
And so when I worked on those, as the lead on one of those endeavors, I made sure that absolutely everything was perfect before it was submitted, because I knew that that might make the difference in whether we got this massive grant.
00:34:52.679 --> 00:35:01.273
I probably went a little overboard actually, because the feedback we got from the reviewers was we have never seen an error free application before.
00:35:01.302 --> 00:35:02.202
This is amazing.
00:35:02.643 --> 00:35:06.273
But I spent a stupid amount of time on that.
00:35:06.963 --> 00:35:12.822
And the reality is, I They didn't need a gold star for being error free and perfect.
00:35:13.286 --> 00:35:16.226
It just needed to be good enough to make sure we got the money.
00:35:16.766 --> 00:35:18.777
95% would have been just fine.
00:35:19.143 --> 00:35:21.530
And I could have saved some substantial hours.
00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:29.023
Because here's the thing that's so important to understand is that getting to 85 or 90% of perfect takes X amount of time.
00:35:29.713 --> 00:35:33.132
Getting that last 10 to 15% to all the way perfect.
00:35:33.132 --> 00:35:35.922
Even if you can agree on what all the way perfect looks like.
00:35:36.286 --> 00:35:40.563
Takes a ridiculous amount of extra time that nobody's got.
00:35:41.177 --> 00:35:44.956
What's the number one complaint you hear from everybody working in nonprofits?
00:35:45.166 --> 00:35:49.217
Not enough time, not enough people, not enough money.
00:35:49.637 --> 00:35:52.067
To get everything done, to make the impact we want.
00:35:52.306 --> 00:36:06.182
Then why on earth are we allowing ourselves, through the quest for perfectionism, to spend time we don't have on something that is not enough of a value add to warrant spending time that way?
00:36:06.659 --> 00:36:19.469
But again, If this has been the culture in your organization and you've got a critical mass, whatever size that may be, of leaders in particular, who skew toward a fondness for perfection.
00:36:19.766 --> 00:36:23.722
This will be a hard one to let go of, but it's essential.
00:36:24.393 --> 00:36:31.246
The other problem that is connected to perfectionism, particularly if it as occurring among leaders.
00:36:31.530 --> 00:36:33.480
Is it tends to lead to micromanaging.
00:36:33.896 --> 00:36:36.262
Which is not anything we want.
00:36:36.382 --> 00:36:42.472
And I'm hoping I don't have to specifically tell you to leave micro-managing behind because I'm trusting that you're not doing that.
00:36:42.829 --> 00:36:49.300
But even if you think you're not doing it, if you tend toward perfectionism, you probably are doing a little bit of it.
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:54.447
Because one of the forms that this combo can take is.
00:36:54.742 --> 00:37:02.056
I had a client where the CEO was pretty obsessed about never having a typo in anything that left the organization.
00:37:02.512 --> 00:37:06.967
And so where they landed, because there kept being typos.
00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:08.320
They weren't egregious.
00:37:08.389 --> 00:37:14.139
It wasn't like anything that was going to cause anybody to be upset or think poorly of them.
00:37:14.369 --> 00:37:15.690
It was entirely legible.
00:37:15.690 --> 00:37:17.039
Here and there, there might be a typo.
00:37:17.563 --> 00:37:26.230
But not only did that CEO feel that the team was falling down on the job because they were allowing typos to leave the organization.
00:37:26.590 --> 00:37:35.177
The conclusion that CEO came to was, I have to proof everything myself before it leaves here to make sure there are no typos.
00:37:35.722 --> 00:37:47.617
Now it doesn't take much analysis to realize that proofreading for typos is not a high value task that belongs on a CEO's plate under any circumstances.
00:37:48.226 --> 00:37:49.815
So there's that.
00:37:50.144 --> 00:37:52.434
And then there is the add-on effect.
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:55.967
Now typos are kind of a Nitpicky thing.
00:37:56.418 --> 00:37:59.838
But I see this happen in advocacy and strategic relationship building.
00:38:00.168 --> 00:38:10.315
Where the one or two people in the organization who are already really good at it, are very nervous about having anybody else get involved because they're afraid they'll screw it up or that they won't do it right.
00:38:10.315 --> 00:38:13.940
Or they won't get the results or maybe they'll offend somebody or whatever.
00:38:14.150 --> 00:38:22.070
And so their approach is either, it takes too long to teach somebody how to do this, and/ or I can't trust that they're going to do it as well as I would.
00:38:22.070 --> 00:38:23.481
So I'm just going to keep doing it all.
00:38:24.007 --> 00:38:25.748
Well, that's not sustainable.
00:38:26.215 --> 00:38:31.045
There are certain high value relationships that absolutely yes, the CEO should be in charge of.
00:38:31.434 --> 00:38:35.514
And there are high value relationships that the director of development should be in charge of.
00:38:36.085 --> 00:38:38.844
But there are lots and lots of other strategic relationships.
00:38:38.934 --> 00:38:39.534
I hope.
00:38:39.918 --> 00:38:41.177
Because you should have lots of them.
00:38:41.534 --> 00:38:45.344
That do not require the personal attention of either of those people.
00:38:46.094 --> 00:38:49.815
That others in the organization can take the lead on and can manage.
00:38:50.425 --> 00:39:01.295
So we just have to be really mindful of how a, tendency toward perfectionism can interfere with so many other aspects of the functioning of the organization.
00:39:01.744 --> 00:39:03.485
Productivity is one piece of it.
00:39:04.114 --> 00:39:07.838
But ultimately it can really damage your level of impact.
00:39:08.407 --> 00:39:11.155
Because people are spending too much time on the wrong thing.
00:39:11.394 --> 00:39:16.184
You've got top leaders spending time on things that do not belong on their plate.
00:39:16.454 --> 00:39:20.998
You've got people holding on to work because they don't trust that someone else could do it.
00:39:20.998 --> 00:39:21.838
It's just a mess.
00:39:22.197 --> 00:39:25.677
And the message that sends within the culture of the organization isn't good either.
00:39:25.677 --> 00:39:26.907
That's bad for morale.
00:39:27.418 --> 00:39:33.688
If you're trying to attract A players, top level exceptional performers to your organization.
00:39:33.717 --> 00:39:42.297
And then you micromanage them or pester them with, you know, there was a typo in your work when they just did something incredibly brilliant.
00:39:42.987 --> 00:39:44.307
That's demoralizing.
00:39:44.585 --> 00:39:46.025
Top players won't put up with that.
00:39:46.025 --> 00:39:46.625
They'll leave.
00:39:47.045 --> 00:39:53.494
They want to be trusted to do a good job, to take the lead, to be in charge of their own work, as long as they are meeting their performance metrics.
00:39:53.644 --> 00:39:59.025
And as long as they're communicating well with the leadership team, to make sure that everybody's well apprised of what's going on.
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:04.780
And they need the freedom to be creative and to explore solutions and have new ideas.
00:40:05.141 --> 00:40:12.215
And obviously you run this stuff by the leadership team, but have the, at least on occasion, the ability to go run with a new idea.
00:40:12.724 --> 00:40:15.777
If you're stuck in perfectionism, none of that's going to happen.
00:40:15.807 --> 00:40:17.518
And those top players will leave.
00:40:17.547 --> 00:40:19.827
They'll go somewhere where they don't have to put up with that.
00:40:20.847 --> 00:40:26.307
Another one that I feel compelled to mention, but it's probably going to generate some commentary.
00:40:26.940 --> 00:40:31.188
Another thing that we desperately need to let go of is a scarcity mentality.
00:40:31.804 --> 00:40:36.454
The idea that there's only this little bit of money and that it's really hard to get money.
00:40:36.454 --> 00:40:38.164
It's hard to get resources.
00:40:38.465 --> 00:40:40.534
They're hardly any resources available.
00:40:40.534 --> 00:40:41.735
Nobody's giving.
00:40:42.275 --> 00:40:43.264
On and on and on.
00:40:43.851 --> 00:40:48.748
The stories we tell ourselves will shape what we find in the world.
00:40:49.244 --> 00:40:50.775
That's not philosophy.
00:40:50.985 --> 00:40:52.244
That's brain science.
00:40:52.851 --> 00:40:55.940
Remember your old friend, the reticular activating system.
00:40:56.251 --> 00:40:59.280
It has many jobs, but one of them is to automate things.
00:40:59.550 --> 00:41:04.077
And one of the things that it automates really well are thoughts and beliefs.
00:41:04.454 --> 00:41:09.628
And so if you repeatedly talk about how it's really hard to find resources.
00:41:09.677 --> 00:41:10.637
Nobody's giving.
00:41:10.637 --> 00:41:11.987
There's not a lot of money.
00:41:11.987 --> 00:41:13.007
Funding is hard.
00:41:13.188 --> 00:41:15.347
Non-profits never have enough money.
00:41:15.527 --> 00:41:16.878
They're always underfunded.
00:41:16.878 --> 00:41:18.617
That's why we can't pay people enough.
00:41:18.648 --> 00:41:23.958
That's why we have to work so many extra hours because we can't afford to hire enough people to do the work we have to do.
00:41:24.527 --> 00:41:30.324
Your reticular activating system will automate whatever thoughts you repeat often enough.
00:41:30.925 --> 00:41:31.735
It has two jobs.
00:41:31.735 --> 00:41:32.965
One job is to keep you safe.
00:41:32.994 --> 00:41:35.125
And the other job is to create efficiency.
00:41:35.545 --> 00:41:42.644
Because if we had to pay attention to all of the input that we receive, every day, we would go insane.
00:41:43.215 --> 00:41:50.070
So the reticular activating system's job in part, is to filter out stuff that we have told it is not important, and we don't need to pay attention to it.
00:41:50.498 --> 00:41:51.608
Very useful.
00:41:52.157 --> 00:41:56.117
This is my favorite example of how this works that is really kind of cool.
00:41:56.525 --> 00:42:03.934
Have you ever noticed if you're driving in a new city on a really complicated freeway system with cajillions of directional signs everywhere.
00:42:04.355 --> 00:42:09.034
And say your GPS isn't working and you're just relying on the signs.
00:42:09.460 --> 00:42:12.251
And there's so much information coming at you.
00:42:12.460 --> 00:42:14.021
You're like totally overwhelmed.
00:42:14.021 --> 00:42:17.021
And you can't process, and you miss your exit or whatever.
00:42:17.594 --> 00:42:24.394
But then you're back home and you're driving in a freeway system that's just as complicated, with just as many signs and just as much input.
00:42:24.847 --> 00:42:26.978
But you filter out 99% of it.
00:42:27.277 --> 00:42:31.425
You're just looking for the one sign that says here, go here.
00:42:31.454 --> 00:42:32.445
This is the one you need.
00:42:33.284 --> 00:42:36.434
Whether it's an exit number or a destination, or what have you.
00:42:37.065 --> 00:42:40.630
And you just know to look for that and to ignore everything else.
00:42:41.237 --> 00:42:44.764
That's your reticular activating system, doing you a huge favor.
00:42:44.795 --> 00:42:49.985
It's filtering out stuff that you know from experience isn't important.
00:42:50.684 --> 00:42:52.574
It doesn't fit with what you need.
00:42:52.755 --> 00:42:54.554
What you need is your one exit.
00:42:54.554 --> 00:42:56.025
You don't need all that other information.
00:42:56.264 --> 00:43:00.795
But when you're driving in a brand new place, you're not sure which piece of information you need and it's all there.
00:43:00.795 --> 00:43:02.264
And you're like, ah, totally overwhelmed.
00:43:02.898 --> 00:43:05.460
So if you drove there for a few days.
00:43:05.791 --> 00:43:08.971
As your thinking brain started to parcel out, okay.
00:43:09.271 --> 00:43:11.010
I don't need to know about that set of road signs.
00:43:11.041 --> 00:43:12.030
They're not where I'm going.
00:43:12.030 --> 00:43:13.271
I don't need know about this other.
00:43:13.271 --> 00:43:14.320
They're not where I'm going.
00:43:14.530 --> 00:43:19.804
So as you're thinking those thoughts, your reticular activating system is going, oh, okay.
00:43:20.141 --> 00:43:22.780
Well, if that's the case, then we can filter that out.
00:43:23.125 --> 00:43:24.385
And pretty soon you won't even see it.
00:43:25.001 --> 00:43:27.018
It's that good at filtering the stuff out.
00:43:27.858 --> 00:43:29.418
So here's the problem.
00:43:29.880 --> 00:43:37.514
If the thought and belief that you repeat over and over to yourself or to others is that money is hard to come by.
00:43:37.844 --> 00:43:39.135
Resources are scarce.
00:43:39.344 --> 00:43:41.235
Non-profits never have enough money.
00:43:41.414 --> 00:43:42.675
There's never enough.
00:43:43.054 --> 00:43:46.505
can't possibly hire enough people, et cetera, et cetera.
00:43:47.074 --> 00:43:50.105
What do you think your reticular activating system is doing with that?
00:43:50.697 --> 00:43:53.128
It's filtering out anything that contradicts it.
00:43:53.547 --> 00:43:57.215
It's filtering out the huge opportunity that may be out there.
00:43:57.398 --> 00:44:00.038
That could solve a huge chunk of your financial problems.
00:44:00.420 --> 00:44:01.771
You won't even see it.
00:44:02.251 --> 00:44:06.181
Because your reticular activating system says, oh, well, we know that's not what we believe.
00:44:06.181 --> 00:44:07.590
We don't believe there's opportunity.
00:44:07.740 --> 00:44:09.570
We believe that it has to be hard.
00:44:09.751 --> 00:44:14.041
That resources are scarce, that we have to really scrape and struggle to find money.
00:44:14.695 --> 00:44:15.295
So.
00:44:15.311 --> 00:44:19.728
What we need instead to tell it is that opportunity is everywhere.
00:44:20.275 --> 00:44:22.351
There are plenty of resources.
00:44:22.380 --> 00:44:25.820
There's so much money out there, it's crazy.
00:44:26.244 --> 00:44:36.701
Now we can have a lot of spirited discussions about how improperly distributed that money is and how not good at is that it is concentrated in far too few hands.
00:44:37.057 --> 00:44:38.827
But that's a political conversation.
00:44:39.514 --> 00:44:43.324
The fact of the matter is there's gobs of resources out there.
00:44:43.324 --> 00:44:45.155
There's tons and tons of money.
00:44:45.425 --> 00:44:51.318
And if you look around, you will find evidence that there are some nonprofits that are very well-funded and they're doing great.
00:44:52.014 --> 00:44:52.824
And be careful.
00:44:52.855 --> 00:44:59.275
Because then if you're about to say to yourself or argue with me and say, well, yeah, but nobody funds the work we do.
00:44:59.755 --> 00:45:02.244
That's not as popular with funders.
00:45:02.605 --> 00:45:05.695
Well, it's not as popular with the funders you've been talking to.
00:45:06.295 --> 00:45:09.764
But somewhere out there are funders who share your passion.
00:45:10.034 --> 00:45:11.684
Now, maybe they're not even funders yet.
00:45:11.864 --> 00:45:19.135
Maybe they're donors who don't yet know that your stuff is so aligned with what they believe that they would happily help to fund what you're doing.
00:45:19.871 --> 00:45:24.670
But you have to tell your reticular activating system to filter for the right stuff.
00:45:25.045 --> 00:45:28.284
So the messages it needs to be getting is that there's money everywhere.
00:45:28.284 --> 00:45:30.054
There's opportunity everywhere.
00:45:30.175 --> 00:45:34.034
There is plenty of money to fund us at our full capacity.
00:45:34.514 --> 00:45:42.885
Everybody has what they need to do an outstanding job to serve all the people who need our help, and to not drive ourselves into the ground in the process.
00:45:43.536 --> 00:45:51.331
But that has to be repeated over and over and over because you've already programmed your reticular activating system to filter out all that opportunity.
00:45:52.027 --> 00:45:53.677
Now that's an extreme.
00:45:54.034 --> 00:46:00.547
Most of us are operating with pieces of both of those beliefs in place at the same time.
00:46:00.788 --> 00:46:05.068
And they tend to be splintered out over conditional sets of stuff.
00:46:05.590 --> 00:46:07.237
But you get the basic point.
00:46:07.677 --> 00:46:11.994
You want to train your subconscious brain to be filtering the right stuff to you.
00:46:12.684 --> 00:46:16.014
Because if you don't, it's going to filter out stuff you really want.
00:46:17.025 --> 00:46:26.451
And the very last thing that I will say that is the counterpoint to the vision you do want to be operating from, that we talked about at the very beginning of the episode.
00:46:27.141 --> 00:46:35.454
What we want to leave behind is operating from a vision of the future that is based on the limitations of the past.
00:46:36.081 --> 00:46:42.590
Our experience tells us that our donors I can only be asked for so much, and then they fatigue out.
00:46:43.018 --> 00:46:48.208
Our experience tells us that funders are pulling away from this service or that service.
00:46:48.208 --> 00:46:49.527
And they're pivoting to this other thing.
00:46:49.527 --> 00:46:51.777
Our experience tells us dah, dah, dah.
00:46:52.228 --> 00:46:57.927
And so our vision now will be based on what our experience tells us.
00:46:58.827 --> 00:47:06.224
That approach, grounding your vision in a past experience, is what we as humans are inclined to do.
00:47:06.827 --> 00:47:09.318
That's the other half of your reticular activating system.
00:47:09.318 --> 00:47:11.297
The part whose job is to keep you safe.
00:47:11.748 --> 00:47:18.054
And to be operating in the safe and familiar and not branching out into crazy new things that might be threatening.
00:47:18.581 --> 00:47:23.460
So it's very happy having your ambitions grounded in the experiences of the past.
00:47:24.057 --> 00:47:25.557
It's like, oh, we already know what's possible.
00:47:25.557 --> 00:47:27.867
We'll just stay right in here in our comfort zone.
00:47:28.590 --> 00:47:32.641
Problem is that produces small visions, small goals.
00:47:33.121 --> 00:47:35.338
It's profoundly demoralizing to your team.
00:47:35.860 --> 00:47:40.240
And definitely will not help attract or retain exceptional players.
00:47:40.858 --> 00:47:44.728
It's grounded in playing not to lose rather than playing to win.
00:47:45.177 --> 00:47:50.387
It's grounded in the idea that we can't do more or bigger or better in the future.
00:47:50.644 --> 00:47:53.315
Because we haven't been able to in the past.
00:47:53.885 --> 00:47:56.315
We need to leave all of that behind.
00:47:56.795 --> 00:48:02.644
So that we can step into our powerful, inspired, expansive vision of the future.
00:48:03.065 --> 00:48:06.485
That's going to take you and your team to new Heights.
00:48:07.288 --> 00:48:10.478
Whichever of these leadership behaviors that spoke to you most strongly.
00:48:10.987 --> 00:48:17.204
I hope you'll choose to lean into at least one and to leave behind it's unhelpful counterpart.
00:48:17.766 --> 00:48:19.233
Even though it involves some work.
00:48:19.521 --> 00:48:21.463
It will be worth it to you and your team.
00:48:22.313 --> 00:48:23.182
Thanks for listening.
00:48:23.333 --> 00:48:27.322
And I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
