Unlocking Your Next Level as an Advocate -Episode 20

You're listening to the nonprofit power podcast. In today's episode, we show you how to unlock your next level as an advocate. So stay tuned. 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. I'm Cath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive non profit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter. 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, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner, and to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you. This podcast will help you do just that. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. Hey everybody. Kath Patrick here. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the nonprofit power podcast. I'm so glad you're here for today's episode. If you're ready for next level results from your advocacy, work more influence, better results, bigger impact. Then it's time to move to the next level of advocacy skills. No matter where you are on your advocacy journey from beginner to seasoned advocate, there's always a next level. Today we get into the six ingredients for taking your advocacy skills to the next level and share some tips about how to develop the one skill that often trips up. Even the most experienced advocates. Mhm. Hey there folks. Welcome to the nonprofit power podcast. I'm your host cath Patrick. A big part of my work is helping leaders. Like you become more highly skilled at all aspects of advocacy. So you can have the bigger impact that you want. I work with folks at all skill levels from beginners to highly skilled advocates and everything in between. And what all of them have in common is that everyone has something they'd like to get better at. But they don't necessarily think about it in terms of skill development. For some reason. Folks tend to think of advocacy as something you're either inherently good at or not. And the process of getting better at, it seems kind of mysterious and elusive. The truth is advocacy is a skill set like anything else, and you get better at it through skill development. It's obvious that there is a significant difference in skill level between somebody who knocks a tennis ball around occasionally on the weekend or say, Serena Williams. Or at a higher level, the guitar player who's quite good and has a regular weekend gig at some local venues. But isn't likely to be invited to go on tour with a big national chart topping band. Either of those skill levels, maybe just fine for the individual involved. No judgment whatsoever. My point is that there is always a next level. Even those elite level athletes and musicians never stop learning and honing their craft. In fact, they typically have multiple coaches to help them out with that. in martial arts, which is a world I'm more familiar with. Folks who are outside that world often think that when you get to black belt, that's it you've reached the pinnacle of mastery. But the reality is when you reach black belt, The learning has only just begun. You've mastered the technical aspects and now it's time to go deep on learning the art. The learning is never done. And no matter how skilled an advocate you become, I promise you. There is always a next level. If you want to get to your next level, it will require some things from you. Depending on where you are in your skill progression, what's required from you may be learning a bunch of new skills or it might require your willingness to increase your level of mastery of your existing skills. And it might require you to uncover and address Some internal roadblocks that are keeping you from progressing to that next level. And we're going to talk a lot about those today. Acquiring new skills and developing greater mastery of the skills you already have is not complicated, but it's not easy. There are six keys to success no matter what skill level you're at, and no matter what level you aspire to. And the first of those is commitment. Those who make skill development a priority make much more progress. It's simple and obvious. And right along with that, consistent practice. Any skill requires regular practice to become fully developed and to grow. This part may seem counterintuitive. But a critical key is a willingness to make mistakes. And then to learn from them. We would all love it. If we could just only learn by being perfect all the time, but that's not how it works. Anytime you're learning how to do something new, or even as you're moving to a higher level of your existing practice. In anything. You're gonna make mistakes as you learn new things. And we don't have any trouble getting our head around that. When we think about the guitar player or the tennis player, Of course, they're going to screw up, they're going to make mistakes. That's how they learn. Right. But somehow when we translate that over to advocacy work, Ooh, that's scary. And we're not so sure about making mistakes. But the reality is if you're unwilling to make a mistake you won't make much progress. Mistakes are inevitable. The only sin is failing to learn from them. The good news is mistakes often provide the most powerful lessons. And I can tell you that has certainly been true for me. Another key is to stay open and coachable. Nothing shuts down, new learning faster. Than adopting the attitude that you've already heard that you already know that. Yeah, I know that already or,Oh no, that won't work for me. If you can't receive new input and learn from that. Then you're closing yourself off to one of the best opportunities for learning and growing your skillset. Another key is a willingness to look within. Very often when we feel stuck. The thing that's in the way is internal. And if we're unwilling to consider that and look at that, that's going to stymie our growth. No two ways about it. And going along with that is a willingness to change. Growth requires change. And the frustrating part of it is that our brains are hardwired to resist change. So we have to do some extra work. To consistently put ourselves outside our comfort zone so that we can grow and change. One thing you can do if you're feeling frustrated or stuck with your progress in advocacy is to do a quick check on those six keys. Ask yourself. What is my commitment level currently? Have I really been committed to growing my advocacy skills. If not, you may want to take a look at that. Am I practicing consistently or do I just do this when I have a minute? Am I willing to make mistakes and learn from them. This is huge. And I understand that that can be complicated by maybe having a boss who doesn't really approve of that philosophy of yes, you need to make mistakes in order to learn and grow. In which case you may need to set aside some time to have a conversation with that boss. And work through how you are going to learn and develop your skills. In the advocacy universe or in any universe, quite honestly. And come to an understanding that learning doesn't happen without making a few mistakes along the way. And you can make a commitment to them that you will check in with them if you're getting ready to go do something that has potential major impact for the organization. I'm not suggesting you go out and make massive mistakes that are going to harm the organization so that you can grow your skillset. That's not the goal. And that's often when a boss is worried that's what they're worried about. they're worried that you'll make a mess that they're going to have to clean up. So talk that through with them. Because you have to have an understanding about that before you can freely go ahead to develop your skillset in this area. And are you willing to look within and uncover and address internal blocks? And by the way, if you're resistant to making mistakes, That's an internal block. And are you willing to change in order to grow? I say this to my clients all the time. You already know how to get the results you currently have. If you are a hundred percent thrilled with those results You don't need to change a thing. Just keep doing what you're doing. But getting different results, getting better results, making a bigger impact. That requires changing at least some aspects of what you're doing. And probably how you're being and how you're showing up. And perhaps, it may even require shifting your identity to some extent. Over many years of working with clients to help them improve their advocacy skills and effectiveness. I've observed a consistent truth. People who make the most progress are the ones who do all of those six things. But I've also observed that even people operating at a fairly high skill level in the technical aspects of advocacy still have unaddressed internal blocks that are keeping them from their next level. And I see this on almost a daily basis. The reality is addressing the internal blocks is actually its own skillset. I recently watched a CEO who's a very experienced advocate start out in a legislative briefing with outstanding messaging. Great framing using a really engaging approach that was weaving together story and impact. And I was so excited watching them do this. I thought this is great. You've got those policy makers attention. I can see them being drawn in. This is awesome. And then suddenly the CEO changed gears. And they went into presentation mode. And almost immediately the energy in the room dropped. The focus and attention from the policymakers in the room also dropped. And then they were simply listening politely rather than being fully engaged as they had been moments before. Later I asked the CEO what happened. And they said, well, two things. I lost my train of thought for a minute and got flustered. And then I started to get a little worried about making sure I got all my points in. And so I just went back to my script. So yes, on the face of it, that's what happened. But the deeper question I had for that CEO was what caused you to lose faith in the power of the engaging approach you were using. You could see it was working. What caused you to stop that and go back to the safe and familiar? What was the fear? What was the belief that prompted you to do that? So as we got into that, what came up was, well, they didn't want to screw up a high stakes opportunity. Well, what do you mean by screw up? I didn't want to appear unprofessional. what does that mean? Well, you know, formal presentation is professional. The whole story, weaving thing is doesn't feel so professional. I don't want to be seen as unprofessional. Well by whom. turns out they were worried about being seen as unprofessional by their colleagues. A bunch of other colleagues had gone ahead of the CEO in giving presentations to this group of policymakers. And every one of them was boring. Just droning on from their talking points. The policymakers were barely able to stay awake. It was a disaster until this CEO came in and started really engaging them. But that fear. Everyone else did it this other way. And I was the different one. they allowed that to undermine their confidence in what they knew was working. And to revert to something less effective but that felt safe and comfortable. So that's an example of how, even when you're operating. At a very high skill level. Your internal stuff will still sometimes get in your way. So the first and most important thing I think is to be aware of that reality, that we all have internal stuff that gets in the way all the time. And if we pretend it's not there we do ourselves an enormous disservice. Yes, it can be very uncomfortable to dig into that and understand what's happening. But if we don't, we'll just keep repeating the same mistakes, and those aren't the kind of mistakes you want. You want the ones you'll learn from. Not the ones you keep doing because you can't get out of your internal stuff. And so then you just keep staying stuck at the same level. So for that CEO, Their next level wasn't about developing their communication skills further. They knew what to do and they were quite capable of it from a technical skill standpoint. That wasn't the problem. Rather it was the internal work to address the remaining blocks that undermine their confidence. Another common problem that I see come up a lot is clients who are working on building an influential relationship with a particular decision maker. And they're not making much progress. When we dig into it. I often discover that the advocate harbor's a belief that the decision maker will never see them as someone important and worth listening to. Well, you can see how that would be a problem. Now in one particular case, the client was very forthcoming and just said that out loud. But more often, what I find is that the belief, whether it's that one or another one, is lurking somewhere in the background. But it's not right on the surface. So it's affecting the advocate's behavior, but they don't realize it. Over time. I've realized that one of the most vital pieces of advocacy skill development. Is to address the internal stuff. Now, if you're already adept at quickly, identifying when you feel stuck or blocked and immediately examining what internal factors may be at play that are preventing you from going forward, then congratulations, you are unusual. For most of us, this is a lifelong project. But make no mistake. It is also a skill set that will serve you well, not only in your advocacy work, but everywhere in life. And be aware that internal issues can masquerade as very rational thoughts. A classic example of this is I don't have time. Whether it's, I don't have time to focus on my advocacy skill development, or I don't have time to focus on advocacy work in general. I'm too busy. I have all these other things on my plate. Be aware, this is very likely. Your reticular activating system or RAs. Doing its best to keep you in the safe and familiar. It doesn't want you to challenge yourself to step into the unfamiliar uncomfortable territory. And it will offer up all sorts of very rational reasons why you shouldn't do that right now. Now's not a good time. Maybe later. And the truth is you can easily keep yourself busy, 24 7 with all the things you already know how to do. When I was starting this podcast, I felt. Overwhelmed by the idea of starting this big, new thing. With a huge learning curve. All while keeping up with my other work. And so I would work on it a little and then set it aside. And I wasn't getting anywhere. I kept telling myself, oh, I don't have the bandwidth for this right now. I'll focus on this. When things calm down. Well, you know, bandwidth was a false issue. It was my very sneaky RAs trying to keep me operating in the safe and familiar. I had to override that and make a conscious decision to make the podcast a priority and then follow through on that. And that involves a lot of stuff. For me, that involved reconnecting to my why. Which is the mission and vision that I have for my work and for the podcast in particular which is to reach as many progressive nonprofit leaders as possible to help them become uh, powerfully influential advocates. And eventually my vision is that there are thousands of us out there who are not only influencing decision makers, but actually starting to shift the direction of the conversations about what are the priorities in our communities and in the country for what policies should do and how it should help people and how resources should be allocated and spent and how this all should work. Because what we got now, ain't working. And I believe we can do so much better, but it's going to take all of us. All of us fully engaged and being powerfully effective advocates to do it. That's my, why? That's why I'm here. That's why I show up every week with this podcast is to help make that vision a reality. Connecting to that helped a lot, but it wasn't enough. I also made the decision to invest in some serious coaching. And join a peer group that helped keep me on track and hold me accountable to fulfilling my commitment on that priority. When I did that, I immediately began to make real and rapid progress. But I could have kept going forever saying, oh, now's not a good time. Maybe later. And I did that for longer than I'd like to admit. I had to make a conscious decision and take specific action to override that little RAs, uh, oh no, now's not a good time. So please don't say you don't have time. We all get the same 24 hours in a day. And we make choices about how we're going to use those 24 hours. It is okay if you decide not to make skill development a priority. But if you're going to make that choice, then own it. Say out loud to yourself, I choose not to make my own skill development a priority in my life at this time. And then sit with that a bit and see how that feels. Does that feel true? Does that feel right? whenever you find yourself saying, I don't have time, do yourself a favor and reframe. See if it still feels right. And that's also part of where commitment comes in. Part of the are you committed inventory is, if you're not feeling very committed, then it might be time for you to reconnect with your why. Why does this work matter to you? Why do you do what you do? What's the impact you're seeking to make in the world? And specific to advocacy. What are you trying to make happen there? what is your reason for wanting to be an effective advocate? How will that change things for the people you serve? For your community. Or for your organization or all of the above. And honestly, I think regularly recommitting to your why is valuable no matter where you are in the process. The thing that is our passion and purpose is what causes us to invest energy in this work. And specifically in advocacy work. So reconnecting to that is always a good plan because it sustains us through the difficulties that we face in the process of growing and changing. Now I love working with clients who can identify what their next level is. Or at least a piece of it. Who can say, I want to get better at X, here's my assessment of what I do well, and what I struggle with. And I want to get better at that. how can we work on this? Awesome. But a lot of that can be quite hard to see on your own. And it's really hard to try and grow your skills if you don't have a sense of what it is you need to work on. That's why teachers and mentors and coaches are so valuable because they help us see our blind spots. They help us see the places where our skills may be less strong or can benefit from additional development or refinement. And of course they can help us identify our internal blocks so that we can address them. So if you're not sure what to focus on. My advice is to focus on two things that are at the core of 99% of all successful advocacy. Work on your communication skills. And work on your personal power. Okay. Now that first one I'm sure made total sense to you. And the second one might have you going, huh? what do you mean? Communication is fundamental and critical to any successful advocacy. It's so many pieces. It's about effective message development. It's about understanding your audience and knowing what they care about and matching your focus to the things that they care about. Aligning Your objectives with theirs. It's about communicating in a way that is engaging and draws people in and makes them want to know more. It's about how you use your voice, How you use story, how you use tone, how you use body language. There's so many pieces to effective communication. All of which have a massive impact on your success in advocacy. you can work on that forever and still have more to work on. there's also just the general concept of speaking in public. If you're totally cool sitting down one-on-one with a decision maker, but getting up in front of a legislative hearing, totally freaks you out. Then that's something to be aware of and that's a skill to work on. or maybe it's the other way around. You're fine. in front of a big group, but if you have to go one-on-one with a policymaker where it's just you and them, that makes you feel a little off center. Or you just find that you aren't as quick on your feet as you'd like to be when decision makers ask you questions, Whatever it is. All of those are part of communication skills. Take anything from the list I just said and pick one or two of them. if anything that I said made you say, oh yeah, I really struggle with that. Then that's probably something you want to focus on first. If everything I said you were going. Yup. Yup. I'm good on all of that. Well, then I challenge you to identify what is your next level? Because again, unless you have all the results you ever wanted from your advocacy and you are in perfect shape and can't think of anything more, any bigger impact you would like to make. Then there's a next level. So, what would that look like for you? How could you be even more effective at anyone or all of those aspects of communication skills? There's a lot to mine there. Now. Work on your personal power. What the heck does that mean? Well, it's internal, definitely. It is about how you show up. It's about the identity you inhabit. It's about what you believe about yourself, relative to powerful decision makers. And that is some complicated stuff sometimes. how it manifests itself when we don't have a good grip on our personal power is. I'm going to give some examples. There's many more, but here are some. You're in a conversation with a decision maker or a group of them. And one of them challenges you on something you've said. It might be a mild challenge. Well, I don't know. I don't know if that's right. Or, that can't be right! You don't know what you're talking about. Or something in between. or you're in a setting where you're talking to a room full of people and you're looking to engage them as prospective partners in something. whether it's policymakers or prospective contracting partners, whoever it is. you're in a room full of people and you have an opportunity to get them excited about working with your organization. you're all excited and you get ready to stand up in front of the room and then you start to doubt whether you're expert enough or, well, I don't know if I have all the answers. I don't know. if I'm prepared, I don't know if I'm good enough to do this. I don't know. I mean, maybe, I don't know. So any kind of self-doubt is a form of not fully standing in your personal power. And a lot of it. And bear with me here because I'm going to go somewhere that may feel very uncomfortable. A lot of times at the root of all of those kinds of self doubts are a couple of things. But at the very, very root is often about not feeling worthy in some way. And a podcast is not a great place to try to get into that in any depth. But I will tell you that in coaching conversations, One-on-one a lot of times, that's where we wind up. That if you peel back all of the layers of what's in the way? What's going on? what are the fears and what are the beliefs that are creating a block? That way down underneath all of that is often something to do with worthiness and something to do with a fear of being judged. Well, first of all, you are worthy because every human being is worthy. We don't say when we encounter a Three month old baby, oh, well, they're not worthy. They haven't done anything useful yet. Get to work baby, or you're not worthy. We would never say that. We're like, oh, the most precious, beautiful, wonderful creature. You are fabulous. You are special. you are everything. You are the moon and the sun and the stars. And that's exactly right. And we all are. We all are. Your worth has nothing to do with what you do. Your worth is inherent as a human being. And so much of what is wrong with the world is a whole bunch of people trying to tell others that they're not worthy because of what they do or don't do. But it's all BS. We are all worthy as human beings. Simply by being here. You are worthy and have every right to present your ideas, your thoughts, your expertise and your knowledge, whatever level it's at. Comparing yourself and saying but I don't know as much as that other person over there, or I'm not a complete expert or I don't have the most unimpeachable, double blind study, validated academic research, proving my impact. And if I don't have that, well, then it's not good enough. And I don't know, I probably shouldn't even be standing here talking to these people that is not standing in your personal power. Power in the context of advocacy, your personal power comes from your desire to make the world a better place. And you have legitimate thoughts and ideas about how to do that and how to work with other people to make those good things happen. And that is all you need to bring And the second piece is to not care about what other people think. In the sense of there will always be people who will judge you for standing up for yourself, for standing up for the things you believe in, for standing in front of a room full of policymakers and saying what you think ought to happen. There will always be somebody judging you for every thing you do. People judge you for what shoes you put on this morning. They judge you for how you did your hair. They judge you for everything. Oh, my goodness. They judge you for what you put in your grocery cart or don't put in it. They judge you for what car you drive or what neighborhood you live in. They judge you for everything. There's going to be somebody who judges you for everything you do from the minute you get out of bed in the morning to the minute and you go to bed at night. And for the most part, you let that stuff roll off your back, right? Cause If you didn't, you'd be paralyzed. You'd never be able to leave your house. And then someone would judge you for that. We are all capable of letting that stuff roll off most of the time. But when we're feeling a little unsure of ourselves, That's when it gets tricky. That's when that fear of being judged starts to get some grip on us. And so we have to learn to say that's not important. I don't care. I don't care because what I'm doing is too important to be distracted by that. Now there's many more things to do to work on developing your personal power, but in a specific advocacy context, those are some basics that are very good to work on. Now, back to the example of that CEO who, generally speaking stands in their personal power quite well most of the time, thank you very much. But in that moment, they didn't. In that moment they were knocked off balance, figuratively speaking. And they scampered for the safe and familiar. So when that kind of thing happens. It'll happen. It's okay. Take the time to understand what happened. And ask yourself, what was that really about? What was the fear? What was the underlying belief? And what do I need to teach my subconscious is true, that is different from whatever that was. If the fear was, I worry that my colleagues will think I'm unprofessional. Then you need to reframe that. And maybe the reframe is professional is what gets the job done. And by the way, all y'all were tanking while I had them in the palm of my hand. So who is the professional in this setting? Professional is what gets the job done. reframing. Is very helpful, but you have to do it consciously. you have to be willing to take that stuff apart and say, what's going on here? what are the real fears? What are the real beliefs that are underlying this? And then reprogram your subconscious around that. in many more episodes we'll get into some more details about how that actually happens and how you do that. But from a very basic standpoint, it is in part about just uncovering the belief and refuting that belief. And saying that is not actually what is true. I know that's not true. first of all, I know that I am professional. And secondly, I believe that professional is what gets the job done. And so if I'm getting the job done and I'm being effective, then by definition, I am being professional. that replaces. a hidden belief that was basically, professional means doing a formal presentation and following this specific format. That's like, no, that's nonsense. Not if it's not going to get the job done. Why would you do that? you know, I had one I've had more than one client say to me in the context of personal power and advocacy. in the context of interacting with the decision maker. I want you to teach me how to be mean. I know what they mean by that. What they mean is teach me how not to care about being judged. Teach me how to be strong and powerful and assertive without being a jerk. and stand toe to toe with somebody who has more power than I. but I'm fascinated that the question gets formed that way, because what it tells me. Is that there is a very important underlying belief there. That if you stand in your personal power and if you are assertive and advocate for what you believe is the right thing, that that makes you mean. Well, You don't want to be a mean person So as long as you believe that. standing in your personal power equals being mean. you're never going to stand in your personal power. Because you don't want to be a mean person. That goes against everything about your identity. So there's a lot to explore with that. And I encourage you for a starting project around personal power is to just notice. When you feel like you're not owning your power. Notice that and take a look at what are the underlying fears? What are the underlying beliefs? That might be causing you to shrink back. To hide your light, as they say, in those settings. modifying our behavior because we are afraid of being judged is one of the most common and classic examples of how we give away our personal power. why would we give power to someone judging us? Why would we do that? Well, we wouldn't, consciously. But subconsciously we do. And so. a lot of the task is too dig into what's really going on underneath the hood. Those are the two things: I would work on communication skills, and I would begin to work on your personal power. the other thing I will say that is a very good thing to work on. So it's really three things. Is choosing consciously how you're spending your time. The conscious choice part is one of the most important practices you can have. Not just at work, but in life. again, if you're making a conscious choice to make your personal skill development be a low priority, be sure to own that and say it out loud. And be very aware of rationalizations like, oh, I'll pay attention to my skill development as soon as work comes down. that's your reticular activating system offering up things to keep you safe and familiar and protect you from having to grow and change. Your next level, whatever it is. Your next level of advocacy skills and advocacy success is out there. Waiting for you. It's there. All it needs. Is for you to commit. And be willing to take imperfect action. To start learning and growing and becoming that next level advocate. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.