Leadership Roadmaps

Building on a recent post...
Being intentional about your own leadership development is important. That doesn't mean responding to every networking opportunity, reading every book in your field, and participating in every course and conference. Eventually the breadth of opportunities that is helpful in expanding your understanding in the beginning must give way to more focused, in depth attention on those areas and resources which will yield the best advancement.

I'm at that stage in my role with Catalyst. Having grazed in a somewhat haphazard fashion all around non profit leadership and poverty reduction strategies for a year I know enough to start being more specific and discerning about how I spend my time, energy, and budget. In the next few weeks I'll be working on an annual plan for my own development that will include a reading list, courses/conferences I want to partake of, relationships I want to build, and topics I need to explore. I can't afford to be so reactive anymore; it is time to plan ahead.

With so many resources available (I just googled "leadership conference 2009" and got 893,000 hits in 0.28 seconds!) deciding what is worth the investment is extremely difficult. Here are a few strategies to streamline your planning:

-Choose one person in your field that you deeply respect and ask them what are the most useful resources they've found (thanks always Mark and Brideway)
-Choose one author or organization and only use their materials (hello Malcolm Gladwell in 2009)
-Start a small network/book club/lunch bunch/whatever and take turns bringing a resource and summary to share and discuss (anyone want to do one of these in Halton/Hamilton this year?)
-look for packaged sets of materials like these from John Maxwell
-make sure you occasionally do some intentional learning from way outside your field (I still think about the quantum physics book I read on a camping trip three years ago)

Above all, do something on purpose and with purpose. The dreams you want to follow are too important for you to passively wait for leadership to happen to you.

Instant Strategy

On my 2009 to do list is to start reading things by Malcolm Gladwell. All the more after reading this article by Fred Smith. He takes off on Gladwell's book Blink and describes how there are philanthropists who have the innate ability to ascertain the value of applicants with remarkable intuition and speed. As most of us become more and more involved in increasingly detailed analysis, there is something very appealing about the possibility of a more informal and accurate approach.

I would love to know more about this. Does anyone have experience to add?

Abbey Park Underway

This morning we began our first program of leadership development for high school students. We are with a class of 24 through the business department of Abbey Park High School in Oakville, ON.
It was a good start as we explored the ways in which those things we did as children that we really enjoyed and thought we did well can often lead us to themes or patterns for the rest of our lives. It was encouraging to see many of the class appear to be engaging with the ideas and process.
We'll be together for a total of 7 sessions over the next 8 weeks and each student will ultimately have the opportunity to produce a personal action plan to take steps toward turning their life dreams into reality.
Already a few took the risk of sharing some areas in which they want to do something meaningful; from being in a position to care for their own families as well as they've been cared for, to educating poor children around the world beyond a basic level, to improving recreational facilities in the local community. There was a tangible energy shift in the room when a few people talked about their lives accomplishing something they identified as meaningful.
As part of the session I recommended the book "What's Your Red Rubber Ball" by Kevin Carroll, who also wrote "Rules of the Red Rubber Ball". It was great to be able to leave a copy of the book for the students to dig into.
A couple other highlight moments:
-the look on their faces when instead of saying good morning I opened with a game of Simon Says
-watching some faces light up as they started telling each other their own childhood stories
-seeing an enthusiastic teacher and being able to quickly affirm in front of the class that she has had a lifelong preparation for what she is doing right now
-having one of the students join the accompanying facebook group for the program before I even made it to the parking lot

I'll post more on this as the weeks go by

Picking Favourites

We are partway through the process of evaluating our applicants from this funding cycle. It has been a large learning experience. In a few weeks I will post some of what we've learned in the hope of becoming better at it next time around.

One of the challenges at times in our discussions has been in explaining what it is about certain applications that appeals to us. There are obvious factors: people we know, those who have clearly done their homework on us, ones that presented their request effectively, those that are intuitively a fit for our strategy and direction...
But there's also something else, something that I couldn't easily explain around our table but that is more clear to me after reading an excellent article by Andy Crouch this afternoon. I am enthused about supporting and partnering with people who are engaging with our culture in ways that involve creating and cultivating.

I've had Andy's book on my shelf for a couple months at the urging of Mark Petersen, but haven't taken the time to read it yet. That will have to change. In trying to be strategic about the use of the finances at our disposal we need to be thinking about the issues raised here.

Worth Reading

A quick list of websites and blogs that I find helpful:
Strive! is the best organization I've come across for helping boards learn to function in ways that don't drive themselves, staff, volunteers, donors, and clientele to desperate frustration. You should subscribe to their monthly GEMs and buy Jim Brown's book.


Mission Based Management by Peter Brinckerhoff keeps me thinking about how nonprofits can keep their focus in the midst of the daily realities of work.

Seth Godin's blog is updated pretty much daily and offers some innovative ideas about marketing that have the ring of both genius and common sense.

Open Hands is the blog of Mark Petersen from Bridgeway Foundation. Mark has been unfailingly helpful as we're getting Catalyst underway and he knows everybody.

I could give several more but this is a good start. And since it is hard to keep up with all of these I highly recommend Google Reader or some other tool that keeps you aware of updates.

A Primer on Microfinance

Last week I recommended a book on microfinance. After a really good meeting on Wednesday with Opportunity International - Canada I was sent this article that breaks the idea down into a pretty manageable chunk while also exploring the edges of the approach.
Microfinance is going to be a key piece to our strategy.

Gaining Perspective

Two books are strongly shaping our approach to our philanthropy as we enter our September funding cycle (draft proposals due August 15th):
Out of Poverty by Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises.
and
A Billion Bootstraps by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman, who have had ties to Opportunity International.

These two books, combined with the time we've spent getting to know Medical Ministry International, (and is anyone pushing Willie Hunter to write a book?) are giving us a vision for using our resources to bring lasting change to deeply poor communities.

Watch for a major revision to our website very soon that will explain this further.

And Away We Go

I am trying to catch loose ends before I leave for a project with Medical Ministry International in the Dominican Republic tomorrow morning. Point form here we go:

-I am very excited about the time with MMI. They (Leanne Graham in particular) have been amazing in the process of making arrangements for this trip after two previous attempts didn't work out.

-I haven't been in a cross-cultural situation in a while. Hope I can still fake enough Spanish to not offend people too much.

-Catalyst just approved a refined funding strategy for this year (focusing on preparing for granting in September). I am very excited about our approach and look forward to explaining it here and on our website later in July.

-Books I'm taking with me for the Dominican project and a week's vacation afterwards:
Out of Poverty - Paul Polak
Making the Best Of It - John Stackhouse
Wishful thinking - Frederick Buechner
Forgotten ways - Alan Hirsch

-The "What is missional?" synchroblog was an interesting experience that I would probably repeat. Great variety of perspectives, but overall too academic and impersonal from where I sit.

-I'll be out of touch until July 14th. Peace to you.

Best. Article. Ever.

There is no doubt that Jesus was and is a leader. However, in our quest to develop leaders we are often guilty of abusing the Biblical accounts of his life, death, and resurrection. My shelf contains several books claiming to draw leadership principles from the life of Jesus that we can all apply to our contexts today.

Stop now and read this article. I'll wait for you to get back.

Jesus was a poor leader by current corporate standards. That wasn't what he tried to accomplish. We can learn a huge amount from his teaching and example that is relevant to us as leaders and as followers, and we should. But when we make him a leadership guru we severely diminish the truth and grace he expresses.

Let us lead well, but never better than we follow.

30 Seconds or Less

I like long conversations, but I hate wasting time. One of the great challenges for nonprofit leaders is to communicate the purpose and value of their organization quickly, clearly, and with strong appeal. It's often called "the elevator speech".
I just finished reading a book that has a bunch of simple, practical helps for effective communication that relates not only to the fundraising pitch but to all kinds of regular human interactions.
"How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less" by Milo Frank is the kind of book I would usually pass by because I've been told many times that I'm a good communicator, but this week I've realised that I've missed some opportunities because I wasn't clear and concise enough. I'm probably not alone in that.
It's not a fancy resource and having it on your shelf won't impress anyone; but if you want to get a response from people, professionally or personally, it's worth the hour or so it takes to read.

Measurement: The great dilemma

A recurring theme in the last few months is the challenge and need for nonprofit and ministry organizations to find a decisive way to self-evaluate. By extension, Catalyst and other grantmakers need criteria to evaluate not only applications but also the outcomes of projects after they receive funding.

There are a few particular difficulties in this:
-Reluctance: Nonprofit leaders are largely involved in matters and issues that are driven by compassion rather than efficiency. Many times they are resistant to the "corporate" emphasis on numerical evaluation. In my years at camps I saw the anger that was prompted when someone from the board asked how many campers had made faith commitments during a particular program. Staff found that offensive and felt it diminished the nature of relationships to something merely transactional and manipulative.
-Ambiguity: Social services and spiritual projects are notoriously difficult to quantify. How do you measure the benefits of a relationship? Rarely is there a single point of emphasis and the people involved may all have different value and priority for the varied outcomes.
-Tools: Cultural change doesn't lend itself to a simple bar graph. There is a shortage of recognizable methods for identifying and communicating the kinds of outputs and outcomes we're interested in supporting.
-Objectivity: Nonprofit workers are almost always passionate about their work. (We wouldn't partner with any that aren't). Their clientele are understandably grateful for the most part for what is being accomplished. It is a lot to ask of either of those groups to provide a relatively unbiased perspective.
-Hope: As may be the case in other fields (but I suspect is exaggerated in these ones), nonprofit and ministry people are optimists. They look for the signs of life in even the most desperate situations. It's a necessary prerequisite of much off what they do, but when applied to evaluation is clearly distorted.
-Narrative: When numbers are hard to generate or interpret we rely on stories. Funding for charities has always been based more on tugging the heart strings than swaying the intellect. The traditional pitch of "a sob story and a slideshow" is deeply entrenched and typically effective. Anyone can come up with at least one compelling account of someone who's life is being bettered from their efforts.

Despite all of these impediments there are efforts being made widely to develop useful and relevant ways of measuring the results of nonprofits. As I wrote about previously, Jim Collins has produced a monograph of Good to Great aimed specifically at the social sector where he argues for the necessity of determining standards of evaluation that are measurable. It is a very live discussion among the professionals I met at the recent PIGS conference as well.

Prior to the start of Catalyst I was involved in starting a new church in our community. We were under the authority and support of the church where I had been staff for several years; and I reported to the leadership there. When after more than a year our new congregation wasn't significantly growing the leadership began to question the wisdom in continuing. Of course I resisted. I could see the sparks of potential and the impact we were having on the few people who were involved. Ultimately the decision was made to close the new church. It was difficult for all involved (new congregation, myself, and the leaders of the larger church), and was made all the more difficult because there was no standard of measure by which to evaluate what was happening.

I admit that I find the process of determining objective measurement criteria for matters of spirituality and social justice to be both daunting and dangerous. Obviously we don't want to reduce the efforts of our partners to spreadsheet entries. At the same time, I have become increasingly aware that with those criteria established and agreed upon there is a freedom to pursue a vision with greater confidence that you have defined your purpose and won't be dissuaded by the inevitable swings of energy and enthusiasm.

I am eager to work with our partners to figure out how to farily and helpfully evaluate their honourable efforts.

Kickstart

I just finished reading Kickstart: How Successful Canadians Got Started. It was written by three young recent university grads who weren't exactly sure what to do with their lives. They decided to contact dozens of prominent Canadians in a wide variety of fields and ask them how they reached their status of significance. It's a very worthwhile, quick, and rich read. T|hey also have a companion website you might want to check out.
Interesting reflections from the book:
-Diversity: The figures in Kickstart don't only represent fields as varied as politics, business, athletics, academia, and the arts; they also have taken widely different paths to their achievements. There is no one way to success.
-Mentors: Almost all of the profiles included recognition of someone (often generally anonymous) who was admired by the subject and who at a key point offered them the encouragement and/or challenge that inspired them.
-Childhood: Almost without exception the people profiled in Kickstart are able to link their ultimate prominence to interests, experiences, and patterns from their childhood years. We are wise to refer to that in our own lives when seeking direction.
-Boldness: Not only are the subjects people of nerve; but the authors took the risk of essentially cold-calling these influential figures and asking for interviews. To their surprise, most of the people they called were please to do so and some went far beyond that in response.

It has been my experience that even prominent people will often make time for someone who approaches them for interaction if the approach is clear, well prepared, and specific in nature.

Kudos to Alexander, Paul, and Andrew for this book and the ancillary projects and events that are springing from it.

New Radicals

I recently read a very interesting book called We Are The New Radicals. The premise is that there are a large number of baby boomers who, still in their working years, have become disillusioned with their careers and are looking to do something more intrinsically fulfilling. This version of a mid-life crisis is leading many 50 year olds to look into moving into social sector and charitable causes. The problem is that there aren’t a lot of nonprofit organizations that are really prepared to welcome, train, and fund these established professionals.
We accept that there is a level of sacrifice that is innate to this kind of wrok. But too often the compensation is so meager it eliminates adults with families from consideration, which seriously limits the potential for benefitting from wisdom and experience that is often in short supply.
I’m a big booster for the enthusiasm of youth and the willingness to go above and beyond the expectations they offer. I’m actually quite biased in favour of young leaders, but this book has me thinking that there is a need to find a way to bring together these two demographics.
I wonder which group would find this more difficult: The young leaders who may well be intimidated by the experience and resume of mature newcomers and feel threatened in their leadership; or the New Radicals who must accept the insight to be gained from the specific experience of committed leaders who are the peers of their children?

Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer

I spent some time last week with some really amazing people from the Salvation Army (Canada and Bermuda territory) at Jackson's Point on the shore of Lake Simcoe. I'll have lots more to share about that in the next couple days. For now, I'll just say that helping them through a process of discerning a renewed vision for their youth ministry was a tiring process in some ways; but it was actually inspirational to be with a group people who are sincerely passionate about reaching a generation with the truth and grace of Jesus within the rich legacy that the Army has.

While I was away with them I had the chance to read Jim Collin's monograph for non-profits based on his book Good To Great (which has been on my shelf unread for at least a year).

The monograph was recommended to me by Leanne Graham from Medical Ministry International. I'll trust her judgment completely from now on. this is a really useful resource. It's less than 40 pages, but full of easily understood and applicable ideas. I immediately saw ways it could be applied to our work at Catalyst, and to some of the issues arising with the Salvation Army folks too.

You should read it for yourself, (the $15 and hour of your time will be very well spent), but hear are a couple things that stood out to me:
-there are ways in which "business" principles conflict with social service situations, but there are higher principles that govern all purposes that do translate
-non-profits tend to lose themselves by evaluating measurable inputs when we should be disciplining ourselves to evaluate outcomes
-long term results require disciplined focus on only what we do best, regardless of other opportunities
-getting the right people on board (and the wrong people off) is essential, and high standards are the key to selection (I wish I'd understood this when I was planting a church.)
-we must be fierce about defending our brand, it is the key to our long term effectiveness

I'd love to hear what others think after reading it...