Posts Tagged "Leadership"

In this excerpt from our forthcoming book, The Sustainability Mindset by Jeanne Bell and Steve Zimmerman (coming fall 2014 from Jossey-Bass), we explore the concept of “right” revenue as a way of analyzing and deepening your understanding of the connection between financial resources and mission impact. 
 

These days, we’ve been spending a lot of time with exhausted leaders. Our experience usually goes something like this:

A highly talented and productive CEO (or Program Director or Associate Director) of a nonprofit shows up to our meeting feeling defeated, exhausted, and burned out. She has too much to do and not enough time to do it. She feels guilty taking time off of work because things are just “too crazy” right now. She is still running on fumes from preparing for and pulling off a presentation at the very last minute. Her voicemail is full, her email is full, and she complains about spending her days putting out fires. She isn’t sure there is an end in sight, yet after venting for a bit, she pauses and says, “But, at least I’m getting stuff done!”
 

In this blog, CompassPoint governance consultant Marla Cornelius emphasizes that the board chair’s most important role is not just knowing what to “do” to manage the organization’s board, but more importantly how to “be” a facilitator and lever of organizational change. 
 

Last September, I wrote a blog about the connection between self-care, sustainability, and impact. Among other things, I discussed how unconscious habits could hinder our self-care and offered some ideas and thoughts on creating an individual practice of self-care. In this post, I want to reflect on what collective self-care practices need to be put into place within our own organizations to support sustainability and deepen impact.