Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind: The Podcast

In this episode, I take some examples from my daily life to spotlight some invaluable qualities for being an effective nonprofit leader. These include how to manage change by valuing simplicity and being visible, how and when to vent, and why it is sometimes so important to stick around until the end of a conversation, conference, meeting, of project with ones full attention tuned in so as not to miss crucial details and nuance.

In this episode, the first in a while after returning from a book tour with 2 other authors, I discuss the difference between short-term, tactical thinking and acting, and how that compares with a longer-term perspective. Sometimes, playing for short-term advantage can undermine long-term progress, while other times it can support it. I share some real examples from my career to illustrate the synergies and tensions.

In this episode, I share about a PhD student whose praise for this podcast inspired me to get back to recording episodes, and about why self-understanding and self-improvement are important for all people, but especially so for nonprofit leaders. I give 4 examples of my life where I am trying to improve myself: in 2 cases I am making good progress, and in the other 2 I am struggling. I also explain how affirming yourself when you make even minor progress on something you are trying to improve on can help a lot.

In this episdode, I kick off the second season by reflecting on the importance of being in continual learning mode, but also on the fact that as a leader, you need to take promising practices and ideas and make them feel authentic for you and your evolving style.

I consider myself a risk-taker. Some of my most important accomplishments have come from things I attempted that many people advised me were too risky to go for. In addition, some of my biggest setbacks can be traced to an instance where I took a big risk -- whether I realized it or not at the time -- and it backfired. Yet sometimes I become very cautious and risk-averse. In this podcast, I talk about my approach to risk-taking and also how our ability to assess the work required to get something done or our leverage in a negotiation is imperfect. Seeking to question your own assumptions about risk, leverage, and work requiremetns can lead to some highly valuable insights.

In this episode, I explore a few pitfalls that are common when making amends with (apologizing to) someone, or when offering feedback and criticism. Follow these 5 tips and you'll be much more effective in these tricky situations, whether with a family member or a major donor.

In this episdoe, I talk about a time when I learned that a famous philanthropist had told another person that I was the best fundraiser he had ever met, and how my reflections on that feedback led me to reconsider the role of receiving and giving compliments and praise in being an effective mission-driven leader.

When we try to cause positive change society, there are limits to what any individual can do on their own. But our conversations with others can be unexpectedly powerful opportunities to support other changemakers, who may be more open to being influenced by you -- through your affirmations, lessons, and ideas -- than you realize. So approach every conversation, every board or team meeting, and every speech as a big opportunity to create change by empowering other changemakers. In this episode, I share how I came to this insight and some ideas about how you can apply it yourself.

In this episode, I first reflect on the fact that now that I am a nonprofit executive director again (albeit on a part-time basis), sometimes I experience the kinds of sleepless nights that all leaders deal with from time to time. Then I share a recent experience about how I turned a relationship that was characterized by conflict into one of collaboration, and how this realizing this kind of transformation is an important part of mission-driven leadership -- since unlike in politics or business, nonprofits can't afford to leave many potential alliances unexplored.

In this short episode, I share something I learned from one of the most demanding periods of leadership I experienced, during the early 2010s. I noticed that by interspering short periods of being a follower, in other words being led by others, in my personal and professional lives, it allowed me to return to being a leader replenished and with new insights and energy. I later applied this technique in other ways, and it made me a better leader.

In this episode, I assert that talent as a public speaker is an overrated (though still important) skill for mission-driven leaders. It is OK to be OK at it, at least at the start of your leadreship gig. Yes, try to gradually improve over time. But you never have to be great, and in any case, great speeches have as much to do with the quality of the audience (i.e., their receptivity to what you have to say) as the quality of the speech.

On the other hand, being a good listener is a more important and often underappreciated skill. I explain several contexts related to mission-driven leadership where the quality of ones listening goes a long way to determining how successful you are in advancing your organization's work.

In this short episode, I share one of my core management philosophies that revolves around knowing when to reward people who are struggling or may have had a big failure or setback -- as long as they learn from their experience. I use as an example how the Philadelphia sports fans recently rallied around a struggling baseball player and turned his season around, when it would have been much more common for them to boo him. This can be applied in any team context, but is perhaps most important in nonprofits where people are often in over their heads and don't have much in the way of formal professional development opportunities, and where they care deeply about the work -- maybe too deeply -- and where they may have given up more lucrative jobs to take the one they are in.

In this episode--recorded soon after I returned from Asia where I was able to spend time with my mentor Professor Muhammad Yunus, who was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006--I address the sense of overwhelm that many nonprofit leaders face due to the limitations of what they and even their organizations can do on the multiple crises in the world today. I suggest that all of us working in any way for a better society are together writing a new story for humanity, or creating a new vision for humanity, and at the same time working together to realize that vision. In other words, we are together, as a team held together by invisible web of solidarity and imagination, writing a great work of "social fiction" that once articulated will become real just like many works of "science fiction" written 50 years ago have led to scientific inquiry and breakthroughs that today shape our world. By each of us doing our part and trusting in our teammates working on other issues (or the same issue in different ways) to do their parts, we can relax, focus on what we can do now, and have faith that due to this massive, decentralized team effort things will be much better in the years to come.

In this episode, I talk about the essential things Executive Directors of small to medium-sized nonprofits need to understand well enough about nonprofit financial management so that they can ask the right questions of the people who manage their finances -- in order to ensure they are doing their jobs and that the financial condition of the organization is clear and strong (or at least improving) -- and also to communicate effectively with ones board, auditors, and government agencies.

When you are in a leadership position in a mission-driven organization, how you spend your time on the job is a critical factor that determines how successful you and your organization are. Yet too often, leaders never take the time to figure out their priorities when it comes to how many hours they spend on different areas of their work. They get overscheduled without any coherent framework about what makes sense for them to devote time to, and what they can delegate, ignore, or de-prioritize. Their calendars look random rather than strategic. In this episode, I talk about what I learned during 20 years of leading nonprofits and 5 years of consulting for mission-driven leaders about how to use my time most effectively.

Most nonprofit leaders get involved in mission-driven work because they want to improve society. Nonprofits do this through the programs they implement. In this episode, I share 3 essential criteria for whether to start and continue a program. Then I describe some opportunities and pitfalls for leaders to play the most effective roles possible in creating and supporting programs that their organizations deliver to the community to help improve it. In the end, nonprofit leaders in all but the very smallest organizations are at their best when they are nurtuing an ecosystem where others can create, execute, evaluate, and improve great programs -- rather than designing and running the progams themselves. Their role is more akin to the conductor of an orchestra rather than its star musician. It is a subtle distinction but it can make all the difference in the world.

In this episode, I draw some lessons from the experience of a friend of mine who died recently about how to live today -- as a leader, as a friend or a relative, as a global citizen, and as a human being. I describe some thought experiments drawn from how my friend lived the last 18 months of his life as a guide to how to priortize what we call can do now.

The first time I recorded this, I forgot to turn on the mic -- but that ended up being a blessing since on the second take, it came out much better.

I also share my plans on developing a new podcast for first-time nonprofit executive directors and invite listener feedback.

Many nonprofit leaders don't take time off, either because they feel that they can't (due to how it would negatively impact the mission) or because they want to reinforce how committed they are to the mission, or both. In other cases, they take vacations but don't come back refreshed. A special case of a vacation is a sabbatical, where a leader gets an extended period of time off that can range from one to three months, or more. In this episode, I share some of my learnings about how to take vacations and sabbaticals in ways that serve you as a leader and your organization, and some pitfalls to avoid. In the end, whether and how you take time off is a very personal decision. This episode is meant to help you choose the course that is right for you and for your group's mission.

In this episode, I turn to the issue of self-care by talking about my journey. I began my career glorifying self-sacrifice to advance the missions of organizations I cared about, but soon realized how bankrupt and self-defeating that was. In part that was due to a tragedy that befell someone I admired. But then I began searching for and using many ideas and techniques related to self-care, some of which proved highly useful to me. I share some of the most powerful ones in this episode.

Occasionally, people who sign on to support you mission tell you they are departing. Sometimes it is planned, but sometimes it is abrupt ... and even hurtful. Sometimes you are relieved they are leaving. Often there are a mixture of emotions and implications.

Sometimes the person who is departin will tell you they will never work with you again, and other times it is implied. This can throw you for a loop as a leader.

In this episode, I share a common mistake leaders make in such situations and how to avoid it.

Playing a leadership role in a mission-driven organization can be deeply meaningful for that leader and highly impactful on society, but it can also be stressful and anxiety-producing. I certainly experienced all of those aspects during my 20 years running nonprofits. Learning how to deal with that inevitable anxiety is a crucial but underappreciated leadership challenge. In this episode, I talk about two strategies for dealing with anxiety that have worked for me. One is about developing a ritual that can preempt anxiety and reduce it once it surfaces. Another is adopting a mindset that puts anxiety-producing in a more realistic perspective.

After reflecting on how I struggled to apply my own idea of "sometimes good is good enough" to the first episode of my podcast, and telling listeners a little about me, I focused on the paradox that while experiencing revenue growth in a nonprofit solves some problems, it creates new ones that must be confronted. And finally I talk about some of the most fundemental things I have learned about fundraising that many nonprofits get wrong -- and by getting them right, your mission-driven organization can thrive.