Naomi Hattaway’s Post

Thank you We Are For Good for the PAUSE focused #ImpactUp day yesterday! It was a powerful day of rich and intentional sessions, capped off by an in-person gathering of folks in #Atlanta, including Jen Odom, DeaRonda Harrison, Elandria Jackson Charles, MPA, Laura Turner, Sylvia McCoy, Jordan Patrick 💛, and Wade Edwards. We talked about mental health and wellness as it intersects with the workplace, whether we are remote employees, full-time consultants, or working in spaces where in-person is the norm. Celebrating our collective library of wellness activities like: 🌳 taking nature breaks, whether it means starting out the day in a nearby state park, or making sure to get outside for some "sun on my face" in between zoom calls, or intentionally situating your evening to watch the sunset from your balcony. 🐾 using our pets as good reminders to take breaks, from the new babes (14 week old puppies) to the beloved animals who have been with us for decades. ✈️ prioritizing travel and getting out of town for mental wellness breaks. 🛝 focusing on play and borrowing lessons from recess and finding joy and fun. 🧺 managing household duties in ways that prioritize balance and ease. (what else did I miss, friends who joined last night?) Thank you Jon McCoy, CFRE, Becky Endicott, CFRE, and Julie Confer (and the rest of the team) for all of your work in bringing us ALL the good things and community connectivity.

The idea of riverbanks has long been my mantra when setting personal and professional boundaries. Boundaries feel so rigid, don't they? Riverbanks as an alternative, both provide a more expansive and modern way of looking at personal boundaries, and also provides guidance to navigate through your sector, industry, or workplace. Your riverbanks are your pillars of absolutes. It’s up to you to navigate the water in the middle, which will change, shift or look however you want it to, as long as the riverbanks stay intact. A lack of leadership or lack of accountability will cause the riverbanks to lower, which creates seepage. With seepage comes mess, confusion, toxicity, and an erosion of workplace culture. My encouragement for you is to push on the edges a little bit. Sure, there are predefined rules (or riverbanks), but that doesn’t mean you cannot choose to be innovative in how your work is accomplished. We decide! One of my favorite books is The Power of Onlyness by Nilofer Merchant. In it she says: there's a spot in this world that only you can stand in! Play with that truth, and explore what it is that you bring to the table, that literally no one else can. "Whatever arrangement you have to do around yourself, of boundaries, make those adjustments, so you can hear yourself." - adrienne maree brown Some more content on the topic of riverbanks and values: ⭐️ listen to my podcast on this topic to hear the rest of my thoughts on riverbanks: https://lnkd.in/ekGfabNn ⭐️ watch this short video on riverbanks (and please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel while you're there - I'm trying to hit 100 subscribers!): https://lnkd.in/e6zKa8cy ⭐️ read this article about breathing space and values: https://lnkd.in/e7SgCQdF Do you orient yourself and your work through your values? What questions do you have about values and how to identify yours (or return to them)? #LeavingWell #Riverbanks #Values

Normalizing both workplace transitions and the delight I'm feeling this morning because I took the time to write and schedule emails for the month of October. 🎉 Sometimes it's the simplest problems that we just need a little oomph to address and solve! If workplace transitions, being better in our nonprofits about how we handle retention and goodbyes, #LeavingWell, and overall organizational health is your jam, I'd love for you to join my email newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eVr2sEhJ #WorkplaceTransitions #NonprofitRetention #OrganizationalHealth

"The average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO is 7.2 years for men and just 4.5 years for women." (via this week's Fortune Broadsheet newsletter from Michael Lev-Ram) 4.5 - 7.2 years. While the point of sharing this stat in the Fortune newsletter was to highlight the difference between genders at the CEO level, it struck a different chord for me, on a topic I've been harping about for some time: Executive level leadership ... in one role, in the same nonprofit organization should not be perpetual, over-stayed, or propped up as something to be achieved. Why do we prioritize and glorify long tenures in the nonprofit sector, "celebrating" folks who stay in their roles for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years? Note: my hot take does *not* include opinions about the individual folks who feel their work is still on a trajectory of impact for the organization and community served, after a decade +. My point is that I believe it is harmful for those who are new to ED / CEO roles, or who aspire to be promoted into senior leadership, when the expectation (assumed, implied, or spoken) is that they will be signing up to replicate the length of tenure of their predecessor. People leave. Let's normalize this, and also normalize that a 1-2 year leadership stint can be just as impactful (depending on the situation, sometimes MORE impactful) than a 10+ year stint. When I work with a new leader who is following a founder (or someone who has been embedded in the organization for longer than 10 years), I recommend they treat their new role as I do during interim leadership engagements: with super clear and defined goals, in phases (instead of thinking about it being for forever). 🌱 What does the organization and community served need in the short term? How will my leadership contribute to that need? 🪴 What does the organization and community served need in the mid term? How can my choices and leadership provide support to those goals? 🍁 What does the organization and community served need in the long term? How can my decisions to stay or go best serve the future of the work? Agree? Disagree? Do you have a "take" to add to this topic?

RFPs - consultants either love them and get SUPER excited when they see one come across their desk, or say 'no thanks' and refuse to respond - even if the engagement is perfectly aligned with their body of work. If you are part of an organization seeking support for an upcoming challenge or opportunity, instead of issuing that staid and typical RFP, consider talking with a consultant (or a few of them!) to explore what some of the solutions could be, beforehand. Here are a few places to find really incredible humans (and one great way to write a better RFP): Building Better Together's directory of *fantastic* consultants and fractional support: https://lnkd.in/esXuXtQK (via the incomparable Jess Campbell) Nonprofit.ist's Expert Directory: https://lnkd.in/esSq9PFi Nonprofit.ist's RFP Generator: https://lnkd.in/evpGStxT Have you had good luck with RFPs, as an issuing organization? Do you typically reach out to a consultant who is already known to you, or seek recommendations? I'm not saying down with all RFPs, but I think there are better ways to find really great solutions to the challenges your nonprofit is experiencing!

Talk about giving value! Stephen Newland, CMA has created this incredible list of over 140 resources that are either free or discounted for nonprofits. Check it out, bookmark it, and follow Stephen for more financial tips and org health resources for your nonprofit! 140+ Nonprofit Discounts: https://lnkd.in/dE9Bi2Vv #TheMoreYouKnow

🎁 Nonprofit Leaders: what would be the most helpful to you? I am creating some incredibly supportive resources to make available on my website, for orgs and teams who are ready to take action, need an accessible price point, and have the capacity to implement with the support of a well structured toolkit. If there’s something you need or would like to see, leave that in the comments! #NonprofitResources

"What's this meeting about? What's this meeting REALLY about?" This entire piece from Casey Erin Clark and Julie Fogh for M.M.LaFleur is SO good! I really adore the delightfulness of the recommendations in Section 4! https://lnkd.in/ePVWarqm