Relish Your Role

As a nonprofit Executive Director, you have a vision for your agency and the impact it can make.  This episode explores the importance of communicating your vision to all your stakeholders, incorporating their perspectives and concerns to engage others with what you hope to achieve in a deep and meaningful way. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com .  I have so much respec...

Managing staff and Board relationships is an ongoing concern for a nonprofit Executive Director.  There is no one right answer is how staff and Board relationships should be managed- but there are consequences for each decision.  This episode looks at different ways staff can be included in Board meetings and offers guidance to help you set the boundaries between your bosses and your staff. Find m...

There are many demands on your time as a nonprofit Executive Director. The way you spend your time in leading your agency sends a powerful message to the rest of the organization. If you are unaware of how you spend your time it is impossible to become more effective in your role and practice self-care. This episode outlines the ten major areas where nonprofit Executive Directors spend their time....

As a nonprofit Executive Director, you want to get the most out of your Board. Today’s episode explores strengthening your Board involvement- by matching their skills and interests with your agency’s needs. I discuss how to get to know your Board members in a way that is not transactional and can bring assets to your organziation. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com .  I...

It is never easy to fire someone.  We tend to ignore employee problems until things reach the tipping point.  This episode takes the fear out of the termination process by outlining the process of responding to employee problems, documenting your interventions,  and preparing for and holding the termination meeting. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com .  I have so much r...

You know the importance of annual performance evaluations.  They celebrate successes, identify areas for support, and provide a roadmap for professional growth.  Sadly most nonprofit Executive Directors rarely receive a thorough and objective performance evaluation.  This episode provides you with talking points to convince your Board to set aside the time and resources to conduct the evaluation y...

It is the end of the year and you are probably deep in completing performance reviews for all your staff.   This episode explores six steps that can make performance reviews a meaningful exercise for you and your staff. Given that reviews are often tied to staff raises or bonuses, doesn't it make sense to have a strong, objective, and thoughtful performance review? When done correctly the pro...

This episode explores the challenges women leaders in the nonprofit face having to balance societal expectations of their behavior with the premium placed on authentic leadership. When our authentic selves as women leaders are constantly judged as being either too nice or too assertive for effective leadership we are caught in a no win situation. Changing this dynamic can only occur when women are...

Your Leadership team are your eyes and ears to ensure your agency is running smoothly. At the most basic level, this group shares departmental information and receives updates from the Executive Director about recent decisions. But you want to move past the basic level of functioning, you want a  team that takes on tasks that transcend the work that these individuals do as department heads and wor...

The labor shortage is one of the more pressing challenges facing nonprofits in 2023. Staff vacancies create tremendous stress on your existing staff who are asked to do the work of two or three people.  It is an unsustainable situation. This episode provides a few tips  to make your agency an attractive possibility for prospective employees and ways to cast an appropriately wide net when looking f...

Your leadership team is the engine to make your agency run. When things are going well they are a group of autonomous decision-makers who serve as your eyes and ears allowing you to focus in strategy. But often they bog you down with continually asking for guidance or enmeshed in personality conflicts. This episode provides five steps to help you develop the leadership team you deserve. Details ar...

Are you chained to your desk responding to never ending emails? This episodes provides three tips to manage your email and gain control of your time. We explore how to: 1. Master the urge to check your emails 2.Effectively triage your inbox 3. Set clear boundaries to respond to emails These smart systems help you regain control of your time and energy so you lead your agency with confidence. Find...

We all have staff in our nonprofits which refuse to hear the feedback you provide them to improve their work performance.  It is frustrating for you and your team. The goal of our feedback should always be for staff improvement. This episode provides six characteristics of feedback you want to make sure you use to enhance the changes your feedback is received. Find more practicable tips on my webs...

This episode provides actionable steps for women nonprofit executive directors on how to create a professional support system.  It explores finding an existing group in one's local community, how to create their own group or identifying individuals who can provide support.  The attributes of the types of people who can provide useful support are discussed as are ways to approach them. Find mo...

The episode explores the primary benefits of a professional support system for nonprofit leaders.  Specifically four benefits of having a support system;  1. Sense of belonging,  2.Thought partnerships, 3. Improved self-esteem, and 4. Creating authentic connections are discussed as benefits of a professional support system. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com .  I have s...

As the Executive Director you bear some responsibility for your staff's morale. It has been a tough couple of years in the nonprofit world.   It is hard to run a nonprofit agency in 2023.  As a woman executive director, you feel an enormous responsibility for your staff’s emotional well-being. The goal of today’s episode is to help you feel less alone as you balance the needs of your staff wh...

A dirty little secret in the nonprofit world is that boards of directors do not always deliver. Most of the nonprofit women executive directors I work with identify frustrations with their boards as one of their greatest challenges. You need your board to help raise visibility and funds as well as advocate for your agency, and when they do not do their part, your life as the ED is so much harder....

Today’s episode  will focus on your nonprofit Board committees and things you can do as an ED to get those committees focused, with a clear workplan and accountable for delivering to your organization. Getting your Board effectively engaged takes intentional strategic work and patience. Lack of clarity of just what they should be doing and how governance and oversight translates into concrete acti...

Today’s episode will look at ways as a nonprofit leader to strengthen your ability to persevere. Perseverance is necessary to be successful as a nonprofit ED. Lately I have been consumed with mastering perseverance and learning what it takes to stay the course. The Oxford English dictionary defines perseverance as ‘persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.’ T...

Staff meetings are a fact of life in the nonprofit world. Your staff meetings provide an opportunity to convey information, solicit ideas, allow for group discussion, problem solve and create a sense of community. With planning and intent, it is possible to shift the tenor of your staff meetings from a dry, necessary obligation, or even worse a tableau of agency dysfunction, to an engaging manifes...

We all want more time. Time to complete a project. Time to spend with those we care about. Time to pursue an interest. Time to relax and re-energize. But as much as we crave more time, most of us, especially in our work world, do a poor job in managing how we spend our hours. For women nonprofit EDs the feeling of never having enough time is steroid-infused. In addition to work demands, they still...

Your staff is the lifeblood of your agency. They bring passion and skill to their work and make you proud every day. You would do anything to keep them happy in their jobs, so they continue to stay, grow professionally and enhance your organization’s work. You know from your check-ins that they love their jobs. But your staff wants more pay, they know you are paying just at the market rate and bel...

We know that interagency collaboration is best practice and smart business But let’s be honest, it can be such a tricky dance working with a partner. You can be one thousand percent committed to collaboration, but it is hard work to sustain a collaborative relationship over the long haul. You are often competing for the same grant dollars. You may be competing for donors, board members or clients....

I have been coaching and conducting performance evaluations for nonprofit leaders for over twenty years. Most of the agencies I work with are headed by women.  I had this sense that were issues they dealt with which are unique to their gender and I wanted to know more.   I wanted to  step back from the consultant/coach role and go on a listening tour to learn what the issues women nonprofit EDs fa...

Like it or not, for most nonprofit EDs, managing their board takes at least 25% of their time.  In my experience, less than half of nonprofit leaders feel their Board pulls their weight with respect to being effective agency ambassadors. So you have this group of well-intended volunteers who take a lot of an executive director’s mental energy with little to show for it. There are many levers to pu...