Aid for Aid Workers Leadership Podcast

The majority of us participate in humanitarian response at some point in our career or even in "non-traditional" contexts - whether it be from a flood, drought, civil unrest or landslide.  The traditional model of sourcing funding through governments can be cumbersome, and the consequence costly.  My guest today Sean Lowrie is the Director of START Network and has some forward thinking ideas aroun...

As covered in Part One, Saul Guerrero and his team were searching for a way for their organization to continue to add value to the work in less developed countries in order to not become obsolete in the future.  During this quest they not only came up with an innovative idea which has generated enough revenue for the team to become independent within their organization but also lessons learned in...

Up until now the humanitarian sector has only had to "respond" to emergencies in various countries.  We have had the luxury of not having to change with the pace as the private sector, which has led to complacency with the same way of doing business.  But what will our business look like in five, ten or fifteen years in an ever changing environment?  One change to the political climate or donor re...

We often think of gender equality and social inclusion within our programming, but have you evaluated your admin, HR and communications team in order to ensure true compliance at all levels?   Inspired by human rights violations during Soharto’s presidency, my guest today Ratna Fitriani has 17 years’ experience in gender equality and social inclusion in Indonesia.   Ratna shares how her current pr...

There is a lot of scandal in the world these days, but one shocking is how the #MeToo movement has included accounts from the aid world.  Okay, I am not living under a rock and I know that these things happen, but how can we minimize risk of sexual harassment and exploitation in the aid world?  I think a great place to start is by creating a values based organization, and the cost of not doing so...

  Most of what we do in our work is centered on behavior change for broader impact. Examples may be behaviors that lead to increasing maize yields, preventing communicable disease, or saving money for the future. This is challenging in itself, but add to that donor’s tendencies to want scale and it becomes even more so. I have seen projects that do two-hour trainings on hand-washing or some other...

We all have the best intentions in development work.  Sometimes however we think we know what the community needs, only to come back a few years after a project ends to see that for whatever reason, the farmer group has dissolved or the water pump is broken, or malnutrition remains.   Claudio Schuftan has over 35 years' experience in the health and nutrition sector and has determined the "traditio...

Don't miss out on more ways to broaden your impact!  Subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter here! According to the 2016 UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization survey, 40% of adults in low income countries are illiterate. This does not take into consideration the number of innumerate adults, which can be higher in some situations. It is important to remember that as you are reading thi...

If you want to see where staff dream of traveling in the world, a good place to start is by looking at the list of training in their development plan. Development Plans are intended to list the professional development needs of the staff so if those needs are met they may perform their best.  However, in the past I have been guilty of approving my direct report's Development Plans that are more of...

If you want to broaden your impact in your life and work, subscribe to the podcast here! In the past every year around this time was quite painful, because I knew I had to come up with my Performance Plan goals.  It’s not that it is a hard thing to do, but something about planning what to accomplish in a year always made me feel overwhelmed.  And now, as a leader with a team relying on me to set t...

I love it when I meet like-minded people who challenge the standard way of doing things.  After all, if we want to achieve more impact, by definition we have to change the way we are doing things now—or at least question them.  My guests today are founders of the social enterprise “United Edge”, and they happen to be in Dili doing a training among other things on “Leadership for Impact.”  Matt Kle...

An introduction to Human Centered Design and some methodologies you can use to empower communities in designing and implementing projects.

Advice for Leaders on How to Motivate Others

Ariana Almeida returns to share her questions to others around how to ensure proper community engagement within the constraints of the current system of international development.

Interview guest Ariana Almeida provides some tools she learned from Harvard classes around how to create behavior change - within yourself.

Practical tips on how to improve your team's wellbeing

“Don’t wait for a crisis to think about security.” – Maurice McQuillan, Security Advisor

A former aid worker shares his success with recruitment based on organizational culture fit without using the traditional interview process.

"It’s important to recognize there are many parts [outside of work] that make up a person I happen to manage for a period of time." - Susan Marx, Country Representative of The Asia Foundation, Timor-Leste

What is an easy way to increase staff morale, decrease gossip, and allow for more communication in your office?

"The Most Difficult Experiences Can End Up Being the Most Rewarding." - John Shumlansky, Country Director

Proven Tips to Manage Stress in International Development

I was incredibly inspired by this interview, and I hope you will be too. Samaresh Nayak is Country Director for an International NGO, and over the last five years has managed a massive downsize within his country program (from 295 to 90 national staff and 13 to 4 international staff). He also has made significant process around "nationalizing" key senior positions within his organization. In this...

How to Detect and Prevent Staff Turnover in Aid Work