Leading Organizations That Matter

"We are in a constant state of turnaround!" Yeah, I don't buy it...

If you are thinking about developing a merger, acquisition, joint venture, or strategic partnership strategy, I hope you'll find this episode helpful. Here, I outline a systematic four-step process by which successful organizations can proceed.

Does the mission, vision, and values statement on the laminated sheets in your conference rooms accurately reflect your organization's culture?

Making difficult decisions is the job of leaders. In this week's episode, I describe the three reasons that decisions can be difficult and suggest that understanding this can be helpful to not only making the decision but also to how you communicate it down the line.

I use the term "mission driven organization" a lot. And when asked, I'm always happy to define what I mean by that. But... I've learned through the years that my definition is not the one that matters.

I often find interesting (and unexpected) inspiration and lessons from the most unlikely of places. In this week's episode, I draw from the world of art, specifically music-making and film directing.

All leaders want to be proactive, not reactive. But here's the thing: Just because you want to be proactive, be considered by others to be proactive, and do proactive seeming things, that does not mean that it’s true. In this week's episode, I point out a simple way to frame up a discussion that can help leaders make sure that everyone is on the same page for critical organizational deci...

Optimism is a good thing, right? Absolutely! But... and this starts innocently enough... a sincere desire to be (and seem) optimistic can, over time, give way to something that is... not so good .

You have blind spots. I have blind spots. And they can impact our approach and our success. Remember, blind spots are only problematic when we ignore them.

I've seen it happen and often to tragic effect. Boards will hire a leader to bring about substantive change... only to find out later that the process of creating that change caused more friction and tension than anticipated. This week's brief episode is a reflection on how best to prevent this sort of unpleasant surprise from happening. Thanks for listening.

Some of us kittens look into a mirror and see a mighty lion staring back at us. Some of us lions see little kittens. Honest and clear-headed self evaluation is important... but alas this is a podcast about leading mission driven organizations and I'm no pop psychologist. Nevertheless, I believe that the parallels to leadership are worth thinking about. In this week's episode, I describe...

In my book, Saving Organizations That Matter , I describe the importance of "storytelling the mission", that is, describing the work of an organization and its mission in a compelling and even emotionally stirring manner. In this week's episode, I describe three quick tips for improving your ability to storytell the mission. Thanks for listening. And please consider leaving a review...

For-profits... non-profits... what's the difference?  In this episode, I provide six reasons that the movement toward for-profit health care has had some negative impacts on all of us.  I suspect this is going to be a bit controversial but... I've seen what I've seen.

For many nonprofit organizations, merger and acquisition strategies are viewed as desperation moves, as a proverbial Hail Mary scenario. This is... quite different... from their for profit counterparts who see M&A options as a way of cashing out of the business or as a means to grow and increase shareholder value. In this week's episode, I argue that many nonprofit mergers fail because th...

You're preparing your strategic plan and hoping to reflect your organization's top tier priority around DEI and anti-racism... so, you make it one of your named top tier priorities or "strategic pillars". Hm... not so fast. This week's episode offers an alternate approach and, as I state, I have come to believe that this is a best practice.

If you are the leader of an organization, what do you see when you "look in the mirror"? In this episode, I discuss that awkward situation when you realize that everyone else sees something different.

We all have differing levels of tolerance for uncertainty. Organizations are the same. Unfortunately, however, some leadership teams and boards of directors are SO uncomfortable with uncertainty that they will make rash and unhelpful decisions. I discuss this topic today and offer three potential remedies.

You don't expect surprises (or at least, pleasant ones) when you conduct a strategic planning exercise. However, in my experience... recent planning projects have resulted in some important and quite helpful "ah ha" moments for boards, leaders, and staff.

Strategic planning is important and I've certainly spent a lot of time talking, writing, and podcasting about that. Today, I address the topic of strategic DOING. 

Many years ago, my son and I were hiking in the Grand Canyon when we learned a valuable lesson about hiking, life, and for me... years later... strategic planning. I'm serious.

I recently saw that a former colleague from a company I once led posted on social media that he had fallen victim to an affiliation that was not accurately described to him as it was taking shape. Since I was the one responsible for messaging that affiliation, I took his comment as a blow. And that stung. But... some further reflection has led me to a few conclusions.

Vision. Every organization should have one and every leader need to be able to articulate his or hers. But not all "visions" are the same.  According to Jonathan Swift,  “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” So, do you help others see the invisible?

When I was starting out as a young and relatively low-in-the-chain-of-command employee, I was highly focused on the task at hand. I was clear about my responsibilities and how to be successful and I didn’t worry about a great deal more than that. If someone back then had asked me how the company I was working for was doing financially or what its main threats were in the external environment, I do...

"Conflict avoided is conflict multiplied." Most people don't relish having to make tough decisions but sometimes putting this off can cause more harm downstream. Organizational culture flows from the personality of the key leaders of the organizations, most notably the CEO's. If that CEO is conflict avoidant... then that may prove to be the biggest problem of all.

Negative budget variances? Sounds like a boring and low level topic for a podcast such as this one... but how you handle them: (1) says a lot about you as a leader and (2) has the very real potential to positively transform your organization.