Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
5 Hidden Reasons Your Strategic Plan is Failing
Planning is great, but execution wins the game. College and professional football teams will go into every one of their games this Fall with a solid game plan. Run first, to set up the pass; pass...
5 Things Every Board Member Wishes You New
Whether you are a board chair or an executive director, leading a nonprofit is a special calling. It’s exciting, unnerving, challenging, and fulfilling. It’s a role most of us wouldn’t give up for...
Improving Board Effectiveness: Why Isn’t My Board Better?
Why Isn't My Board Better? Keeping up with the Jones’ is about as American as Apple Pie and baseball. I sense it is alive and well in the nonprofit world, too. Specifically, I hear nonprofit...
Nonprofit Risk Management: Is Your Agency Exposed To Risk?
As a nonprofit leader, your attention is drawn in many different directions in the course of a week, sometimes, all at once. You are responsible to look into the future to ensure the agency is...
Is Your Leadership Style Helping or Hurting Your Nonprofit?
There Is No One Right Way To Lead Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Understanding your leadership style is a crucial step in empowering your agency to succeed. There are leadership styles that...
Nonprofit Volunteer Recruitment: Find Your Agency’s Best Ambassadors
Recognize The True Representatives Of Your Nonprofit Believe it or not - you are very likely overlooking and underutilizing the most valuable off-balance sheet asset in your agency. I am talking...
leadership
11 Easy Ways To Start a Board Training Program For Your Nonprofit
Speed of the leader, speed of the team. No organization can succeed, let alone thrive, with weak or untrained leadership. The same holds true for nonprofit boards. One of the most prevalent problems I run into when I speak with executive directors or accept a new...
Nonprofit Leadership: Who Does It Better, Men Or Women?
In the mid-90’s, we learned from Dr. John Gray, Ph.D., in his best seller Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, that men and women are quite different. It was apparent to Dr. Gray then that significant differences existed between men and women. I got to thinking...
Making Tough Calls On Difficult Nonprofit Board Members
Leading Nonprofit Board Members Is Not Always Easy Sooner or later, every nonprofit leader has a problem with a board member. How this issue is dealt with separates the successful leaders from the rest of the pack. You may find certain nonprofit board members are...
Nonprofit Board Training: 23 Unwritten Rules Your Team Needs To Know
Take Your Nonprofit Board Training To The Next Level New board members typically receive some level of orientation when they step into their role. A more experienced member or agency leader will tell them about their fiduciary responsibilities, the Duties of Care,...
Powerful Life Lessons from Serving On A Nonprofit Board
Last time, I shared many of the professional lessons I learned by serving on a nonprofit board. I could easily transfer these lessons into my business life and become a better leader. As I was preparing that article, though, it struck me just how much I had learned,...
How Joining A Nonprofit Board Boosts Your Professional Development
Why Serve On A Board? Many individuals and businesses miss a valuable opportunity for professional development. They also miss a great opportunity to give back and make their community a better place to live. I know this because I used to be one of these individuals....
board development
How to Deal With Difficult Board Members
What do you do when a good board member goes bad? One of the most important roles you have, as part of a board of directors, or as the executive director of a nonprofit, is to help identify and “vet” new board candidates. You use comprehensive checklists, you...
5 Questions Every Nonprofit Leader Should Ask
How to change your thinking to make 2016 your best year yet. We're quickly coming up on the end of 2015, and it's time to start thinking about the new year. How can you help your nonprofit board and leadership team ignite its entrepreneurial spirit and begin the new...
Where is Your Nonprofit Going?
Understanding the key role Mission, Vision, and Values play in moving an organization forward. These elements are probably some of the most important in your organization, yet they are often the most overlooked. They help guide decision-making, budgeting, and...
How To Run Nonprofit Board Meetings That Actually Work
10 Ways To Make Your Next Board Meeting Better Nice work! You’ve done the analysis and identified and recruited onto your board the perfect slate of candidates to replace the retiring board members. This new panel of directors is exactly what you were looking for and...
What Should Your Nonprofit Board Be Doing?
Learn how to create clear roles and responsibilities for your board of directors, to get the results you want for your nonprofit. From time to time executive directors express frustration about the support and cooperation they get from their board.“They don’t do what...
How To Build a Nonprofit Board For Maximum Impact
Great organizations have great boards -- that fact is indisputable. The most important initiative of a nonprofit board is its responsibility to objectively and thoughtfully identify, recruit, and orientate the best board candidates it can find. But often, this process...
strategic planning
Got Talent?
In a previous work life I had the privilege of getting to know and learn from a world class consultant-Dr. Ram Charan. His specialty is leadership and strategy and he consults with many of the most recognized companies in the United States. He has written many books...
Shaping the Organization’s Future
Have you ever had to rebuild a department, ministry, or an entire organization or church? Did you wrestle with how much to structure the process versus letting others handle it? We did. One of our departments had gone through a tough period. An ego-driven leader had...
What’s your plan? You do have one, don’t you?
I think there is a lot to say about the Law of Attraction, which can loosely be defined as “like attracting like”. I found that simple definition on the Internet so you know it has to be true. Anyway, I seem to be attracting a lot of organizations lately that suffer...
Generational Change and Your Organization
With October quickly slipping away many organizations are hard at work developing business plans for the coming year. Others may be engaged in creating new long-range (whatever that means) strategic plans. For nonprofits and churches, that means leaders, board...
Shaping the Organization’s Future
Have you ever had to rebuild a department, ministry, or an entire organization or church? Did you wrestle with how much to structure the process versus letting others handle it? We did. One of our departments had gone through a tough period. An ego-driven leader had...
Building Boards that Deliver Value
I've been thinking about nonprofit boards of directors lately. What does your board development committee look for in a board candidate? What is the ideal composition of a board? I mean, what skill-sets or experiences should your board members "bring to the table"?...
everything…
15 Ways to Turn Strategy into Action on Your Nonprofit Strategic Plan
Planning is Great but Execution Wins the Game! The best nonprofits — those that make the biggest impact — create and follow their strategic plan. Many agencies have recently spent significant dollars developing a new nonprofit strategic plan, or refreshing...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #5 – Burning Out
Challenge #5: Burning Out Contrary to popular belief, you are not, in fact, a superhero. The demands of leading a nonprofit are plentiful, and you are only human. Feeling overwhelmed or stressed out is inevitable. However, your nonprofit relies on you for your...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #4 – Avoiding Mission Drift
Challenge #4: Avoiding Mission Drift Every nonprofit organization started out with a mission. We all want to affect meaningful change and make a difference in the world. But sometimes, the stresses of working for a multi-faceted organization with many moving...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #3 – Board Recruitment
Challenge #3: Board Recruitment Finding the right person to fill a board director position is a challenge for most nonprofits. Where do you turn when you are searching for a good quality candidate with a strong skill set and adequate experience? This week, we are...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #2 – Fundraising
Challenge #2: Fundraising This week, we are taking a look at five of the most common challenges I hear from nonprofit leaders, and how I advise approaching these issues. While I cannot diagnose the specific issues your organization is facing, I can guide you...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How to Fix Them: #1 — Your Board
Challenge #1: The Failing Board I offer advice to many nonprofit leaders and board members each week. Over time, several common nonprofit challenges have surfaced from those discussions. This week, we will be taking a look at five of the most common challenges...
Leading With Data: 5 Ways To Make Better Decisions For Your Nonprofit
As Nonprofit leaders, it can sometimes feel like we are facing a never ending barrage of important, agency-defining decisions needing our immediate attention. On a good day, this can be an exhilarating and rewarding process that fuels our passion and clarifies our...
Nonprofit Bylaws Discussion: An In-Depth Overview
Bylaws are one of an agency’s most essential yet least understood documents. Along with the Mission, Vision and Values statements, bylaws describe the basic foundation for the entire agency. They define the agency’s purpose and crucial elements of its operation.Every...
Bylaws for Nonprofits: What Are They And How Do You Make Them?
One of the most critical responsibilities when starting up your own nonprofit is completing the initial paperwork accurately and fully. While this process might just seem like filling out a few legal documents that only lawyers care about, you should be paying close...