Hello, fellow nonprofiteers. Before we get started, we are having a Fireside chat about nonprofit HR issues on the 31st. Please join us. Register here for this small group chat. This blog is going to be about the difficult job of Executive Director of a nonprofit organization. But I must take a moment. The news over the past few weeks has been filled with reports of violence and reactions to it. In my small way, I am compelled to respond.
When my in-laws from Chile came to visit us a few years ago, they shared their perception that the United States is a violent place. I shrugged it off, at the time. But I can no longer do so. The violence not only continues but seems to grow. We continue to reap the harvest of 4 years of divisive leadership, pitting one group against the other, one religion against another, one political party against another. We must stand against all the forms of hate and mistrust that have come to dominate the way we interact. As a consultant, as a caring human being, my promise is that if an organization or person comes to me asking for help and they have beliefs and ideas about the world that are considered and rooted in thought, I will do my best to respect that and give the help that I can. If they come from a position of hate, racism, homophobia, or any other prejudice, I will call it out and refuse the help.
Now on to some thoughts about being executive director.
There is a period during a day long meeting that every facilitator knows and dreads. It’s called “After Lunch!” You know: that moment when you call the team back into the room right after the break that came right after the food. They look at you with eyes at half mast realizing they have two more hours to try and write that mission statement. You realize they are dreading this as much as you are.
We all have our tricks to get over that speed bump. One of mine is an exercise I learned years ago when our daughter was a little more than a year old, sitting in her highchair in the kitchen. I was given Juggling for the Complete Klutz as a present and decided to teach myself how to juggle. It caused Liza untold hours of amusement laughing at me, but it worked, and I can juggle a little bit. And it taught me a game to use in the After Lunch Dead Zone of facilitation.
I call the group together and as people are coming in, I am juggling three balls. Just a straight juggle, and people notice a bit. Then I toss one ball over the top while the others remain underneath. Oooh. A trick! Some of the returning people actually watch. I ask them if they know how to juggle. Usually one says they do, but most say they do not. I ask if they wan to learn and two or maybe three say would like to. I give them each three balls. That’s when the exercise kicks in.
“Drop the balls,” I tell them. Usually, they laugh but do it. “Pick the balls up,” I tell them, and they do. “Drop them again. Pick them up. Drop them.” We do this for a short while. “In fact, this is the first lesson in the book, Juggling for the Complete Klutz. The theory is that as you learn to juggle, you are going to drop the balls a lot, so you may as well get used to it.”
As hokey as this may sound, I then turn this into a learning experience. I ask if anyone is or wants to become an Executive Director of a nonprofit and usually they do. So, I remind them, get used to it. You are going to drop the ball on many occasions. And you know what? That’s okay. It happens. Pick them up and start juggling again.
Giving yourself the right to drop the balls, pick them up, and start juggling again is sometimes very hard to do. Eds take the job very seriously, or most of the ones I have met do. And they want to make their nonprofit successful. So, they try really, really hard to keep all the balls up in the air. When one drops, they get upset.
Now, in reality there is often one ball that has a bomb in it: the thing that can blow up the whole nonprofit. Forgetting to pay withholding tax to the IRS is a ball with a bomb in it. Forgetting to send a Directors Report to the board a week before the board meeting is not a ball with a bomb in it.
Depending on the size of the organization, as an ED you are responsible for the budget, managing the board, fund raising, HR issues, program development and oversight, facility management, and more. I always say that unless you have been an Executive Director, you do not get it. Particularly in a small to mid-sized agency, it is a role that encompasses everything about the organization.
When that ball drops and it does not have a bomb in it just take a deep breath, pick it up, and start juggling again. It’s a question of giving yourself the right to make mistakes, even to fail. Maybe you have tried to juggle too many balls and you need to get back to a number that you can manage. It really is okay.
Board Directors, please take note. When the ED has dropped a ball, unless there was a bomb in it, give that leader the right to have made a mistake. Reach out and help in whatever way you can. Your role is as a supporter, a partner, and a guide. You are not the judge in the Olympics giving them a score while you frown at everything they did wrong.
Steffi Graf once said, “You can’t measure success if you have never failed.” Albert Einstein said, “If you have never failed, you have never tried anything new.” So, try. Keep juggling. Just know, and accept, that sometimes one of the balls you are juggling will drop. That’s how you get better, and that’s how you learn.
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