Handouts and worksheet all ready! Honored to present my strengths-based board leadership workshop today at Lincoln AMA's board retreat.
To not just count your blessings but do something about them, all you need is thank-you cards, stamps, a pen, and strong coffee from bread&cup.
A business setback yesterday sent me spiraling into depression and demotivation. I got very little done after learning just after lunch that a big client prospect I’d been developing for months—my biggest prospect—could not move forward in the near term.
I had my heart set on this client, whose needs perfectly matched my talents and—bonus!—had such an easily quantifiable and high-cost problem that it made my fees look like a rounding error on the pocket change you find in your couch cushions. But it fell through, and I was in the pits. Neither beer and French fries at Lazlos nor an episode of Wallace and Gromit helped. The day was shot.
But not today. Know how I pulled myself out of the doldrums? Writing thank-you notes.
Here’s what I figured: There’s counting your blessings, and then there’s doing something about them. By taking one hour to thank 10 friends and business associates who’d helped me recently (and, I’ll be honest, less than recently), I:
- You know, thanked people, which is an end in itself.
- Re-motivated myself by thinking of the 10 other opportunities those friends invested their time and reputations to create for me.
- Followed up with those 10 people, which was on my to-do list anyway.
BOOM! There’s power in the attitude of gratitude. What can you accomplish with a thankful heart today? Tell me in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
We have made a mistake by thinking that the way to value somebody is by the number of hours they put in instead of the value they generate. If you hold them accountable to generating a certain amount of value, and you measure them by the value you create, then you are shifting the focus to what really matters.
Tony Schwartz
CEO, The Energy Project
AnthiaCumming/iStockphoto
You and I hear it all the time: “Leaders are readers, and readers are leaders.” The seeming implication: You’re a poor leader if you aren’t reading an hour a day or more about leadership.
I don’t know about you, but this makes me anxious. The peer pressure to be reading the latest inspiring leadership tome—or even to catch up on a few of the excellent books written in just the last five years—can seem oppressive. My days are chock full helping my coaching clients lead, serving on social sector boards and committees, and leading in my church. How do they—how do I—keep up?
I just want to say one word to you.
Podcasts. Continue Reading…
I think people tend to do what I call “feel-good philanthropy” rather than a scalable, sustainable philanthropy.
Naveen Jain, entrepreneur
We say no to good ideas every day. We do this to make great ideas happen.
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Ann Seacrest, executive director of MilkWorks
Social sector leaders face a ridiculous double standard. They’re expected to create as much or more value than the for-profit sector, and solve frightfully complex problems. Yet they often must do it without basic resources the for-profit sector takes for granted—like talented executive assistants who multiply the effectiveness of the leaders they serve.
In this article I interview Ann Seacrest, founding executive director of MilkWorks, a community breastfeeding center in Lincoln, Nebraska, designed to help mothers breastfeed their babies. After 10 years in the trenches doing what a founding executive director does—everything!—Ann hired an executive assistant for 10 hours a week. Here’s a look into how she made that decision, and how it’s going.
I spoke with Ann because in my work with social sector leaders, I see people so tied to their desk work that they can’t be getting out and networking, telling the organization’s story, drawing in more clients, and drawing in more financial support. The drawbacks are obvious:
- Social sector chief executives burn out, leaving their organizations leaderless and their boards spending limited time and financial resources finding, hiring, and onboarding a replacement.
- Organizations are under-resourced.
- Constituents suffer when organizations have insufficient leadership and financial resources to serve them.
There is a better way: Hiring an executive assistant, even for just a few hours a month, to take on those administrative tasks that are important, but don’t represent the best use of the chief executive’s time.
Without further ado, the interview:
John: Why did you hire an executive assistant?
Ann: Well, you know I’m one of the original founders of MilkWorks and we started out as a really small organization and we’ve grown. [For] some of us, our roles have grown incrementally and they’re overwhelming us …. So this is a part of a step in that way to look at how do we (let?) the organization continue to grow and evolve down the road and deal with the fact that I’m kind of burning out. Not burning out on wanting to do the job, just having way too much to do.
I do a lot of small things that are really integral to the running of an organization. So I knew that there’s no way I can keep doing all this, that I can keep managing everything. But yet it’s really hard in a non-profit to decide to take that money and put it into stuff that’s not directly programs because everybody wants administrative costs to be kept really low. But I think with me it just came down to I had to take a small, tiny step.
You know, I’m doing the executive assistant really in order to try and get me to do the things that are most important for the organization.
[E]xecutive directors need to be looking at the big picture. They need to be the visionary instead of down in the trenches doing all those small things. But when you start an organization, that’s where you are.
John: And what are those?
Ann: Well, it’s really general oversight of the organization. I need to be managing the other people in the organization and not doing the small stuff myself. But that’s hard to get to when you’re someone who did all that stuff yourself, to all of a sudden now really have people in place who can do that. … So I’m spending more of my time guiding the other people of the organization instead of doing it myself. In other words making sure we have good staff in place for all of our programs and really stepping in and helping to guide different program areas when they’re kind of struggling or when the staff in them are struggling.
Benefits of an executive assistant
John: Does having an executive assistant allow you to get out in the community more and be developing the public’s trust, be developing those relationships that will lead to more resources?
Ann: Well I mean I think … the hardest part is that’s the type of stuff that gets shoved aside when you have little things that need to be done. In other words when your mailing list isn’t up to date or your job descriptions aren’t up to date, that kind of thing, it’s really hard to take that time to go out and develop the organization in the community more because you’re bogged down by the day to day stuff that needs to happen. But if that day to day stuff doesn’t happen, you know, the organization’s going to fall apart. I mean you can’t do good fund development if your mailing list isn’t up to date.
It’s that doing the nuts and bolts of the organization versus representing the organization. And no, you verbalize it very well, that. And that’s the hard part that I think anybody when they start or they’re involved in an organization, you just don’t ever imagine how much work goes on keeping an organization alive. And it’s really hard to do that as well as represent the organization out in the community. But yet that part out there doesn’t earn you money but yet it’s also the part that you have to do to enhance your funding and stuff. Because it’s those chance encounters and things that oftentimes lead to more financial security for the organization. So…
The MilkWorks logo.
John: What challenges did you have?
Ann: I think the hardest part is for someone that’s used to doing so much themselves, it takes time to even stop and go, okay, what can I give her to do? …
It’s kind of like with your kids, you know? You think okay, do I stop and work with my kids about picking up their room or do I just pick it up myself? Because then I know it’ll get done the way I want it to get done and I don’t have to deal with anybody else and I can do it exactly when I want to do it. So that’s part of it is trying to really figure out okay, what can she do, what can I pluck away that she can do and how do we make that work? And also give up a little bit of that if it’s not done exactly my way, it’s okay, which is a huge part of it.
John: What are you able to do now, Ann, that you weren’t able to do before? What have been some concrete, preferably mission-enhancing changes that have occurred as a result of having an executive assistant?
Ann: It’s freed up my time from doing a lot of these small little detail things that need to happen and allows me to you know, look at the bigger picture; be more visionary, spend more time in the community. I mean it’s even like going to Cause Camp, you know that’s a really hard thing to do as an executive director because that’s taking six hours of a day and trying to go, okay, is it more important to spend those six h ours there at Cause Camp … getting inspired … talking to some people. Or, do you know what I could do with six hours? … It frees you up from doing some very time consuming, small things and allow you to look more at the big picture, which is executive directors need to be looking at the big picture. They need to be the visionary instead of down in the trenches doing all those small things. But when you start an organization, that’s where you are.
John: Did you have any specific objections to the cost from the board, or from your personal advisors saying essentially, “It’d be better to spend this on a program”?
Ann: Well, no because we’re doing it so small. I mean we’re starting out with just a tiny little step, I mean she’s just working 10 hours a week right now. And I think that’s a big part of it is just start really small. And that way I don’t think it stresses anybody, you know?
Keys to success
John: What’s been the key to success in employing an executive assistant?
Ann: [W]e started out small, because I didn’t want to all of a sudden say, “Okay, I have to take this person and they’re working 30 hours a week, how am I going to fill their time?” I did not want that pressure, I did not want that pressure at all. So on purpose we started out with someone who had the potential to increase their hours but was willing to start out very small, so the idea being that she and I could try it out and I don’t have to worry about… Because the last thing I want to do is guarantee her 30 hours a week and then me be spending time trying to find her stuff to do …. So I think that was a crucial, crucial thing, is to start out small. And it also gives you the ability to find out, do you like working with them?
John: What advice do you have for other leaders considering hiring executive assistants?
You’re … going to have to find the right person who basically isn’t saying to you, “Well I need 30 hours a week and great benefits.” You’re going to have to find someone who has that more flexible ability to say, “Yeah, I want to work 10 hours a week but I’ll flex up to 20 if you need me.” But that’s not uncommon in non-profits, that you find some people like that.
[Also] pick someone that you think you could work with because if you’re handing stuff over to them you have to feel like they’re someone that you can trust to do it well. So sometimes it’s just a matter of an issue of finding the right person.
What do you think?
How could you use an executive assistant to help advance your organization’s mission? Please tell me in the comments.
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
Michelangelo
Do you have $13.47, 35 minutes, and the desire to succeed at anything? Here’s a quick guide to investing those resources in learning your strengths. The payoff will last a lifetime.
- Buy the Kindle version of Strengths-Based Leadership.*
- Don’t read the book. (Yet.)
- Use the code you’ll receive from Amazon to take the StrengthsFinder online assessment. Allow 35 minutes of uninterrupted time. It’s easy.**
- Don’t read the book. (Still.)
- Instead, read the 12-page custom report you’ll receive by email, listing your five strengths (cool), describing them (even cooler), and giving you strategies for developing them (stupendously amazing).
- Find a trusted friend who knows her or his strengths and compare notes.
- Now read the book.
Why invest in learning your strengths? Because people are “able to gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses.”*** Or, as General Wesley K. Clark said, “Iʼve never met an effective leader who wasnʼt aware of his talents and working to sharpen them.”
Are you a board leader? You can learn strengths-based board leadership to take your social sector organization from good to great at my Board Responsibilities, Strengths and Impact Workshop on Feb. 15. Register at brsiworkshopfeb12.eventbrite.com. Tickets cost as little as $10 and get you a tasty lunch and leftover Valentine’s Day candy.
* Sorry, locally owned bookstores. I love ya, especially Indigo Bridge. But to get people to see past the urgent and unimportant to the non-urgent and important (that is, investing in their own development), I’ve got to make the first step as easy as possible. Full disclosure: That’s an affiliate link up there, meaning I get a few cents if you buy the book through that link.
** The assessment presents a bunch of paired statements. You click buttons to indicate which statement comes closer to describing you. There’s no time to over-think the choice, because you get just a few seconds for each pair.
*** Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and
Why People Follow (Gallup Press, 2009). For more, see the underlying research in Clifton, D.O., & Harter, J.K. (2003). Strengths investment. In K.S. Cameron, J.E. Dutton, & R.E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship. (pp. 111-121). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Your registration includes a 16-page workbook full of resources for a strengths-based approach to board leadership.
Social sector board members, get inspired Friday for a new year of mission impact at my workshop, “Board Responsibilities, Strengths and Impact.” At this low-cost Human Services Federation BoardTalk workshop, you’ll:
- Get inspired with the mission impact you can create as a board member in 2012.
- Learn to focus on abundance and strength, not scarcity and weakness, this year.
- Refresh your knowledge of BoardSource’s 10 Responsibilities of a Social Sector Board Member.
- Complete a matrix matching your board colleagues’ strengths to their responsibilities. You’ll see exactly the opportunities you have for taking your board from good to great.
At the workshop you’ll receive, and we’ll work through, a 16-page workbook full of resources for taking a strengths-based approach to board leadership, recruitment and development. Here are the details on the workshop:
- Friday, January 6th, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
- Lincoln Community Foundation Building (215 Centennial Mall South)
- 5th Floor Conference Room
- HSF Members: $5 / $10 with lunch
- Non-members: $10 / $15 with lunch
To register, go to http://hsfed.org/boardtalkreg.php.
Do you want to lead the way toward big and lasting mission impact this year? It starts with you, the social sector board member. See you Friday.
