This week we are discussing leadership tips and ideas for nonprofit CEOs. In this episode, we cover 5 easy to implement leadership tips any nonprofit CEO can benefit from.

Michael has been working with nonprofit CEOs for the past several years. These tips are a culmination of what has worked the best for these CEOs when it comes to stakeholder buy-in, time management, and board chair relationship growth.

Timestamps:

00:00 Tips and ideas for nonprofit CEOs

01:10 #1: Review the mission every meeting

01:45 #2: Schedule 30 and 45-minute meetings instead of 1-hour meetings

02:35 #3: Have set meetings scheduled with the board chair

03:20 #4: Have informal conversations with your staff, clients, and donors

04:12 #5: Schedule time to think on your calendar

05:35 Bonus Tip: Pace yourself as a leader

Transcript:

“This week’s episode of the 501cYou, the podcast for nonprofit board members. I’m actually going to focus on the CEOs a little bit. Been working with a number of CEOs over the past several months or years, if you will, and we’ve interviewed a number recently. And for those of you has listened to the podcast, it’s every interaction I get new tips, I get new ideas, and it’s something I want to share with all of you out there that are running organizations, particularly the executive directors, the CEOs of nonprofits. So I’ve got five tips and then a bonus tip just from listening and working with different CEOs.

Hey, I want to jump in real quick. Somebody asked me the other day, what does the Corley Company do? Well, we do three things for non-profits. One, we facilitate meetings. Yes, like board retreats where we discuss governance and strategy with all the members of the board. Number two, advise CEOs and help them as they make decisions and implement actions to drive their mission. And then finally, we produce podcasts such as this one, but also for a number of nonprofits to help you get the word out, get your message out. So if you’re interested in any of these services, please feel free to reach out to Michael@thecorleycompany.com. Now back to the podcast.

So number one, and actually you heard Jonathan, police say they start every meeting reviewing the mission. You know, the reason people work at nonprofits is because of the mission. It certainly isn’t for the money. So something bigger than themselves, something larger than themselves. And typically it’s the mission hopefully are they wouldn’t be working there. So I encourage start your meetings emphasizing the mission and reviewing the mission doesn’t have to be lengthy and it could just be asking somebody what the mission means to them. But just to let everybody know, remind everybody before a meeting that there’s you’re here for something larger than yourself, the mission. So that’s number one.

Number two, and several people have really liked this one. You know how you schedule meetings? Everything’s for an hour. Abby adds That whole Microsoft thing, when they came out with Outlook, everything defaulted to an hour schedule 45 minute meetings, schedule of 45 minute meetings, if they’re in person, in 30 minute meetings of their on Zoom our teams, you’ll be surprised that you would be able to get the same amount of work done in that period of time. And then following that 45 minute meeting, you’ve got now, now got 15 minutes to regroup, summarize notes, run to the restroom, make some calls, check your emails before your next meeting, which is probably on the top of the next hour. So I strongly encourage people schedule shorter meetings than is customary because Parkinson’s law, the work will fill up the space, the amount of time allotted. Parkinson’s log looked that up. Number three, that was number two.

Number three, when you’re working with a board chair, have set schedule meetings throughout the term of the board chair. This allows you to batch your work, meaning, you know, you’re going to meet with him or her once a week, once every couple of weeks, whatever the case may be, so that when there are discussion topics, things you need to talk to him or her about, you can table it to that meeting when he or she is sending you emails, you can table it to the meeting, obviously unless it’s something urgent. But schedule that time so you can get in a rhythm of working with your board chair so that you all have dedicated opportunities to work back and forth and to address any specific issues. So go ahead and get those on the calendar. That was number three.

Number four, have informal conversations with your staff, with your donors, with your clients. Just walk around a little bit. And what I’m talking about, these are not scheduled meetings. You know, sometimes when we’re all in the office, we’re able to, as leaders, walk around and just have contacts and have interactions with people a little bit harder with this remote environment that we’re in or this quasi environment. But nonetheless, I would encourage you to have those types of informal conversations when you’re walking around and just asking people how are they doing and ask about their family. And yes, this is everybody, your staff. And as a leader of the staff, you should certainly do that. But you’re donors, your volunteers, your clients, why not use that every interaction as operating, learn from them to engage them in discussion and do it an informal way. It’s relaxing and actually it’s quite enjoyable.

Number five five, a fifth leadership tip. If you need time to think and every leader does scheduled time on your calendar, I cannot emphasize this enough, no matter to whom I speak as a leader. Everybody’s busy running around crazy trying to get things done. And you say, Have you had a chance to really ponder that? I don’t have time to think. What I would encourage you to do at least once a day. Well, at least a few times a week. Let’s don’t get crazy at first. Schedule a meeting with yourself. Just to sit back and think through things, think through strategies, think through issues, think how you need to address things, how you’re going to strategize for the week, work on a specific project, schedule time to think. Because if you don’t do that, your time will fill up with any number of other activities. You’ve seen it. You know it, we all know it. So take, take pause, take a step back. And as a leader, you really need to spend some time thinking. So that was tip number five.

Number one, start every meeting we remember in the mission. Number two, sketch a 45 minute meetings instead of one hour meetings or 30 minute meetings on Zoom schedule, meetings with the board chair. That’s number three. Have informal conversations with your staff, donors, clients. Just walk around, have some fun conversations. Number five, schedule time to think.

And then the bonus. I promised that there would be a bonus one, number six, if you will, the bonus pace yourself as a leader. We have this sense of urgency and this innate thought that we’ve got to get everything done by next week. Hopefully, as a leader of the organization, you’re going to be there for 5-10 years, depending on where you are in your trajectory. If you pace yourself, remember, I can’t get everything done this next week, but over five years I can get a whole heck of a lot done. What that’ll do is give you a mindset of peace and comfort because things are going to keep coming at you and remember you don’t have to change the world in a day. Give yourself five years to change a world. All right. If you do that in five years, that would be wonderful. So this is Michael Corley the i501cYou the podcast for nonprofit board members. And today it was leadership tips for you CEOs, you executive directors who are really working hard to change the world. And I appreciate what you’re doing.

We’ll see you next week.”

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