THRIVERS: Impact-Driven Leadership for the Next Normal : Recent Episodes
THRIVE IMPACT
This is a podcast for impact-driven leaders. Why?
The landscape has never been more challenging. Lots of noise competing for revenue. Staff turnover is at an all-time high. Burnout is real.
Many leaders are trying to do everything by themselves. The truth is you’re not meant to do it alone.
Welcome to THRIVERS. This is a community of impact-driven leaders sharing the best ideas, cheering each other on in their wins, and innovating in a rapidly changing world.
Have you ever struggled with striking the right balance with your board's involvement in your mission?
Encouraging your board to maintain their strategic focus, without veering into operational territories, or dictating the “how”, can be difficult to navigate
The truth is that nonprofits are at their best when leaders can draw out and lean into the best of their boards. Figuring out how to do this is often easier said than done.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker and Sarah pull back the curtain on an immersive two-hour session they facilitated with a community nonprofit board, aiming to rekindle their commitment, involvement, and enthusiasm for the cause. This session was specifically tailored to amplify involvement, stir a sense of purpose, and align both old and new members with the organization's overarching vision.
They walked the board members through the following steps:
- Unearthing the deeper motivations behind each board member's decision to join.
- Reflecting on the board's history to identify and capitalize on their strengths, particularly concerning revenue and tangible impact.
- An imaginative exercise on impact forecasting—projecting the transformative outcomes envisioned three years ahead.
- Strategically brainstorming on gathering the necessary resources to turn envisioned impact into reality.
- Individual board members determine their specific roles, harnessing their unique passions to further the organization's goals.
- Laying out clear, measurable objectives for the upcoming 6-12 months, establishing both direction and accountability.
- An introspective wrap-up, allowing board members to appreciate their renewed commitment and the profound nature of their discussions.
Tune into this episode to learn practical steps you can take to energize your board around your organization’s purpose.
Listener Links/Resources:
Sarah's revenue spreadsheet - Sarah will put int the folder
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/12bAG8id-5F0qhK6lMD9-K7Rs12o9vNbB
Image of the Impact Cycle https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QHIbDnYC7Yub1zTTuYvWWIh_A0RpoDuN&usp=drive_copy
Link to the Impact Forecasting podcast
https://thriveimpact.org/podcast/using-impact-forecasting-to-set-the-stage-for-more-revenue-with-skyler-badenoch-and-stephanie-skryzowski/
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
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"Do I acknowledge, and even allow others to witness, my own mistakes?"
The fear of revealing our fallibility hinders our personal growth and the development of a genuine learning culture. We buy into the lie that as leaders we have to have it all together for the sake of our teams.
This fear can form a barrier, preventing authentic connection with our team and inhibiting true progress.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker and Sarah take a deep dive into leadership fallibility, discussing the power of vulnerability and the strength in admitting one's own mistakes.
Throughout the conversation,they explore their own experiences of owning fallibility and breaking away from punitive, fear-based cultures.
They share several profound insights for nonprofit leaders:
- Acknowledging one's own mistakes, displaying fallibility, and the transformative effect this can have on fostering a learning environment.
- Providing a safe space for leaders and teams alike to practice their voice, gain confidence, and live into their values.
- Disarming the cycle of reactivity and the culture of fear.
- Breaking away from punitive cultures, where mistakes are seen as weaknesses rather than opportunities for learning and growth.
- Stepping away from hyper-competitive environments to cultivate a culture of empathy, respect, and mutual support.
This episode is an enlightening conversation on the underestimated power of owning your fallibility in leadership roles, especially within the nonprofit sector. Learn how to cultivate a climate of trust, openness, and genuine learning by breaking down the barriers of fear and embracing our own imperfections.
Listener Links/Resources:
Behaviors that reinforce learning PDF
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
"How do I steer my nonprofit through the uncertainty?"
Nonprofit leadership often resembles navigating through uncharted territories. With shifting power dynamics, potential declines in philanthropy, and a persistent undercurrent of uncertainty, leaders grapple with a myriad of challenges while striving to keep their mission afloat.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker Wannamaker engages in a candid conversation with Nisha Anand, an activist, mom of two, and CEO of Dream.Org. They unravel the multifaceted nature of nonprofit leadership, emphasizing the power of authenticity, reflective practices, and collaborative decision-making.
In their conversation, they uncover a wealth of insights for fellow nonprofit leaders:
- Grappling with the complex power dynamics with funders, Nisha highlights the significance of authenticity and clear communication in sustaining and nurturing these relationships.
- Reflecting on her personal practices, Nisha underscores the potency of daily reflective journaling, which offers a grounding respite amidst the chaos, enabling decisive and empathetic leadership.
- Acknowledging the loneliness inherent in leadership, Nisha stresses the value of fostering a community of supportive peers to share experiences, insights, and challenges.
They explore the ripple effects of leadership decisions on the staff, highlighting the delicate balance between firmness and empathy that underpins effective leadership. Throughout the discussion, they offer practical steps that nonprofit leaders can take to tackle challenges head-on.
Join in on this engaging discussion as Nisha shares her journey through the labyrinth of nonprofit leadership. Her experiences and insights shed light on the tools and mindset required to navigate the uncertainties and foster a thriving, mission-focused organization.
Listener Links/Resources:
Nisha's Weekly Schedule Planner Print Out
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
“Do I make room for dissent in my organization?”
As leaders, we tend to equate harmony and collaboration with being a positive learning environment. In reality, the ability to disagree without fear of repercussion is often a stronger indicator of the health of our teams.
As nonprofit leaders, how can we cultivate an environment of continuous learning and open discourse within our organizations?
The traditional leadership model, which links authority to possessing all the answers, can inhibit growth, stifle creativity, and limit engagement.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker and Sarah navigate the rewarding yet demanding transformation from an authoritative 'know-it-all' to an adaptive 'learn-it-all' culture, through creating an environment that is open to disagreement and imperfection. They explore the dynamics of embracing vulnerability and reframing dissent, illustrating how these practices can empower teams, stimulate innovation, and drive meaningful change.
Throughout their conversation, they explore several crucial insights for nonprofit leaders:
- Understanding the power and importance of dissent and how it can fuel growth and innovation in the organization.
- Recognizing that vulnerability and fallibility are not signs of weak leadership, but rather an opportunity to foster trust, empathy, and openness within the team.
- The significance of acknowledging and appreciating dissent, as it not only encourages participation but also stimulates a learning culture.
- Exploring the benefits of a supportive environment and the necessity of communities of support for nonprofit leaders.
Tune in for an engaging discussion on reframing dissent, nurturing a culture of learning, and evolving leadership paradigms in the nonprofit sector.
Listener Links/Resources:
Peter Senge Video about Learning - "Prevailing system of management is destroying people." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fln7GnBNWmo
Behaviors That Reinforce Learning Worksheet - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bRfiCgm5oAOTzAOy5xjwTP-RMzNLwZcj&usp=drive_copy
Want to bring Learning Organization training to your team? -- set up a design call with us -- https://meetings.hubspot.com/tucker-wanna/design-session-call-private-intensives-
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
The demands of leadership in the nonprofit sector are overwhelming right now.
The need to scale, serve, and make real impact can all too easily lead to neglecting personal wellbeing.
Oftentimes we seem to be faced with the difficult decision of choosing between investing in program development or investing in our staff.
It’s time to consider the powerful shift that occurs when your staff becomes a central part of your transformative journey.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker, Sarah, and their guest Jason Janz, the co-founder of the nonprofit organization CrossPurpose, propose a bold shift in focus — investing more in leaders and less in programs.
Throughout the discussion, they explore the profound impact this shift can have on the health of an organization and the potential for transformational outcomes.
They delve into the idea of nurturing a leadership team that embodies the transformative values of an organization and prioritizes their own growth and development as a path to achieving greater impact.
Key takeaways from the conversation include:
- The significance of letting go of a scarcity mindset that inhibits investment in leadership growth
- Recognizing the potential that lies in prioritizing your leaders over expanding program activities
- Challenging the conventional wisdom with a radical idea: "Your staff matters more than those you serve"
- Realizing the power of orienting your team towards your transformative outcome, rather than being consumed by everyday activities
- The profound impact of personal transformation on your leadership style and overall team dynamics
Join us for this insightful episode as we navigate the challenging but rewarding landscape of transformative leadership in the nonprofit sector.
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
Are your nonprofit’s programs financially viable?
Are they delivering the desired outcomes?
Is it even possible to find a balance?
Sometimes it feels like nonprofit leaders are jugglers, trying to keep multiple balls in the air at the same time. The truth is, they often are. Juggling the financial viability of programs while also striving for impactful outcomes can be a challenging balancing act. This challenge is amplified by the pressure to serve as many as possible while also ensuring the programs align with the organization's unique value.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Tucker and Sarah unpack the complexities involved in managing financial viability and program outcomes. Drawing from their recent work with United Way, they discuss the development and use of a program evaluation matrix that helps in this assessment.
Throughout the conversation, they touch on several key considerations for nonprofit leaders:
- Why balance doesn't come from increasing efficiency but rather from reducing responsibility, inspired by Adam Grant's insights
- The significance of saying "no" and how it doesn't always have to mean discontinuation but rather redirection and conscious choice
- Understanding your organization's unique value and focusing on areas where you can make the most impact
- The importance of not overestimating what others understand and making the implicit explicit
- How third-party facilitators can help guide these difficult conversations
Tune in for an engaging discussion on navigating financial viability, delivering program outcomes, and the discipline needed for making conscious choices in the next normal of nonprofit leadership.
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
“We don't need more knowledge, we need more learning." - Tucker Wannamaker
As nonprofit leaders, we're deeply committed to our communities and the causes we serve.
Unfortunately, the demands of our roles often leave us with little time for deep introspection and self-care.
The journey to effective leadership begins with leading ourselves.
So how can we find balance, enhance our decision-making, and create room for growth when our schedules are bursting at the seams?
In our newest episode of THRIVERS, Tucker and Beth Roalstad, CEO of Homeward Pikes Peak, dive into the profound impact of experiential learning and the concept of “pause, notice, and choose”, a framework that promotes self-awareness and conscious decision-making.
They share their insights from the Conscious Leaders Quest in Costa Rica, discussing the transformational power of taking time for inward growth, and how this personal development positively impacts the organizations we lead.
In their conversation, they touch on key elements of conscious leadership, including:
- Understanding and utilizing the framework of “pause, notice, and choose”
- Creating rhythms of pause for better productivity and wellbeing
- The impact of deep trust on team growth and development
- The importance of carving out time for personal investment and self-nurturing
Join us for a deep conversation on self-leadership, conscious decision-making, and the transformative power of experiential learning in this episode of THRIVERS.
Need to create a strategic plan (or breathe life into your existing one)? Schedule a free Design Session and we'll explore the areas of opportunity and co-create a plan that fits your organization's needs and budget.
Schedule a Design Session
Buy-in.
Easier said than done.
There are LOTS of ways to create buy-in, but they're not all created equal. And further still, not all of them are accessible to nonprofits. So how do we do more than just "build buy-in"? How do we actually get people ENGAGED?
Ditching top-down approaches and implementing a culture of co-creation at your organization is an important part of making your team feel that their voices are heard and valued, but what is the right way to implement this approach?
When is it appropriate to use co-creation versus just making a decision and moving forward?
In this episode, Sarah and I sat down with Indy Frazee, CEO of The Independence Center, to talk about her experience creating a radical shift in staff engagement. She shares about the impact of co-creating a vision together and the power of asking better questions.
We’ve learned that it’s important that we don’t come across like we’re the “experts” who have it all figured out, as we may end up perpetuating the problem of nonprofit leader burnout by further alienating the people we’re trying to help.
If we can share what we’re learning along the way, in a public way, we can support growth and learning amongst leaders we serve.
In today’s newest episode of THRIVERS: Nonprofit Leadership for the Next Normal, Tucker and Sarah open up to discuss their recent learnings about everything from books to recent moments of interpersonal conflict and how they managed through them.
Nonprofits exist to create positive impact in their communities and in the world around them. There’s no shortage of ways to increase and improve that impact. Revenue, storytelling, programs, and more all play a significant role.
The biggest factor though is also the most overlooked: leadership development. Why doesn’t it get prioritized? Is it a lack of resources or funding? Why do most “leadership” programs miss the mark? Better yet, why do they only focus on the people at the top of the organization?
In this episode, Sarah and Tucker dive into the research around the impact of nonprofit leadership development (or lack thereof) and what most programs get wrong when it comes to building capacity this way.
LINKS
Reactive Leadership vs Creative Leadership
Sometimes it seems like our organizations have minds of their own. Tasks to accomplish, priorities to organize, fires to put out… It’s easy for things to end up on autopilot in all the wrong ways. It can start to feel like the organization is running you instead of the other way around.
In this episode of the THRIVERS podcast, Tucker Wannamaker and Sarah Fanslau talk about the conditions that create this and how to harness that (seemingly negative) momentum to put you in the driver’s seat.
From changing the questions we ask when evaluating problems to understanding how teams and individuals learn, this episode is packed with practical applications to help you take ownership of leading your organization well.
It’s one thing for an executive team and a board to align around a strategic plan. It’s something else entirely when an entire organization, from the newest hire to the most senior board member, realizes they have shared vision and are moving in the same direction.
That’s exactly what happened at Greater Nashua Mental Health when CEO Dr. Cynthia Whitaker led them through developing a co-created strategic direction.
In this episode of THRIVERS, Dr. Cyntha shares story after story of core values being prioritized and lived out in real time, of community members recognizing the alignment of priority, and of new life being breathed into the organization.
LINKS
Greater Nashua Mental Health
In the final episode of our 4-part series on strategic planning, we dive into the value of being a learning organization. We cover everything from defining what that means to the massive impact it can have in your organization to simple practices you can implement today.
Your organization’s ability to learn and adapt touches every part of your organization and is what keeps you relevant through inevitable changes in culture, economics, and more.
How do we create an environment that fosters learning? How do we recognize opportunities to learn? What does it look like to embrace new learning as individuals and as an organization?
Let’s dive in.
Raise your hand if data scares you. It is okay to admit it. It’s true for many of us.
But data is a vital part of organizational health and strategic planning.
In this episode, Tucker Wannamaker, CEO of THRIVE IMPACT, and Sarah Fanslau, Chief of Impact, discuss the role of data, qualitative and quantitative, in uncovering community needs, identifying areas of opportunity, and charting a future direction.
They talk about and define outputs, outcomes, and impact, and discuss the power of two questions that should be central to EVERY nonprofit’s conversation around impact–what change it is making, and what does it take?
This episode will help you identify the next steps to take on your data journey, regardless of where you are starting.
LINKS
How to Talk About Nonprofit Impact from Inputs to Outcomes on The Balance Small Business
Qualitative vs. quantitative data: what's the difference? On the FullStory Blog
Impact-to-Effort Matrix
Have you ever heard the old cliché of the strategic plan that sits on the shelf gathering dust? Haven’t we all? But it's a cliche for a reason–because it has been true for so long.
But a better question is: Why is it true?
In this episode, Tucker Wannamaker, CEO of THRIVE IMPACT, and Sarah Fanslau, Chief of Impact, discuss how newer approaches to strategic planning can help improve culture, increase impact, and ensure that the old cliché doesn’t apply to your nonprofit.
We talk about and define these approaches, including Appreciative Inquiry and co-creation, and share how, when combined, they can help organizations actually shift how they address and deal with change over time.
This episode will help you take strategic planning out of the board room and bring it into the break room–where it has belonged all along.
LINKS
THRIVE IMPACT
The Case for Appreciative Inquiry
What is Appreciative Inquiry? on PositivePsychology.com
Building the Co-creative Enterprise on Harvard Business Review
The Drucker Institute
Dr. David Cooperrider
What’s the point of strategic planning? Is it just something nonprofits are “supposed” to do? How do we actually use it to guide our day-to-day work? How does the whole organization buy into a strategic plan?
These are the questions we love to hear.
In this episode, Tucker Wannamaker, CEO of THRIVE IMPACT, and Sarah Fanslau, Chief of Impact, discuss a few core questions at the heart of the rebirth of the strategic planning process.
We talk about why strategic planning is important in the first place and where it goes off the rails. We identify the pain points nonprofit leaders face around buy-in and the common pitfalls of developing a strategic plan. Spoiler: Most strategic plans are doomed from the start.
Throughout the episode, we also dive into how strategic planning can actually be a means to resolving numerous issues throughout the organization. Improved culture, staff retention, and engagement are a few unexpected byproducts of a co-created strategic plan.
LINKS
https://thriveimpact.org