Three strategic, powerful steps for leaders in this hard moment
I got up the other morning, had breakfast, and I had a little time to look at the news before taking my kids to high school. That’s when I found out that hundreds of devoted civil servants at the Federal Department of Education had been laid off and that critical datasets that track American children's educational achievement over decades had been removed from government servers.
As I learned more about the implications of this story -- individuals’ livelihoods destroyed, millions of children with special needs or disabilities who will not get the support they need to thrive in our society – I started to cry. Too many days, we are witness to heartbreaking, unfair, and infuriating news.
We are living in challenging times in which every day brings news of a new outrage or grievance. What steps should leaders take to express leadership right now?
1 . Put on your own mask first
Most likely you work in the nonprofit or social sector because you care about strengthening our society and community. Our sector is currently under attack. It hurts. Do not numb yourself to everything happening at this time. We need more compassion, not less!
And we each need to process the big feelings we may be having about what is happening. This recent Nonprofit Nation podcast episode from Meico Marquette Whitlock and Julia Campbell acknowledges the need to acknowledge the collective grief that so many of us are experiencing as our treasured values are being attacked.
We at The Ross Collective have written about three questions for resilient leadership:
How do I pace myself and take rest?
What brings me to life?
Who do I want joining me on the journey?
2 . Check in with your people
In the harshness happening at the Federal level, we have the opportunity to build care and love in our organizations and communities. Almost every strategic plan we’ve created has included a focus on healthy organizational leadership. How do we want to lead right now? That message is more important than ever.
Checking in does not need to take hours of your time! Instead it can involve small, consistent practices:
Affirm that organizational values include building a caring environment and show how that is happening in hiring practices, vacation policies, or other organizational policies and structures.
Use a community-building opening question at the beginning of meetings, such as: “What kind of weather represents your mood today?” or “What are you putting aside to be fully present for this conversation?”
Put these questions on staff meeting agendas! Talk with the team as individuals and as a group about what would support them now.
ID: a light green and pink megaphone , on a dark green background. Above the megaphone are some orange sound sparks.
3 . Be a megaphone not an ostrich
At a time when our values are under attack, leaders and organizations that are proudly doing good work are needed more than ever. Because many people are feeling uncertain and anxious, it is more important than ever to speak loudly and honestly about the good work you are doing! If you have hit challenges around Federal funding, you can share that too. For example, our recent client Youth Alive!, who works on violence prevention in Oakland, shared how their programs to reduce violence are successful -- and also the challenges that may come up with shifts in Federal Funding.
Should you do planning now?
The short answer is Yes. There is always value in coming together to create clarity about next steps. These might be next steps for the coming month, year, or three years -- depending on how far you can see in the future.
Before you turn on your megaphone, it is powerful to bring people together and create alignment for shared vision and values. Since we have led many inclusive strategic planning processes over the past few years, we are getting some questions about the value of strategic planning at this moment.
A few years ago coming out of COVID, we got this question a lot and wrote this piece, which shares some considerations for planning in uncertain times, particularly around financial and programmatic stability.
Even at this time, our team is guiding several organizations in strategic planning and have received inquiries from organizations seeking to create alignment among the staff and board team.
Another option is scenario planning, in which you consider possible futures and your reaction to them.
While many days bring disheartening or scary developments and setbacks in our space and for the people for whom we have been advocating throughout our careers, we have to take the steps to ensure that we can find a path forward together. We need to maintain our health and well-being, consistently touch base with the people most important to us to ensure they’re doing well, and continue to loudly live the values we’ve long professed. Now is not the time to shrink back, but to continue to find our strength and express it.
This is part of the work that we do at The Ross Collective, along with Strategic Planning, Scenario Planning, and other services - we support you as individuals and organizations so that you can be the best versions of yourselves, especially in trying times. If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do with leaders from the nonprofit sector, higher education and philanthropy such as yourself, join our newsletter list and read about it - or reach out to schedule a consultation.
This article cross-posted on the AFP Golden Gate blog.
