| Written by Chuck Bean, on February 26, 2008 |
What are you doing for Leap Day (February 29)?
In other words, if you had one “extra” day for your nonprofit mission, what would you do? I nominate some priorities for our “extra” day this year:
Nominee #1: “Sharpen the saw” – the seventh habit in Stephen Covey’s best-selling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about professional development. Covey tells of encountering an exhausted lumberjack in the woods who is asked, “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes to sharpen that saw, I’m sure it would go a lot faster.” The man responds, “I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” he says emphatically, “I’m too busy sawing!” Does that sound like too many nonprofit leaders we know? “I’m too busy raising funds (or managing people, or dealing with my board) to take care of my own professional development.”
Nominee #2: “Call the Mayor/Chairman/County Board” – many nonprofit service providers are neck-deep solving problems and caring for the people of our region. Often, it’s hard to get our heads above water to focus on the deficiencies in the larger systems which are causing these problems. Use your Leap Day to call every elected official in your jurisdiction with just one piece of advice to fix larger systematic problems, or your perspective on situation at the front-lines. We’re not going to have big breakthroughs without working on the big systems.
Nominee #3: “Find a New Partner” – who couldn’t use a new friend, ally, or colleague? We all could. While we all know that the care and feeding of a collaboration can be time-consuming, we also know that the rewards are great. On this Leap Day, check out “Habit 4” of Covey’s entitled “Think Win/Win” and then get some more tools from one of my favorite books, Getting to Yes. Then, reach out to that person you’ve been meaning to call for months and ask, “Do you see ways for our organizations to work more closely together?”
As for me, if I had one extra day, I’d spend it renewing my own bond with Roundtable Members. This Friday, my Leap Day will be spent calling 100 of our Members simply to ask, “How is it going? How can we strengthen our sector together in 2008?”
-Chuck Bean
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