Category: Blog
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35. What Exactly is a Mission Driven Organization Anyways?
I use the term “mission driven organization” a lot. And when asked, I’m always happy to define what I mean by that. But… I’ve learned through the years that my definition is not the one that matters.
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34. What The Beatles and Alec Baldwin Can Teach Us About Management
I often find interesting (and unexpected) inspiration and lessons from the most unlikely of places. In this week’s episode, I draw from the world of art, specifically music-making and film directing.
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33. When Proactive is Really Reactive
All leaders want to be proactive, not reactive. But here’s the thing: Just because you want to be proactive, be considered by others to be proactive, and do proactive seeming things, that does not mean that it’s true. In this week’s episode, I point out a simple way to frame up a discussion that can…
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32. When Optimism Becomes Denial
Optimism is a good thing, right? Absolutely! But… and this starts innocently enough… a sincere desire to be (and seem) optimistic can, over time, give way to something that is… not so good.
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31. We all have blind spots
You have blind spots. I have blind spots. And they can impact our approach and our success. Remember, blind spots are only problematic when we ignore them.
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30. Make sure you know what your Board really wants. As in… really, really wants.
I’ve seen it happen and often to tragic effect. Boards will hire a leader to bring about substantive change… only to find out later that the process of creating that change caused more friction and tension than anticipated. This week’s brief episode is a reflection on how best to prevent this sort of unpleasant surprise…
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29. The importance of external feedback
Some of us kittens look into a mirror and see a mighty lion staring back at us. Some of us lions see little kittens. Honest and clear-headed self evaluation is important… but alas this is a podcast about leading mission driven organizations and I’m no pop psychologist. Nevertheless, I believe that the parallels to leadership…
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28. How to Storytell the Mission
In my book, Saving Organizations That Matter, I describe the importance of “storytelling the mission”, that is, describing the work of an organization and its mission in a compelling and even emotionally stirring manner. In this week’s episode, I describe three quick tips for improving your ability to storytell the mission. Thanks for listening. And please…
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27. Six Reasons For-Profit Medicine is Bad for Your Health!
For-profits… non-profits… what’s the difference? In this episode, I provide six reasons that the movement toward for-profit health care has had some negative impacts on all of us. I suspect this is going to be a bit controversial but… I’ve seen what I’ve seen.
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26. Why mergers and acquisitions FAIL: They were set up to do just that from the very start!
For many nonprofit organizations, merger and acquisition strategies are viewed as desperation moves, as a proverbial Hail Mary scenario. This is… quite different… from their for profit counterparts who see M&A options as a way of cashing out of the business or as a means to grow and increase shareholder value. In this week’s episode,…
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