How leading from strengths creates focus in uncertainty
How are you?
It’s summer, and over here we’re entering the season of many goodbyes.
This week we dropped off our older kid at the bus to work as an overnight camp counselor for the next two weeks. That’s a preview for a much bigger goodbye in another month as our young adult heads off to college.
Things are changing.
All of this change is bringing up many emotions: Pride in our young adult. Excitement for the people they’re going to meet, learning they’re going to do, adventures they’re going to have. Some sadness and grief that we’re not going to see this wonderful person every day like we do now.
And I’m going to admit it: while some part of me is happy for our child, another part of me is struggling. I’m feeling the anticipatory grief of the experience of a child leaving the nest, which includes anger and sadness: I was happy with the way things were going! Why are they changing?
Sometimes our response to change is NOOOO!
With the hostile takeover of the government at the Federal level, 2025 has been a volcano of change - and not in a good way.
So many of us have been saying NOOOO! to so much that the MAGA regime is attempting to do: Fund billions of dollars for secret police and abductions of immigrants, cut Medicaid for millions of Americans, cut research funding, education, and, most recently, billions of dollars of funding for public radio 😡.
Perhaps you also feel your blood pressure rise daily as you read the latest update -- and hopefully have expanded your meditative practices. As we wrote earlier this year, “bearing witness to the level of destructiveness, corruption, and cruelty that we’re seeing with the hostile takeover of the US government at the Federal level is a daily gut punch.”
What are you going to say YES! to at this moment?
The challenge at this time, in the midst of the fight and the destructiveness is to be FOR something - and to be super clear on what you are for.
That means leaning in to your strengths - the value you provide to your community or clients, what you do best in the world. Leaning into your strengths is critical for building a strong nonprofit organization - or consulting firm.
ID: two orange and pink weights with a green background and the word STRENGTHS in the bottom left corner
Notice and acknowledge your best work - and do more of it
Getting clear on your strengths is a key part of building a successful nonprofit organization.
How can you hone in on your strengths? We do this in the Discovery phase of strategic planning: We conduct interviews, host focus groups, and conduct surveys in which we ask staff, board, clients, partners, and volunteers what makes the work of this organization valuable and unique. Then we create a discovery report with key themes that have emerged.
Clarifying your strengths creates focus, energy, and inspiration
Past clients have asked us about the importance of clarifying organizational strengths. How much does it really matter?
Clarifying organizational strengths creates focus and supports decision-making. This is especially needed in this moment of funding cutbacks. Current financial constraints push us to be thoughtful about where it is most valuable to invest our time and resources.
While we continue to brace ourselves for the wave of decisions that are creating generational alterations at the Federal level, we have the ability to focus on ourselves and our work. Though we may need to take a moment to react strongly and scream NOOOO! as they happen, our protest comes from leaning into our strengths, continuing to do what’s right, supporting our communities and clients, and standing up for justice.
Want to bring your staff or board team together to reflect on strengths and figure out how to focus on them? We have a few more slots for strategic planning processes or team planning retreats starting in the final quarter of 2025. Reach out to schedule a consult with us, we’d be happy to hear from you.
This is part 2 of a 5 part series:
Part 1 - Want to Lead a Thriving Organization? Start with These Four Practices