Is your job sabotaging your work?
Are you happy with your job? An increasing number of nonprofit CEOs and EDs aren’t. Many say they’re considering leaving the field. That’s a shame because I can’t think of a more dedicated or well-intentioned bunch than the crowd I know. In my discussions with nonprofit leaders, I’ve come to realize that they love their work, but they don’t always like their jobs.
Your work is a combination of the cause you support, the service you offer, and the people you are helping. All the things that drew you to the nonprofit sector. Your job, on the other hand, includes all the administrative tasks associated with running your enterprise. This is where the worries come into play, the things that gnaw at you, chief among them staff resiliency and turnover. It’s no wonder given these facts from the National Council of Nonprofits:
Three out of four nonprofits have vacancies they need to fill
Half have more open positions than before the pandemic
72 percent can’t offer the salaries needed to recruit or retain staff
Increased flexibility has been the first move for employers trying to sweeten the deal for existing staff and prospective hires, and nonprofits were early adopters. But flexibility isn’t a distinct selling point anymore, and its allure comes with downsides. There’s less time to team build. Mentoring remotely is more difficult. Coming together to work through a challenge or to celebrate a victory is far less frequent.
It’s time to shift your focus away from the job and back onto the work.
Flexibility is a benefit, and benefits administration is part of the job. But the work, your cause, its beneficiaries, and the feeling that you are making a difference, could all be getting lost. And not just to you. Your teams may also be missing the forest, besieged by the countless trees that mark when so-and-so punches in, whether someone would rather work at home or in the office, if we have unlimited leave, or sabbaticals, or summer hours.
These aren’t bad things; they can be helpful and supportive measures for dedicated teams. Yet in the overheated job market, perspective has been lost. Don’t panic. We’ve been here before. Remember the dot-com era, when Silicon Valley offices embraced nap pods and doggy daycare? Just as in the early 2000s, benefits and perks have become distractions from more important matters. The most essential is organizational culture.
I know, you have a mission statement and core values. And yes, these are important. But if you’re not living them, they should be revisited periodically, especially given the pace of change we are living through. It’s time to remember why you showed up this morning.
How to begin.
You can take it slow. You can involve as many people as you choose. I know there’s no time for navel-gazing, but I’d also argue that there’s no more important investment of your time, especially right now. Ultimately, you want to build a cultural platform.
I believe purpose is the most important aspect of the platform. It’s your organization’s reason for being, at the highest emotional level. So let’s start there.
1 |
Revisit your origin story. Think back to your start-up days, what was your organization’s original intent? Many on your team don’t know about the early years and can’t appreciate the distance you’ve traveled. Summarize your year-one culture into five or so phrases. |
2 |
Conduct some informal one-on-one interviews with a mix of staff, clients, board members and donors. Around ten would be ideal. Through conversation, ask each person to identify five phrases that reflect the current culture of your organization. |
3 |
Compare the phrases from your interviews with the original culture in step one. Find common themes, then complete the following sentence. Since day one, we have been dedicated to ________________. Our organization is driven by _______________ and ________________. |
4 |
Complete the Five Whys exercise created by Toyota to assist workers in breaking down problems.
We deliver/make/do _____________.
|
5 |
Use Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle exercise from the book It Starts with Why.
Because we believe _____________,
|
6 |
Use the above answers to craft a straightforward statement that summarizes your purpose. For example, For Goodness Sakes’ purpose statement is: We believe powerful ideas change things. |
These six (not-so-easy steps) are a start and a good place to stop – for now. Mull it over some, bring your staff along for the ride. These exercises needn’t feel like a response or reaction to anything, just a pause to think more deliberately about your work and about what’s most important about your team’s time together.
I’ll be sharing more thoughts on organizational culture over time. There’s a process. Because you are in the business of doing good, it will be an affirming reminder that by shifting your perspective, it’s possible to love both your work and your job.
It’s worth it,
Kevin
