Caring More, and Less

Can you really care too much?

That depends what you mean by caring…

Recent conversations with leaders from two different organizations have involved helping figure out what to do when they see organizational issues they aren’t empowered to address. I bet you can relate.

Unless you are the lead staff person, and often even if you are, there are going to be things that aren’t your job to deal with. If you have a leadership mindset you won’t be able to help but see some things that could be improved.

This is predictable and common.

And often frustrating.

So what do you do when your care for the organization is greater than your authority?

There are lots of practical ways to try to influence strategy, policy, and practices when you aren’t the one responsible. Offering to help, sharing concerns, modelling best practices, and seeking promotion are all potentially helpful.

But there is another key that has more to do wth your mindset:

Learn to distinguish between things you care about, and things you care for.

One of the things I love about working with charity leaders is that they care, a lot. They care about the things their organization is doing; but almost all of them also care about other issues. Many are donors, volunteers, board members, or passionate supporters of other charities, faith communities, or social justice organizations. Some are active in politics. Others in local sports or arts programs.

There are many things they care about. That’s one of the distinctives of leaders, we care.

But while we can care about many things, we can only care for a relative few. We are limited by capacity, priorities, and position. We can only do so much. These are things we care for.

We need to learn how to differentiate the things we actively care for from those we sincerely, but from a distance, care about. If we do, we’ll probably sleep a lot better.

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And Wisdom to know the difference.

Amen

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