We can build a culture of honesty when we create psychological safety and decrease the fear that telling the truth will be punished. That means we demonstrate appropriate vulnerability, reward those who ask questions, approach conflict with curiosity instead of defensiveness, and are intentional about building trust.

You have a lot of freedom as a new director to ask about things that others may take for granted. Your outside perspective may expose some things that need attention that others have assumed for years.

It’s legitimately difficult for many leaders to sincerely slow down enough to understand our people’s need to process the ways our decisions affect them when we’ve figured it all out some time ago. It can be frustrating to feel like we’re having to go backwards.

-Don’t contact everyone you know or post about it on social media for at least a couple days. You need some time for your emotions to settle a little bit so you’re not just looking to soothe a wounded ego. Reach out to a small number of trusted friends and mentors.

You probably think about your work 50-60 hours every week; the board may only have it in mind 5-6 hours a month. You need to give them information that equips them to ask you good questions, and make good decisions.

With very low unemployment, a large generation of leaders retiring, decades of insufficient leadership development, higher salary demands, and the growing complexity of charity leadership, the odds of you finding the perfect leader who can make it all better are incredibly low.

You aren’t going to hire your way out of whatever isn’t working.

How is this one of the most common, and least useful, interview questions??

I get that it is supposed to reveal some self-awareness but in most cases all it elicits is a prepared response designed to actually assert more about the candidate’s strengths.

We can do better.

There is one trait, more than any other, that distinguishes healthy leaders from unhealthy leaders.

Are you curious?

People who are inspired by a meaningful vision rarely gripe about minor things. They may be frustrated with decisions they don’t understand, systems that aren’t effective, people who annoy them, or workloads beyond their ability to handle; but they are ultimately desiring the best for your cause and clientele.

They are still inspired. They just want some help.

Even if you don’t like the music (which is borderline inexcusable in my view) there is plenty here for those who care about hunger, debt relief, HIV/AIDS, and justice. Glimpsing behind the scenes in the halls of political and corporate power, as well as the dry fields and overwhelmed hospitals of the majority world, provides insights well worth the cost of the book.

The most popular Insights from LeadWithCatalyst.com this year have been:

A surprising number of remarkable people are open to being approached to do something different.

I’ve spent my whole career working with the charitable sector in several different ways. I care, a lot, about charities doing good work and doing so ethically.

Taking an hour to interrupt the busyness of rushing to the year end to realistically re-prioritize will give you the best chance of enjoying the season, finishing with confidence, and having some energy to begin a new year optimistically.

Many of our leadership examples come from past generations when men (and official leadership was all too often limited to only men) were expected to be stoic and strong. If any emotion was revealed it was most likely anger. The legacy of those expectations has more impact today than we may like to admit on leaders of all genders.

It’s good to invest in the development of your senior leaders individually. Higher education, conferences, courses, and coaches all have a place. But we rarely see enough return on investment from those things for the team.

“As a leader you need to take responsibility for not only what you say, but what other people hear”.

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.

Today’s charity leaders understand that the Lone Ranger, do it all executive style that was common in previous generations isn’t effective in the complex and ever-changing environment we lead in now.

And yet, the vast majority of leadership training is geared to individuals.

“Have you already decided that this person does not have a future with your organization?”

Many times there is a significant pause on the other end of the call.