Nonprofit Congress

Note: This is the first entry in a series. Stay tuned for future episodes.

It's taken me a few weeks to get to this post reflecting on my experience with Project LEAP, partly because it's been so busy around the office (only 66 days until the Nonprofit Congress National Meeting!) and partly because reflection doesn't always get the time it deserves in a busy nonprofit, period. My goal here is to explore some of the learning that I did and also evaluate the course in general. This is not intended to be any sort of recommendation for or against the program, just a way for me personally to process what I learned.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that many of us in the nonprofit sector tend to gravitate toward the martyr lifestyle. We work long hours, we worry about work when we're not there, sometimes, we even dream about it. To some extent, I think that it's perfectly natural for us to be like this. You don't work in a nonprofit if you're not a passionate, caring individual. Sometimes though, that passion carries us too far.

In America, perhaps more than other countries, our identity is often tied to the work we do. I don't know about you, but when I meet someone, the second question I'm almost always asked is ‘where do you work?'. It helps us define ourselves and helps others define us too. Unfortunately, that's not always a good thing.

From an internal perspective, we can often ‘live' our jobs way too much. I speak from experience as someone who has worked jobs where my very existence, my ego, my self-esteem seemed to hinge on the work I was doing. I cared so much about my job that I stopped caring about myself. I was ill, unhappy, and had virtually no outlet since all my friends were at work.

There's been some buzz in the blogosphere and in some newspapers about the new Ready to Lead? report published this week. The report details findings after a survey of almost 6000 nonprofit employees. The simple conclusions: most (2/3) younger leaders either aren't sure about or definitely do not want to step into the role of Executive Director. The top reasons? Fund raising duties and lack of appropriate work/life balance. My reaction? What a shocker! (with a heavy tinge of sarcasm)

Let's be clear: I hate the phrase time management. First, it's just logically impossible. One cannot "manage" time; it is an abstract concept created by us in service to our need for structure...except now, it seems like we are in its service. I freely admit that I have silly opinions about what kinds of things ‘waste' time (also a ridiculous concept btw), what things are necessary despite my concept of waste, and what things are good uses of my time. Of course, none of this stops me from continuing to waste my time and energy doing things and obsessively classifying them into one of the three aforementioned categories.