Relish Your Role

As a nonprofit Executive Director, you have a vision for your agency and the impact it can make.  This episode explores the importance of communicating your vision to all your stakeholders, incorporating their perspectives and concerns to engage others with what you hope to achieve in a deep and meaningful way.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Managing staff and Board relationships is an ongoing concern for a nonprofit Executive Director.  There is no one right answer is how staff and Board relationships should be managed- but there are consequences for each decision.  This episode looks at different ways staff can be included in Board meetings and offers guidance to help you set the boundaries between your bosses and your staff.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

There are many demands on your time as a nonprofit Executive Director.The way you spend your time in leading your agency sends a powerful message to the rest of the organization.If you are unaware of how you spend your time it is impossible to become more effective in your role and practice self-care.This episode outlines the ten major areas where nonprofit Executive Directors spend their time.By increasing your self-awareness of how you allocate your work time you can begin to exercise greater control of your schedule making you more effective as a leader.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

As a nonprofit Executive Director, you want to get the most out of your Board.Today's episode explores strengthening your Board involvement- by matching their skills and interests with your agency's needs.I discuss how to get to know your Board members in a way that is not transactional and can bring assets to your organziation.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

It is never easy to fire someone.  We tend to ignore employee problems until things reach the tipping point.  This episode takes the fear out of the termination process by outlining the process of responding to employee problems, documenting your interventions,  and preparing for and holding the termination meeting.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

You know the importance of annual performance evaluations.  They celebrate successes, identify areas for support, and provide a roadmap for professional growth.  Sadly most nonprofit Executive Directors rarely receive a thorough and objective performance evaluation.  This episode provides you with talking points to convince your Board to set aside the time and resources to conduct the evaluation you deserve.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

It is the end of the year and you are probably deep in completing performance reviews for all your staff.  This episode explores six steps that can make performance reviews a meaningful exercise for you and your staff.Given that reviews are often tied to staff raises or bonuses, doesn't it make sense to have a strong, objective, and thoughtful performance review?When done correctly the process and written document can strengthen your staff's commitment to your agency and convey your investment in their professional growth.Listen to learn more.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

This episode explores the challenges women leaders in the nonprofit face having to balance societal expectations of their behavior with the premium placed on authentic leadership.When our authentic selves as women leaders are constantly judged as being either too nice or too assertive for effective leadership we are caught in a no win situation.Changing this dynamic can only occur when women are supported in all their complexity and understandings of authenticity is expanded.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Your Leadership team are your eyes and ears to ensure your agency is running smoothly.At the most basic level, this group shares departmental information and receives updates from the Executive Director about recent decisions.But you want to move past the basic level of functioning, you want a  team that takes on tasks that transcend the work that these individuals do as department heads and work cross department silos to provide you with high level strategic problem solving. This episode provides five considerations to make to get the high performing leadership team you deserve.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

The labor shortage is one of the more pressing challenges facing nonprofits in 2023. Staff vacancies create tremendous stress on your existing staff who are asked to do the work of two or three people.  It is an unsustainable situation.This episode provides a few tips  to make your agency an attractive possibility for prospective employees and ways to cast an appropriately wide net when looking for next ideal hire.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Your leadership team is the engine to make your agency run.When things are going well they are a group of autonomous decision-makers who serve as your eyes and ears allowing you to focus in strategy.But often they bog you down with continually asking for guidance or enmeshed in personality conflicts.This episode provides five steps to help you develop the leadership team you deserve.Details are provides on how to:1. Get your team aligned with your vision.2. Empower your team.3. Communicate frequently.4. Acknowledge success.5. Attend to team dynamics.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Are you chained to your desk responding to never ending emails?This episodes provides three tips to manage your email and gain control of your time.We explore how to:1. Master the urge to check your emails2.Effectively triage your inbox3. Set clear boundaries to respond to emailsThese smart systems help you regain control of your time and energy so you lead your agency with confidence.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

We all have staff in our nonprofits which refuse to hear the feedback you provide them to improve their work performance. It is frustrating for you and your team.The goal of our feedback should always be for staff improvement.This episode provides six characteristics of feedback you want to make sure you use to enhance the changes your feedback is received.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

This episode provides actionable steps for women nonprofit executive directors on how to create a professional support system.  It explores finding an existing group in one's local community, how to create their own group or identifying individuals who can provide support.  The attributes of the types of people who can provide useful support are discussed as are ways to approach them.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

The episode explores the primary benefits of a professional support system for nonprofit leaders.  Specifically four benefits of having a support system; 1. Sense of belonging, 2.Thought partnerships,3. Improved self-esteem, and4. Creating authentic connections are discussed as benefits of a professional support system.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

As the Executive Director you bear some responsibility for your staff's morale.It has been a tough couple of years in the nonprofit world.  It is hard to run a nonprofit agency in 2023. As a woman executive director, you feel an enormous responsibility for your staff's emotional well-being.The goal of today's episode is to help you feel less alone as you balance the needs of your staff while making sure the work gets done.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

A dirty little secret in the nonprofit world is that boards of directors do not always deliver.Most of the nonprofit women executive directors I work with identify frustrations with their boards as one of their greatest challenges.You need your board to help raise visibility and funds as well as advocate for your agency, and when they do not do their part, your life as the ED is so much harder.Today's episode continues the theme of exploring ways to get your nonprofit board of directors to become engaged and effective ambassadors for your agency.Specifically- the episode provides tips on how to have those difficult conversations with your board chair and turn those awkward moments into important pivot points for improved board functioning.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Today's episode  will focus on your nonprofit Board committees and things you can do as an ED to get those committees focused, with a clear workplan and accountable for delivering to your organization.Getting your Board effectively engaged takes intentional strategic work and patience.Lack of clarity of just what they should be doing and how governance and oversight translates into concrete action results in Boards delving too deeply into areas that are not really under their purview while not addressing issues which sit squarely in their court.A Board well trained in their role is a necessary foundational building block and it is your responsibility as an ED to make sure they receive training as well as refresher sessions on the attributes of high functioning Boards.But you also have a responsibility to help them develop a structure to get their Board work done.  A proven structure is having focused Board committees.The episode covers the four basic elements  of effective nonprofit Board committees.1. Curated committee membership   2. A strong  committee chair  3. Clear committee goals and    4. Opportunities to contributeFind more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Today's episode will look at ways as a nonprofit leader to strengthen your ability to persevere.Perseverance is necessary to be successful as a nonprofit ED.Lately I have been consumed with mastering perseverance and learning what it takes to stay the course.The Oxford English dictionary defines perseverance as ‘persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.'This episode explores four behaviors which which will help you persevere in the face of obstacles as a nonprofit leader. 1. Being agile2. Asking for help3. Setting incremental benchmarks4. Being grounded in your purposeFind more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Staff meetings are a fact of life in the nonprofit world.Your staff meetings provide an opportunity to convey information, solicit ideas, allow for group discussion, problem solve and create a sense of community.With planning and intent, it is possible to shift the tenor of your staff meetings from a dry, necessary obligation, or even worse a tableau of agency dysfunction, to an engaging manifestation of best practice for staff engagement, collaborative decision making and agency commitment.Today's episode will explore clarifying the purpose of your staff meeting as the building block of convening groups in a way that builds a strong work culture.By shifting your approach to seeing the purpose of a meeting from inputs to outcome, you have taken the first step in setting the stage for more meaningful staff.This episode provides tools to making that shift in planning and convening your staff meetings.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

We all want more time.Time to complete a project. Time to spend with those we care about. Time to pursue an interest. Time to relax and re-energize.But as much as we crave more time, most of us, especially in our work world, do a poor job in managing how we spend our hours.For women nonprofit EDs the feeling of never having enough time is steroid-infused.In addition to work demands, they still shoulder the primary responsibility of tending to all the logistics and care-taking needs of their family.We set ambitious plans during our commute to work, even if that trip is no further than from the kitchen table to the office alcove. But too often at the end of the day, only a portion of what you planned to accomplish was achieved. Not having enough time leaves us feeling perpetually rushed, anxious and like a failure.How can we tame the beast of never having enough time?Today's episode will look at four ways you can create smart work habits to help you gain greater control of day.Four Steps to Stop Wasting timeTo begin to make better use of your time at work I want to offer these four steps.1.     Know your time wasters2.     Make small incremental changes in your daily habits3.     Acknowledge the difference of these changes4.     Set aside time to do nothingA good first step is to identify counterproductive habits, setting attainable goals to cut them down, noting your progress and allow yourself to recharge by doing nothing.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Your staff is the lifeblood of your agency.They bring passion and skill to their work and make you proud every day.You would do anything to keep them happy in their jobs, so they continue to stay, grow professionally and enhance your organization's work.You know from your check-ins that they love their jobs.But your staff wants more pay, they know you are paying just at the market rate and believe they need and deserve more.And you do not disagree, but you also know your agency's budget. Across the board raises are not possible this fiscal year. It is your goal to do so in the near future but right now the funds are just not there.What do you do?Today's episode will discuss three short-term approaches an executive director can take when the budget will just not stretch far enough for pay raises.  I want to be clear that these suggestions do not take the place of pay raises but demonstrate to your staff how much you value them, your willingness to be creative and support a work culture where their concerns are heard and validated.When your staff expresses a legitimate request for pay raises but there is not enough money in the budget to make those raises a reality, there are three things as the Executive Director you can do to keep your staff's faith and confidence while working on increasing revenue.Be transparent about the agency's budget.Identify what staff values in lieu of raises and work to provide it.Be creative and leverage your full arsenal of contacts for in-kind or discounted services .Again, this clearly does not take the place of nor should in any way be seen as a substitute for pay raises.  It is an interim good-faith step to demonstrate how much you value your staff and while you are working to grow the budget you are acknowledging that they are heard and prized.It is a short-term step, one which is about intent as much as results.A good leader has to do more than just say no, they have to demonstrate that they will go the extra mile, be creative and find small short term approaches to reward their staff when there is no money for raises.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

We know that interagency collaboration is best practice and smart businessBut let's be honest, it can be such a tricky dance working with a partner.You can be one thousand percent committed to collaboration, but it is hard work to sustain a collaborative relationship over the long haul.You are often competing for the same grant dollars. You may be competing for donors, board members or clients.I know the words collaboration and competition don't often go together, but it is true.I was thinking today it would be helpful to have frank conversation about the more problematic aspects of program partnerships. Specifically, how as a nonprofit leader you can skillfully assert yourself while keeping the relationship intact and productive  It is a nuanced maneuver to distinguish your agency from the pack in a respectful way which lifts your partners up while emphasizing your agency's uniqueness.My goal is to let you know you are not alone if you are feeling frustrated and annoyed with the more high maintenance aspects of partnerships and lay the groundwork for you to develop solutions.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

I have been coaching and conducting performance evaluations for nonprofit leaders for over twenty years. Most of the agencies I work with are headed by women.  I had this sense that were issues they dealt with which are unique to their gender and I wanted to know more.  I wanted to  step back from the consultant/coach role and go on a listening tour to learn what the issues women nonprofit EDs face.  I was curious if their challenges were disproportionately impacted by the fact that they were women leading their organizations.  It was not a scientific approach, I reached out to my network who helped me find women nonprofit leaders from across the country who were willing to talk with me.  These women leaders generously gave me their time and thoughts about;·         what they loved about their jobs,·          what challenges they face, ·         the skills they believe they possess to navigate the rocky waters, and,·         what they wished for, for themselves, their staff, their boards, their agencies and community. These women covered the spectrum of age, ethnicity, they led all different types of nonprofits of varying size, but they had so much in common.I found that there are issues which are not exclusive to but are more pronounced for women leaders.  These interviews convinced me that women do face unique challenges in running their agencies and motivated me to start Relish Your Role. Today's podcast will identify the five unique challenges I heard repeatedly from women nonprofit leaders.Unique Challenges for Women Nonprofit EDsBased on my experience, the literature and my interviews with women nonprofit leaders, there are five major unique challenges they face.1.       They feel their expertise is often minimized.2.       They experience backlash when exercising authority.3.       They feel forced to adopt a performative posture in aspects of their jobs.4.       They juggle their executive director roles with that of a primary caretaker.5.       They struggle with a sense of Isolation in their role.This is not to say men never experience these challenges, only that these five issue are experienced acutely and repeatedly by women nonprofit leaders.  If we want the best for these women and help them be effective in their work, it is vital to talk about these concerns and make the changes necessary to lessen their impact.Today I am just going to give some context to these five areas and will address each one in depth in future episodes, so stay tuned.Minimized ExpertiseHard as it is to believe in 2023, women are still questioned that they really are “the boss”.  An accomplished leader of a multimillion-dollar nonprofit told me a story of being addressed as ‘little lady' by an architect who suggested they wait for the person in charge to arrive at their first meeting for the planning of an addition to her agency's headquarters. A male Board chair from the private sector told an ED that the agency's services were comforting but hardly ‘rocket science'.  This woman ran a cutting-edge agency piloting a multi-generational intervention program for Alzheimer patients.Many women spoke of the dismissive manner men in the community, and sadly sometimes on their own board spoke of the work of their agencies and dismissed their content expertise.  Whether they were working in financing low-income housing, environmental justice, educational enrichment, increasing medical access, these leaders brought substantial content and organizational leadership expertise to tFind more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Like it or not, for most nonprofit EDs, managing their board takes at least 25% of their time. In my experience, less than half of nonprofit leaders feel their Board pulls their weight with respect to being effective agency ambassadors.So you have this group of well-intended volunteers who take a lot of an executive director's mental energy with little to show for it.There are many levers to pull to get one's Board engaged and active.Today I want to focus on the relationship between the Board chair and the ED as one piece of the puzzle of developing and engaged Board of Directors.If you can get fully aligned with your Board chair and create a respectful, boundary appropriate relationship you are half way there to changing the dynamic where the Board shifts from a burden to an asset.This shift takes time and intentionality- See the full show notes at relishyourole.com/4Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Do you find many of your staff constantly underestimate themselves?Does your staff turn to you for answers they already possess?Is there a person on your team with leadership skills you want to amplify?Identifying, nurturing, and empowering your staff's leadership skills is a key trait of an effective nonprofit leader.We all want to develop and support the leadership potential of our team, but the task is harder than it seems.  With competing demands on your time, different relationship and power dynamics among your staff and lack of clarity of how to equitably develop leadership potential, the work often gets ignored. Today's podcast will explore one element of cultivating leaders by skillful delegation. When you delegate effectively, you provide your staff with a chance to exercise their skills and act with autonomy.  Providing opportunities for your staff to gain mastery is a key component in helping you cultivate the team you need to run your agency. Find the full transcript for episode 3 at relishyourrole.com/3.   Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

A key tool to be effective as an Executive Director of a nonprofit is to master control of your time. Are you working 10–12-hour days and still feel chronically behind?Are you unable to focus on planning because you are continually reacting to crises?How many times have you started your Monday morning with a nice meaty list of all tasks you want to tackle and find at the end of the day you have not had a moment to breathe and did not scratch a thing off that list? Are you answering ‘well yeah' to all these questions?Well, my guess is you may need some support in developing smart habits and systems so you can regain control over your time. Relish your Role helps women nonprofit Executive Directors master their work relationships and gain control over their time.Today's podcast will provide you with a few easy actionable tips to begin to protect your calendar and shift your mindset to assist you in capturing the headspace you deserve to plan and think strategically.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

There is no doubt that the top challenge of most nonprofit EDs is motivating Board Members to be actively engaged ambassadors for their agency.  Relish Your Role can help you engage your Board in a meaningful way.It takes so much of your already-pressed time and energy. Then, all too often, there's little to show for your efforts. You can't keep this up and still accomplish your agency goals! And it's critical to offload the stress building up for. You. What are the common causes behind Board inactivity? And how can YOU do all you can as an ED to get your Board informed and engaged?It takes a deliberate strategy to forge a productive partnership with your Board. and the first step as the ED is make sure your Board members know what is expected of them.You need to make the most of your Board meetings and make sure you are sharing information with them in a way which engages them.   Reasons for Board inactivity come down to two main things:1.       Board Members not really understanding their role, and 2.       Your actions as ED.This episode will explore ways to communicate effectively with your Board.Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.

Running a nonprofit is really hard … and there are additional challenges for women Executive Directors.   There are so many demands and complicated relationships to juggle.  That is why I created Relish Your RoleI'm here to help women EDs manage their time and work relationships so they can lead with their authentic power. Relish Your Role Podcast is hosted by me, Dr. Nancy Fournier, Nonprofit Relationship Strategist. I have run nonprofits and trained board of directors, their staff and leaders to maximize impact for over 30 years. I have worked with numerous women EDs helping them perfect their skills in managing up, down and across their agencies so they feel competent and focused in achieving their goals.  Just like my private programs, this podcast has loads of practical guidance and inspiration to help you run your agency with confidence. Find more practicable tips on my website Relish Your Role. com. I have so much respect for the work you do! Thanks for listening.