Linking things up – Holiday edition!

Dec 10, 2012 by

Somehow, it’s December. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since this has been the fastest year of my life. But somehow, here we are.

And, I’ve been slacking on the blog lately. Our new house is taking up an incredible amount of time and effort – but the ‘end’, at least in terms of unpacking, arranging, buying new furniture, re-arranging, etc. – is in sight! By the end of the year, we’re looking forward to really settling into the home and finally enjoying it, rather than viewing it as a source of work and occasionally, frustration.

I wanted to share some links for great posts from other blogs that I’ve been keeping up in my (limited) free time. Enjoy and stay tuned – I’ve got a lot in store for 2013!

  • Millennials Are Here: 5 Facts Nonprofits and Businesses Need to Know by Colleen Dilenschneider at Know Your Own Bone – As usual, Colleen has taken hard data and provided a clear, thoughtful analysis that even non-data nerds (like myself) can appreciate. In this post, she points out what should be obvious to us all, but apparently isn’t – millennials are the largest generation in history, they are already having a huge amount of influence over pop, intellectual and consumer culture and nonprofits ignore them at their own peril. If you work at a nonprofit, are a data nerd or just appreciate incisive writing, get over there now.
  • 4 Mistakes Employers Are Sure To Notice by Heather Huhman at Glassdoor Blog – Glassdoor’s posts are always concise, to the point and provide great advice for you job-seekers out there. This post is no different. Heather breaks down four mistakes that you need to avoid if you actually want to hired. Take it from Heather Huhman, an experienced hiring manager: you don’t want to get noticed for all the wrong reasons.
  • Foundations Must Get Serious About Multi-Year Grantmaking by Niki Jagpal & Kevin Laskowski at the Stanford Social Innovation Review – I don’t talk about fundraising or foundations much in this space, but it’s something that every nonprofit professional must pay attention to. In this excellent piece, Jagpal and Laskowski highlight the decline in multi-year grantmaking by foundations to nonprofits and the devastating effects it is having and will continue to have in the future. Without a consistent source of funding, nonprofits will continually struggle to make ends meet and will not be able to focus on the mission-based work that the foundations supposedly support. And on a more personal level, any nonprofit professional’s job could be on the line because of that lack of support.
  • Worst-case scenarios. You gotta love ‘em. by Danielle LaPorte on her blog – This elegantly simple post comes pretty close to summing up my philosophy to career risks. To wit: what’s the worst that could happen?
  • What You Pay in Time by Philip Brewer at Wisebread – This post kind of blew my mind. Wisebread’s tagline is “living large on a small budget” and they share all kind of posts about how to value your time, money and stuff appropriately – and how avoid over-valuing the same. This post breaks down, in fairly stark terms, one method of determining what you’re giving up and what you’re getting when you make different choices – in this case, in terms of time. While the focus is framed around time and money in general, it made me think specifically about my career and the growth of my business. How much time am I spending just trying to earn money…in order to spend more time making money. Read it – maybe it will blow you mind too.
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Relationships are all that matter

Oct 2, 2012 by

As I mentioned a few months ago, I’ve been guest-blogging over at Opportunity Knocks since earlier this year. This is the latest post I’ve written for them so check it out and visit their site to read more great bloggers.

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After years of organizing people, events and situations, I’ve learned that relationships are all that matter. Whether you want a job, a promotion, a friend, a drink or to raise some money, you must have good relationships.

Developing good relationships with new people, networks and organizations that can help you get things done is relatively simple – but maybe not easy.

Here are five steps to get that good relationship started:*

  • First, you must catch their attention – through someone they know, a common institution, etc. This can include alumni networks, organizations they’ve worked or volunteered at, neighborhoods they’ve lived in and much more. This is where a resource like LinkedIn or other social and professional networking platforms can come in handy.
  • Second, you must establish an interest in having a conversation. The common thread between you is often not enough to get that conversation going; however, asking someone for advice or to talk specifically about your common interests can get it going. Most people love to talk about themselves – so ask them!
  • Third: exploration. Just because you get together and start talking to someone doesn’t mean that either of you have any value to add to one another. The evaluation/exploration stage (usually during one of your first conversations) is when you ask each other questions, listen to the answers and figure out whether your relationship is going anywhere. The process of developing a relationship can and should end right here if there isn’t any value to it.
  • Fourth: if there is value in the relationship, this is the time to make exchanges – of knowledge, information, etc. Do they know someone you should speak to? Do you have a really interesting article to share with that person? Is there an event you should both attend to learn more about a topic? One note: sometimes it can be hard to determine whether the relationship will have any value to it and you often must proceed to the exchange step before you can figure it out.
  • The fifth step is to make a commitment to continue engaging, basically a promise of shared time or effort (or both). This is the point at which the relationship becomes a separate organism that needs to be fed, watered and nurtured in order to survive past the first few weeks.

Most of the time, these steps happen organically, but they still must be done. If you’ve ever had someone you don’t even know call you and ask for a recommendation, introduction, etc., you know how jarring it is when key steps are skipped. By the same token, if you keep the steps in mind, you’ll have that new job, promotion or a great drink from your local bartender in no time!

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*Please note that some of the content for this post came from Professor Marshall Ganz, a long-time organizer and Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Moving on with gratitude

Aug 6, 2012 by

After two great years, I’m wrapping up my YNPNdc leadership position. It’s time to pass the torch onto others who can help lead YNPNdc to even greater things. But just like a lot of transitions, this one is bitter-sweet.

I’ve learned so much since I started with YNPNdc: organizational operations, board operations, maximizing content across multiple communications channels, working with others (especially when you have no power or authority over them), and so much more. I’ve made so many great friends that I know will be there for me in the years ahead; these same people are outstanding professionals in their own right and having them in my professional network will be valuable in the future as we all move into leadership positions in our organizations. I know that I’ve grown as a person and a nonprofit professional from this experience and I believe I’ve been able to help others grow as well.

On the other hand, I’m excited to reclaim a large chunk of time to use in different ways. I’m happy that my email volume will be reduced (by a lot) and that I’ll be able to really focus on other things that matter to me. And my husband is happy that I’ll be home more :).

So what’s next?

For a while, I think I’ll take advantage of the extra time by reading and catching up on some of the household and life chores that I’ve been putting off (for instance: the nearly one-year-old pile of stuff to put in my wedding scrapbook). Then I want to follow my own advice and develop a plan for growing my career coaching business significantly in terms of number of clients, type of work and financial gain.

And in a year or two I would like to join a board again; this time, I’d like a position on a strategic/advisory board as opposed to a working board (which is what YNPNdc’s is). There are so many great nonprofits in the DC metro area and I can’t wait to work with one or more of them!

I can’t express enough how grateful I am to the other leaders of YNPNdc – especially the communications committee – for welcoming me into the fold two years ago and letting me grow and learn with them. It’s been such a fun and rewarding experience and I can’t recommend it more highly to all of you out there.

Thanks for the memories YNPNdc!

 

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The Quick and Dirty Guide to Standing Out in the Workplace

May 21, 2012 by

On Friday, May 18, I presented a session at the 2012 YNPNdc Annual Conference (hashtag = #ynpndc12) titled “The Quick and Dirty Guide to Standing Out in the Workplace.” My fellow colleagues from the YNPNdc Communications Committee live tweeted/blogged the session, as well as many others. The tweets from my session are below and you can find the full record of live blog posts on YNPNdc’s blog NETWORKdc.

Enjoy!

 

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Linking things up – November edition

Nov 30, 2011 by

Every couple of months, I like to pull together a list of some of the best blog posts, opinion pieces and otherwise cool stuff I find on the interwebs and share it with you. Here’s November’s edition, enjoy!

  • The Importance of Managing Your Professional Development from Entry Level Living – Allison Jones has hit the nail on the head again. In this insightful post, she talks about how organizations – corporate and nonprofit – have been cutting back on professional development money/opportunities, leaving job seekers hanging in the wind. But have no fear! There are things you can do to build your own professional development even if your employer won’t. Check it out.
  • Invisible People Don’t Get Seen from RosettaThurman.com – I can’t agree with Rosetta more on this post. You know that 99% everyone’s talking about these days? Well in my career coaching work, I often refer to the 99% as those that are invisible and will be lucky to get anywhere in their careers. You must be part of the 1% that actually gets seen and Rosetta can offer you some tips on how to do it.
  • Lessons from Boot Camp from SamDavidson.net – I’m happy to know that I’m not the only blogger that can take a lesson from sports. In this excellent post, Sam lays out what at learned at a workout boot camp and how those lessons apply to leadership, career and life. These are lessons we all need to learn.
  • Free Non-profit Webinars for December 2011 from Wild Apricot – Every month, Wild Apricot shares a great list of free webinars happening all over the nonprofit sector on topics including fundraising, hosting effective webinars, writing grant reports and more. Here’s your opportunity to take Allison up on her suggestion to get your own (free) professional development.
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