Leading When It's Raining: 4 Principles To Be The Leader Your Team Needs When the Road Gets Tough
When things are tough, it's natural for everything to feel like a five alarm emergency. And in moments like that, a lot of leaders default to pulling fire alarms, figuratively speaking with hasty decisions and panicky emails to the team late at night. And in essence, running from a problem that might not actually be a problem.
Welcome into the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong foundation. every episode we're all about frameworks and tools and guidance, the stuff you need to be able to create lasting impact from the ground up.
My name is Matt Stockman. I'm your host, thrilled that you're here at Nonprofit Launch Plan. We believe that every nonprofit must be operating at peak performance in six key areas in order to be successful. Those areas are leadership, fundraising. Marketing programs and services, operations and finances.
on every episode of the podcast, we talk about a topic that is core to one of those six areas, and the title of today's episode is Leading When It's Four Principles to be the Leader your team needs. When the road gets tough, tough times are inevitable. It's been said that no one and no organization is immune to stormy times.
It could be, changing political climate. It could be decisions made by whatever administration is in power at the time, such as the case with our friends at public radio these days. It could be a major donor or a foundation that moves their funding in a different direction. It could be staff turnover or external factors that you have absolutely zero control over, but leading a nonprofit is anything but all puppies and rainbows.
it's hard, and it can feel like a really unstable and terrifying rollercoaster. Pretty much every day of the week. So as a leader in your nonprofit, you hold a tremendous amount of emotional and relational and psychological power in these tough times, these rollercoaster rides for your team, for your volunteers, and even for your beneficiaries.
And how you lead when it's raining on your nonprofit, figuratively speaking, is quite possibly a defining moment for you and for your organization. And so I've got some simple guiding principles that are very practical, but will be very helpful when that rainy day comes for your nonprofit. And without being too much of a downer, it is coming.
At some point, we all go through it. Before we get into that, one of the biggest struggles with any nonprofit, especially in the early days or the stormy times, is fundraising. Fundraising can be awkward. It can be uncomfortable a lot of times Kind of feel like you're in the deep end of the pool.
You don't have a plan. You don't know what you're doing. You've reached out to all your family and friends. You've gotten a few yeses, and then what? The whole thing can be really scary. That's why I've built this tool, which is available on my website right now. It's the five step Fearless fundraising framework.
It takes you through all five mental steps that a person who might consider giving you money goes through. In order to get to a yes, and it gives you the tools and the guidance to be able to lead a person through those five steps in that thought process. To get to a yes, it takes the fear out of asking other people to partner with you financially and to get you some more yeses early on.
There's five steps. It's problem solution. Urgency and action, and I go into detail about what each one of those things means. Each one is equally important and you have a really hard time getting somebody to consider giving you financial support unless they mentally go through all five steps, and so we'll talk all about that.
It's an easy to use workbook and five short videos that outline the fearless fundraising framework and all of this together. Will build your confidence in knowing how to invite other people to partner with your nonprofit financially. It's all free. You can get it on the website@nonprofitlaunchplan.com.
Again, nonprofit launch plan.com. I want to jump into today's episode by starting with a story about a client of mine that is in the middle of a ginormous rainstorm right now in their nonprofit. This leader took over a small nonprofit about 18 months ago or so after the previous founder. Of the nonprofit passed away.
And when she got into the position and then started to look under the hood of the organization, she had a lot of nonprofit experience. So this is not somebody who's walking in, green or new, but she started to look under the hood of the organization. And what she found was that some things needed a lot of cleanup.
A lot of restructuring in order to bring the organization's finances into compliance, to clean up a lot of shoddy programming practices and accounting practices, and to rebuild relationships with some donors and just to start to reset for the future. this leader over the last year has really gotten to work doing things that were critical for the future in the nonprofit, but brought about quite a bit of change.
For example, the nonprofits board has gone through some really, I believe. Necessary upheaval, and this leader has also had to make some correct but really tough decisions to end some partnership agreements that didn't align with their mission. But these agreements brought in a lot of money. in essence, she said.
Hey, we have to sever these agreements, which is gonna drop the amount of money coming in every month significantly, and that money's been really difficult to replace. The decisions were the right ones. This leader knows it. I believe it as well. The moves and the changes are difficult, but they are the right moves for the future.
But because of the ripple effect of all the changes that they're right in the middle of right now, the rainstorm, it feels like the decisions in a lot of ways were colossal mistakes. It's in moments like this that the team is looking to this leader, and if you're in a similar situation, your team is looking towards you for not just guidance about what to do.
But even how to feel about it. Here's one thing to keep in mind is as the leader, you are the thermostat for the whole organization. If you are running hot, the team senses chaos and panic, and if you're playing it cool, the team will likely breathe a little bit easier. if you are in a season where it's raining.
On your nonprofit and the going is tough, quite likely your team members are going through some deep, almost subconscious fears that are really normal considering the circumstances, but can also really greatly affect job productivity. Questions might be on their mind about financial security, about job eliminations, about the impact on your beneficiaries and more.
And these fears and these concerns all require more of their mental energy during the workday, which should be and normally is used for work. as the leader. This is the time to understand the reality that your team might have some fear. They may not all be afraid of the same things or have the same level of fear, and they may not even want to admit that they're afraid.
But as the leader, you've got this great opportunity and responsibility both to guide them through the season. Both for the survival of the nonprofit, but more importantly for the health and growth of what you and I both know is your most important asset, your team, your staff, your volunteers. I've got four really simple ideas to lead your team through a fearful season through a rainstorm.
And it, even if you're not in a rainstorm right now, don't check out on me because rainstorms come all the time. Principle number one is be clear. I had a really wise former boss. Say this to me once. Clarity is kindness. And in a crisis situation, your team member's mind gets clouded and consumed with a million details that likely don't involve solving the problem that's at work in front of us.
It's the responsibility of you as the leader to communicate with absolute clarity, what your expectations are of your team and each individual on your team, and to honor a commitment to maintain that clarity. Moving forward, you are gonna feel a sense of relief among the team when you are clear about what is needed next, big, lofty, nebulous ideas, speaking in generalities or telling stories without a clear application or whatever, all that just adds to the fear among your team.
It doesn't eliminate it. Be clear first and foremost. Number two, be honest. Keep all of your communication with your team based in fact and reality. In a situation like this, your team's capacity for information is actually heightened. now is not the time to gloss things over or to be overly optimistic or pessimistic, either for that matter or to present things as you hope they would be.
You have to be honest about what you know. Be honest about what you don't know, and about what your concerns and your fears are. Your team needs you to be the leader who will lead them through the storm rather than a leader who pretends that the storm is really that bad. one be clear, two be honest.
Three, be calm. When things are tough, it's natural for everything to feel like a five alarm emergency. And in moments like that, a lot of leaders. pulling fire alarms, figuratively speaking with hasty decisions and panicky emails to the team late at night. And in essence, running from a problem that might not actually be a problem nine times outta 10.
That thing that feels like another emergency isn't, and 24 hours later might not even be a blip on the radar screen. in those moments, keeping your cool throughout. Communicates to your team that they can trust you and they can follow your lead. It's that sense of calm. That's the difference between reacting and responding.
Typically, we react to news or stuff that catches us off guard, but a wiser, more seasoned leadership approach is to pause, stay calm, evaluate, and then respond. If necessary, your team will love you and love your leadership for this simple principle. number one, be clear. Number two, be honest.
Number three, be calm. And number four is be swift. When you're facing the unknown, every possible decision can feel devastating if it turns out to be wrong for your team and for you. And your team is instinctively looking for you as the leader to be confident and to commit to a plan and face the unknown as it comes, rather than just being a victim of analysis paralysis.
be smart, do your homework, consider all the options, but then make a decision. Your team will actually be inspired to follow your confidence. Think about this for a second. A football quarterback. Every passing play is a matter of quickly considering all the options and then committing. And as the quarterback of your team, your team members will run whatever play you choose, but you've got to choose.
when the time comes to make a decision, don't waver, be swift. the four things one more time are be clear, be honest, be calm, be swift. Let's go back to the leader I told you about at the beginning of the episode. This leader is still in the middle of the big storm, but by focusing on being clear and being honest and being calm and being swift, she's been able to navigate the organization through some really tough waters.
They're still in it now. I think there's smoother water ahead. as you navigate the inevitable storms that are coming in your nonprofit, remember the four principles, they're not only gonna help guide you and your team through the tough seasons, but they're also just gonna build, in general a stronger, more resilient organization in a more cohesive team for the future.
Now before we wrap up this episode, if you or somebody you know is still in the dreaming phase of launching a nonprofit, I've got a special freebie that I've put together. It's a PDF resource. It's called From Dream to Action, your nonprofit pre-launch checklist. 10 Essential Steps from Moving From Nonprofit IDEA to Impact.
It's got 10 things in it to think about as you start to crystallize your dream for a nonprofit, and this tool will take you through 10 easy first steps to move your dream for a nonprofit toward a launch plan that gets that dream off the ground. This checklist will walk you through your why. Will help you in considering your first teammates, will help you hone in on who your beneficiary is.
Choose your nonprofit name, your IRS application and more, and there's an easy to do action step for each of the 10 things to consider that will bring your dream for a nonprofit into a much. Clear focus when you've completed it. Now, if you want the free PDF, it's called From Dream to Action, your nonprofit prelaunch checklist.
10 Essential Steps for moving from Nonprofit IDEA to Impact. All you need to do is email me. At matt@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Matt, MAT t@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. And say something about, Hey, send me the nonprofit dream checklist. Again, my email, matt@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Ask for the nonprofit dream checklist.
That's it. That's all for today's episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully this was helpful. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes, and if in some way you found this impactful or helpful, please consider sharing this with another nonprofit leader who you think might benefit.
Again, thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next time. Keep making a difference.
