I work with nonprofit Executive Directors on two things nobody hands you a playbook for: making the strategy actually move, and leaving without breaking what you built. Twenty years in the sector, including time as an ED. One piece a month, from the work.
Who cheers for you?
|
Hello Reader, A few weeks ago, she walked several batters in a row. It was a hard game, and she had to keep going with everyone watching. Later, a mom from the another team texted me to say how much my daughter’s pitching had improved this year. She didn’t have to say anything. I’m glad she did. The board evaluates their decisions. Funders assess their work. Staff look to them for direction, especially when things get hard. They may be the most watched person in the organization. The loneliest stretch of this job is usually the last one. If you've started quietly thinking about what it looks like when you leave your role, The Legacy Leadership Transfer is what I built for that. It's the part of leadership nobody teaches you. It walks through the decision itself and the weight sitting underneath it. The conversation with your board chair, and what to put in her hands when you have it. A structure for moving what lives only in your head to the person who comes next, so nothing essential leaves with you. And your own chapter after this one, which almost nobody plans for. It's self-paced and private. Nothing you have to announce before you're ready. I priced it to stay within reach for most leaders and organizations. Two quick questionsI want to know who's out there. One click each.
Talk soon, Heather P.S. If an ED came to mind while you read this, send it to her. Then ask them to take a walk or grab a coffee. |
Heather Hooper Consulting, LLC
I work with nonprofit Executive Directors on two things nobody hands you a playbook for: making the strategy actually move, and leaving without breaking what you built. Twenty years in the sector, including time as an ED. One piece a month, from the work.
Hello Reader, When I was ready to leave my last ED position, I looked for a roadmap. Not the organization's succession plan. That existed. It named how we would find the next leader, explained how the search would run, told the board what to do. Useful, as far as it went. What I was looking for was a roadmap on how to transfer my work. The documentation nobody had asked me to write. The years of institutional context that would walk out the door the day I did if I didn't build a structure for...
Hey Reader, When I left my last organization, a teammate handed me a stuffed tomato. I laughed, and then I got a little teary. At that org, a tomato emoji next to your name in Slack meant heads-down, please don't interrupt. No explanation required. No guilt. It started after a workshop with Emily Parks from Organize for Success, who taught us about the Pomodoro method. The use of the tomato was inspired by the name... but the decision around adopting an emoji didn't really all come from the...
Hey Reader, We have a fireplace in our bedroom, and a few weeks ago something moved into the chimney. For four nights it scratched and nested, and I lay there in the dark building a whole creature out of the noise. A squirrel, at least. Maybe an opossum. Something big and furry and clearly plotting against me. By the third night I was running on no sleep and sure we had a real problem. So that Sunday we called a wildlife guy. He listened to our video of the racket, said he was ninety percent...