Can Do Basics Blog 3: The Power of AND in the Ampersand

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Cathi Coridan

The The Can Do Model is built around the power of the AND in the ampersand.

AND is such a powerful word that connects things, concepts and ideas together. It is a very short word, but it can be so dynamic.

I love the ampersand because it has such hidden strengths in its graceful form. More than strengths, I actually think there are super powers hidden in that symbol that help individuals and organizations combine elements, which on some levels appear to be contradictory, messy, or disconnected, in order to achieve a positive outcome that is way above & beyond the norm.

Take for instance, the combination of Difficult & Great. I am not sure where the idea started that what is good has to be easy! With that mindset, people can become so discouraged when presented with a challenge, when it is really an invitation to grow! The Difficult & Great combination nudge – and then push – us to think harder… To try again… To see another perspective…To listen more attentively to our colleagues… and to find something new, different, stronger and better… To achieve our mission with more impact! That’s why we, the nonprofit peeps are here, isn’t it?

During my interview for the book with Sandy Nobles, Director of Education at Momentous Institute, she put it this way: “We know ‘great’ & ‘difficult’ work together to achieve more impact. We want to ring life out of every day that we have chance to help kids.”

Change & Growth – The juncture of change & growth is where the possibilities, power, and promise of greatness and excellence reside and come to life. When change is not directly connected to growth, it creates fear and anxiety for many, and keeps organizations, teams, and individuals stuck in patterns that ensure that poor outcomes are perpetuated. On the other side of the coin, change for the sake of change is foolish.

Growth in “Can Do” terms does not mean more or bigger, it means better, healthier, and stronger.

When change is embraced and understood, people feel invited and empowered to join in and participate in shaping the growth. And they have a better understanding of how they benefit from the change & growth.

They start to view, measure, and respond to internal and external fluctuations as opportunities for growth, and use lessons learned to make adjustments and course-corrections to prevent unnecessary problems.

In short, these are people who want to be at work & make a Can Do kind of difference!

AND, who can argue with that?

Click here to check out The Can Do Workplace: A Strengths-Based Model for Nonprofits to learn so much more about creating that kind of workplace. The book is filled with practical solutions & hundreds of resources. Get yours today!

Can Do Basics Blog 2: Practice Makes Excellence Easier!

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Cathi Coridan

In the Can Do Basics Blog 1, I talked about the foundation of the Can Do Workplace Model – Mission & Gratitude. Blog 2 is all about practice.

Remember the old question: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Answer: Practice!

Here’s the new question: How do you build, nurture and sustain a Can Do Workplace? With four key practices:

Full Alignment
Making Quality Decisions
Using Change to Achieve Growth
Crafting & Simmering the BEST Secret Sauce

Practices implies a forward movement based on repetition. And that is why I called them practices and not elements or components. Yo-Yo Ma practices every day. So do Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney. As do Katie Ladecky and Michael Phelps. They have grown to superstar status and achieved excellence in their fields because they have committed to practicing. Why should it be different for a workplace? Especially in a nonprofit, with its mission to make the world a better place?

The first practice is Full Alignment, which means that all areas of the organization are well-connected and communicating.

Well-connected is to ensure that everyone is headed in the same direction. This happens best when the people who are accountable for outcomes are aware of their expectations and are able, equipped and supported to deliver on them. And then, they do deliver on them.

Communicating is to ensure that the messages – inside, outside and across the organization – are consistent, strategic, timely and true. It also means that everyone in all departments and at all levels of an organization can give similar answers to the questions: “what we are doing? …and why?”

Strong alignment fosters mission and promotes gratitude. Lack of alignment is often discovered when things start going wrong! HINT: That is not the best time to make corrections!! So, it’s good to know: how well is your organization aligned? How many silos are there? What are the biggest barriers to communication? How is accountability understood? How different are the “missions” as stated in each of your organization’s departments or areas?

The second practice is Making Quality Decisions. Not just at the Board meeting or by the department heads, but all the way through the organization. The best quality decisions are the ones made according to the pyramid model: only the most critical policy decisions are made at the top, and the rest are made as close to the customer or client or product as possible. The trick to having that succeed as a model is to share information and provide support and training for people to make great decisions at every level of the organization – every day.

Making quality decisions also requires being able to ask the right questions and listen carefully to the answers. At the time I wrote my first book, The Can Do Chronicles, I defined what I call the Three Can Do Questions, which I find very valuable in all areas of my decision making:

CDQ 1) What can I do? Keeps the focus on possibilities first, and barriers second.

CDQ 2) WHAT ELSE can I do? Keeps new options and fresh ideas perking all the time!

CDQ 3) Just because I can do it, should I? Again, keeps options open until I know for sure: Is it the right thing to do? Is it the right time? What else do I need to learn or who else needs to be involved before I make and act on this decision?

The third practice is Using Change to Achieve Growth. This cartoon says it all:

The message is clear – we all want it as long as we don’t have to do it!

Can Do Workplaces have what Carol Dweck calls Growth Mindsets. We can’t grow if we don’t want to change – ask the butterfly or the frog. The key is to link change with growth. More people understand and accept the value and benefits of growth than they do of change. As leaders of Can Do Workplaces, it is on us to understand, predict and promote change & growth – all of the time – one step at a time.

The fourth practice is Crafting & Simmering the BEST Secret Sauce. Aaahhhhh… the secret sauce – with its uniquely combined ingredients, its spices and aroma – is the signature quality of an organization. The best secret sauce is what keeps people – employees, clients, volunteers, funders and donors – coming back, wanting more and willing to work hard to get there. Many nonprofit leaders take great pains to develop a stellar strategic plan, but don’t include the recipe for the secret sauce – that is, what will make the organization unique and the people in it want to excel. Not just when the times are good!

Want to know a SECRET? It’s the secret sauce that keeps employees, funders and others pitching in and giving support when times are tough.

The Can Do Workplace has much more information about and applications of these Four Practices, along with practical suggestions to infuse the practices into all areas of an organization. Plus, there is an entire resource section with information, including Carol Dweck’s Mindset: the Psychology of Success along with many other helpful publications and links to help create and support a Can Do Workplace. Check it out!

Come back next time for the Can Do Basics Blog 3: The Power Of AND In The Ampersand.

Until then…
Imagine What You Can Do!

Can Do Basics Blog 1: Mission and Gratitude

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Cathi Coridan

Ever been in an organization that “gets it” and think, “WOW, I wish I worked here!”? And then we have all been in organizations where we think, “O.M.G.! GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Sometimes, it’s hard to pin down what makes the difference between a Can Do Workplace and those that are Can’t Do, Won’t Do, surviving, toxic, and the many permutations and iterations of just getting by. The distinctions between the Can Do and the others can be instinctive, based on feeling rather than data. One thing for certain, you know when Can Do is there, and when it is not!

As someone with many years of experience in nonprofit management and a background in behavioral health, the questions around what makes a “Can Do” workplace fascinate me and led me to write The Can Do Workplace: A Strengths-Based Model for Nonprofits. The book is focused on nonprofits because it has been my professional home for so many years, but also because so many nonprofits seem to be, unnecessarily, struggling in survival mode and missing the mark.

To celebrate the release of the new book, I am writing this series of Can Do Basics Blogs over the next four weeks, using the core concepts and practices of the Can Do Model. This first blog in the series starts at the beginning for me – with mission and gratitude.

“Can Do” can be an elusive quality or concept to wrap our heads around. It is about the organizational culture and the quality of the organization’s impact, yet there is more. Its framework is built upon a solid foundation consisting of two critical elements:

A well-defined, meaningful mission that drives all of its activities, and
An organizational culture that is grounded in gratitude. (The Can Do Workplace: A Strengths-Based Model for Nonprofits)

MISSION: Can Do Workplaces keep a strong focus on their mission. Mission is a given in a nonprofit. Mission is what defines its purpose and motivates all of its goals and objectives – or should! When it does, everyone knows the “why” of their work and the alignment is stronger up and down the org chart – and side to side as well. Mission keeps motivation alive, for staff and clients, and promotes innovation that leads to positive change & growth.

Sometimes, the focus on mission can get lost in the day to day challenges of running an organization and the unending search for funding, which is quite dangerous. Each nonprofit hold a public trust that underlies and defines its role in the community and allows for its tax exemption. When mission gets fuzzy or forgotten, misplaced or left behind in search of funding, that trust is broken. Usually not all at once, but over time – hence the term “mission drift”. Remember, mission trumps money because a well-defined and meaningful mission, when kept front and center, attracts money.

GRATITUDE: Can Do Workplaces also focus on gratitude. Gratitude? Where does that fit in the nonprofit world? Why, I think it fits there most naturally! Gratitude reminds us of what has gone well, not just what the problems are. Gratitude lets people – staff and clients – know that they and their efforts make a positive difference in the outcomes, even when goals are not fully reached. Gratitude inspires staff, volunteers and clients to try again and work a little harder to reach the next set of goals. Gratitude takes the “but” out of “yes, but…” In short, gratitude generates its own “impact”, and we all know how valuable “impact” is in our world!

There is an emerging neuroscience behind the power and impact that gratitude can have for individuals and organizations. I recommend Robert Emmons’ Gratitude Works!: A 21 Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity (2013, Josey Bass).

MISSION & GRATITUDE. Basics. And, when combined, so very powerful! When they stay front and center in an organization, great things are more likely to happen, and happen more often. When they are forgotten… well, many of us have been there… and most often, we have left.

If you are interested in learning more about The Can Do Workplace, I invite you to visit the Can Do Workplace website and to order your own copy of the book, which contains a resource section on mission, gratitude and motivation and much more.

Check back here next Friday for the second in the Can Do Basics blog series: The Four Practices of a Can Do Workplace. Til then, remember to Imagine What You Can Do!

Misteaks…. and lessons learned

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Cathi Coridan

Wish you could have a do-over? I sure do! Lots of them – and, one specifically that I will talk more about below.

During the interviews for my new book The Can Do Workplace: A Strengths-Based Model for Nonprofits, I was struck by the candor of all four CEOs of the featured nonprofits when talking about making mistakes and failing. A hallmark of a Can Do Workplace is the unusual, positive approach to how mistakes are handled – openly, honestly and as a learning opportunity. I believe that a great workplace is built on and made much stronger by the learning opportunities afforded from both the good and the bad times. Being open about mistakes and lessons learned in a Can Do workplace helps to foster and develop important personal and organizational values. The by-products of those learning opportunities are what I call critical nuggets of wisdom that help identify gaps and needs in an organization. And, they are vitally important in preventing mistakes from happening again – and again – and again!

Here is a quick excerpt from the book, with Michelle Kinder, Executive Director at Momentous Institute in Dallas discussing how mistakes are handled there.

At Momentous Institute, they “fail fast and fail better,” learning the lessons and moving to the next step. Michelle Kinder shares, “Problems are happening every single day – some little, some big. We can’t be derailed by setbacks and we have to be very careful what meaning we ascribe to it when we do fail. Careful to check how we are thinking about ourselves, our colleagues, and the families we exist to serve. It takes an enormous commitment to look honestly at situations that don’t go well, stay in the discomfort and then move through it to a better version of ourselves.” They think this transparent and candid approach is not just a good model for operating the organization, but provides a great example for their clients. “We do not want to appear to be perfect; we want to be honest and show the kids and families how messy and hard it is to grow and succeed – and also how very much it is worth it. The message from our Board is: They strongly encourage us to push the envelope and chase innovation. When things fail they never play ‘gotcha’ with us, but they have extremely high expectations that we learn a lot from our failures and move forward.” (The Can Do Workplace, page 58).

My Lesson Learned: Here is my true confession about a recent painful mistake and embarrassing lesson learned. I discovered last month that I had made an error while editing the book: I did not have someone do a final proof of the entire manuscript after I and others had completed our edits. I reviewed the places where I saw content changes were needed, and then I released it for publication.

The result is not a huge, horrible mistake, but rather a number of places in the book where words are missing. Some “the’s” and one “exceptional”, to name a few. Enough to be a distraction to the reader at times. And, as someone who secretly corrects other peoples’ grammar and edits other peoples’ writing in my head, this is a source of significant embarrassment to me.

I have given great thought, often at 4AM, about to how best to approach dealing with it since the proverbial horse is out of the barn now – the book has been published and there is no do-over. I decided to own up to it and tell you about it out loud – in articles, on the blog, on the website and in trainings as a personal and powerful teaching tool!

I want you to know how sorry I am that this wonderful book is missing some words that might distract you from the important work of building a Can Do Workplace. And, trust me, I promise you all and myself that I will never let a manuscript go to publication that has not had a cold read by a copy editor whom I personally pay to ensure that every sentence is complete and makes sense! Worth.Every.Penny.And.More!

Whew! As a committed Can Do leader, I really believe that transparency is the best policy, but that was very hard and pretty risky. This may be the first many of you have heard of me, and some of you may reject the book, its nuggets of wisdom and me, based on this information. That is a risk I am willing to take – and hope that more of you respect me for being candid and honest about it.
My focus on lessons learned goes beyond my “true confession” here. I am a big believer in using lessons learned and the role they have not just in building a Can Do Workplace, but in living a Can Do Life! I realized when writing the book that I needed to include the realities of how difficult and messy it is to build a quality organization, so in Chapter 5, I offer some guidelines on how to “make lemonade,” if you will. I present four case studies of “lessons learned” from across my years of nonprofit leadership that correspond to the four Can Do Workplace practices of Alignment, Decision-Making, Change & Growth and Simmering the BEST Secret Sauce. As a supplemental resource to the book, I am designing a framework for developing and using lessons learned to strengthen the work and people of a Can Do organization that will be used in trainings and posted on the Can Do Workplace website.

To help me create this framework that will include new and insightful strategies for “making lemonade”, I am launching The THAT will never happen again! Contest on the Can Do Workplace Facebook page and website and on the Can Do Blog. **

Everyone has a “lesson learned” or two to share – most of them learned the hard way. By sharing them, we commit just a little bit more moving away from repeating them, and we help others to avoid them! I will give away a free copy of The Can Do Workplace (with its missing words!) to a total of four nonprofit execs, Board members and managers who submit the best and most useful answers to the following questions. I ask that you focus on one of the two questions per entry, and multiple submissions are permitted. The deadline is Thursday, December 31st.

The THAT will never happen again! Contest Questions:

Question 1: What is your most important and meaningful lesson you have learned in your nonprofit career? If you could write a policy memo to help prevent it from happening again, what would it say and why?

Question 2: What is the most important advice or lesson learned that you share with a ten year younger version of yourself that would have helped you move more quickly into a position of Can Do leadership?

Please limit your responses to 500 words as a Word Document with your contact information included at the bottom of the page. Submit entries via email to cathi@coridanconsulting.com. Please put “lessons learned” as the subject line. Reminder, the deadline is 5PM Eastern Time, on Thursday, December 31. If you have any questions, please submit them via the same email with Contest Questions as the subject line.

I look forward to reading your entries and learning Can Do lessons from you!

** Any content from the contest entries used in the development of the Lessons Learned Tool will only be used with the written approval of the person submitting the contest entry.

Journey of Discovery

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Cathi Coridan

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

To Marcel Proust’s oft’ quoted phrase, I would add, “and new ears.”

The wonder of discovery that comes from seeing things with new eyes… hearing things with new ears. Or, maybe it’s just paying closer/different/better attention to what was there all the time!

Since the early spring, I have been job hunting for a CEO or Executive Director position of a small to mid-sized human services nonprofit. I gave this decision prayerful, careful thought. I am healthy again and interested in committing to a mission that makes a Can Do Difference. This perfect little job would be my “capstone” position to my very kid and family focused career.

The process has been very enlightening – and I have learned volumes about me and what my greatest strengths and skills are – and about the field, and where it is in the recruitment and selection of candidates for executive leadership positions. This blog is about me, my personal lessons-learned and the decisions I have made. There is a future blog brewing about the process and the field. (Stay tuned!)

At the beginning of August, I had tentatively made the decision to stop looking for a job, and to focus on building my consulting practice and promote my new book, The Can Do Workplace, coming out this fall. There is lots to do with new workshops to develop, new podcasts to record and a website to build, etc. Then, I got emails that I had been selected for a first, then almost immediately a second round interview with a really great local nonprofit. That’s the kind of email that makes my ego do that age-old happy dance and say “oh, they might Pick Me! Pick ME!”

After the interview, where I did quite well for most of it, but left with the feeling that I was, perhaps, trying a bit too hard to figure out what they wanted in a CEO, (“Pick me!”) I spent some quality time with my go-to best resource:

The Three “CAN DO Questions”

What can I do? – this keeps the focus on the positive and what can happen, and off the negative and what is, or could be, going wrong.
If not that, then what else can I do? – it keeps the positive juices flowing, and sets up for Plans B, C and Z, whether they are needed or not.
And, just because I can, do I? – not everything possible is practical, healthy, or a good idea; sometimes the timing is not quite right or there needs to be one more piece in place (or taken out) before it is time to move a project forward.

The third question – I love that question. It’s the gut check! Just because in the spring I thought I wanted to look for a new job (and can do it), is it really what I should keep doing? With quick and simple clarity, my gut-check answer was NO! I listened to myself with new ears – and what I heard made a HUGE difference.

So, on the day after that interview, I made definitive decision to stop looking for that “perfect job” with the great mission to round out my career and, instead, use the platform that I have already built to create the perfect job for me. The “what” is not real different than what I was doing before: writing, training, capacity building, interim executive services with a focus helping nonprofits make a Can Do difference. It’s all right there, on the front page of my website!

What changed is the “why” and the “how”! And, here’s how they changed!

THE WHY: My goal is not to write grants, deliver workshops, mentor managers or to ensure compliance as an Interim Exec. I realized that I was so far in the details that I had lost sight of my goal! My goal is to help nonprofit leaders, managers and Board members make a Can Do difference. To focus on their missions. Create stronger alignment, create a plan to grow and make better decisions, and, simmer that secret sauce of theirs so that it attracts the best people. It’s where Cathi as the counselor in days of old, meets Cathi the consultant of today. It’s where I have great strength, not just of ideas, but with experiences that have taught me more lessons than most get in a lifetime – many of them the hard way! It’s where I can be the most authentic and resourceful me!

THE HOW: For a number of reasons, some of them quite good at the time, I was being responsive to requests for my services, and not focused on how to define a client profile and establish my client base. I had grown a little too comfy in my cave (read: office) and flip flops and was not putting enough energy into getting out there, reconnecting with the people in the great network I have built through the years. And, in finding ways to meet not just new people, but the right new people.

Trust me, it’s not that I’ve been lazy – I have been quite busy. But, not as productive as I know how to be. And, I allowed myself to be lured into the adrenaline rush (and crash!) of the waiting for something wonderful to happen dynamic that occurs when I am looking for “the perfect job”! (“Pick ME! and life will be wonderful for all of us!”)

In the last few weeks, I have shifted my focus, and become my own inner-coach, and asked myself another question: “what would I encourage me, the client, to do if I was the coach?” And, I started doing those very things. One of them on the list was writing this blog!

Lesson learned: take time to look with new eyes, listen with new ears – to our gut and our goals!

I leave you with the question: how will the Can Do Questions make a difference for you? What will you see? What will you hear? And, then, what will you do!

P.S. Stay tuned for the launch of the Can Do Workplace Website. It’s only a few weeks away!

My Job Hunt…an adventure in humility and patience

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Cathi Coridan

I am currently looking for a new job – something not for the faint of heart. I intend to find a nonprofit executive leadership position – a special job what will be the awesome “capstone” position of my nonprofit, service-oriented career. A place to work that capitalizes on my “skills, experience and entrepreneurial spirit,” as my resume says. A place where I can make a Can Do kind of difference.

NOTE I have edited this blog post because, as life tends to happen, the situation changed a bit within 24 hours of hitting “publish.” The feedback I have received from several sources has been extremely eye-opening and reflected in the changes I have made.

The process entails constantly being “be out there” in a way that invites people to judge me, not just for my experience and qualifications, but against a very competitive field of other applicants, some of whom are just as qualified as I am. I have started to refocus and think through new ways I can distinguish myself my competition for any given position. It is a two-edged sword.

I keep being reminded that I am no spring chicken. Rather, I say “I am a seasoned nonprofit professional,” which means I have extensive experience, perspective and depth – and gray hair! Many employers want someone younger and probably cheaper, but with all of those other qualities, too. I am tempted to put a P.S. at the bottom of my cover letters that says “remember, you get what you pay for!” But, I don’t.

Because I have been very public about having had some significant health issues, my guess is that some employers get into the “what if’s” and say, “she could get sick again.” So, perhaps I could add a P.P.S. on the cover letter that reads: “So could any of the people that you hire. Part of what I have learned it to value my health and I take better care of myself better than the vast majority of the world.” Alas, again, I don’t.

Then, there is the silence…oh, the silence. I actually have a category on my job search spreadsheet labeled Radio Silence. When I write a (brilliant!) cover letter and submit my resume for positions and it never even gets an email acknowledgement of the application, let alone an invitation to the dance. Hey, they could at least use “auto-reply”! Some postings so say that only those deemed worthy will be contacted, but still…

The gatekeepers for many of the senior positions in the nonprofit sector are the executive career consultants and head hunters. They can be very supportive and helpful – or not! One was very gracious and thoughtful in her recent note that dismissed me from the search after the first round. Another was very generous in her feedback on why “one got away!” and gave me great input on what needs tweaking on my resume.

On the other side of the coin, one “candidate advocate” at a professional search firm emailed me to say I had been moved forward in an interview process (I was ecstatic!) before her boss decided that I was not being moved forward. But no one told me until I texted the boss 10 days later saying “I am confused.” No apologies, just a very defensive response that I had not been moved forward, and how there are many moving pieces in the organic process of making “these high level hires.” (I was the opposite of ecstatic.)

One of my challenges is to remember that while it feels this way, my job hunt not just about me! Even though the feedback from that head hunter was not delivered in a very professional way, it taught me a valuable lesson that keeps getting reinforced the more conversations I have. The job search process is competitive, involves many moving parts, and each person involved brings his or her own perception of need and qualifications to the table. Each application gives me a new opportunity to put my best foot forward. How cool is that?

The adventure continues…

Now, I need to get back to writing that “cover letter that will change my life…” It is what I Can Do!

The CAN DO Blog

A Place to Discover What You Can Do….

Tag Archives: nonprofit leadership