Leveling Up Your Nonprofit Leadership: Taking A Year-End Self-Evaluation

Announcer: 0:07

Welcome to the practice of non-profit leadership, a podcast specifically designed for executive directors of non-profit organizations. With a touch of humor, your co-hosts, tim and Nathan, work to provide encouragement, insights and practical strategies to help you be a more effective leader. And now here's Tim and Nathan.

Tim Barnes: 0:30

Welcome to episode 116 of the practice of non-profit leadership. I'm Tim Barnes.

Nathan Ruby: 0:36

And I'm Nathan.

Tim Barnes: 0:37

Ruby. Well, Nathan, it's that time of the year your end is almost here.

Nathan Ruby: 0:43

I don't know, tim. I've heard the expression that the older you get, the faster time seems to go, but this is ridiculous. It was Halloween, like I don't know, maybe a week ago, and now it's almost Christmas already.

Tim Barnes: 0:59

Oh, I know what you mean. I got to. I'm being honest, I feel the same thing, which brings us, I think, to our topic today. Year end tends to be the time when we start thinking about evaluating the year how did things go and what should I have done differently and I think it actually helps us prepare for what's up, what's upcoming too.

Nathan Ruby: 1:20

Yeah, absolutely, and you know, I thought today that we would look at four things that you might be helpful as you look through or go through evaluating your year and your performance.

Tim Barnes: 1:33

Well, it is common for our boards to give us some type of evaluation at least they should. Going through a process of self-evaluation can be just as meaningful and, in my experience, even more productive than just relying on the board to do an annual review. So, nathan, I'm excited. What do we have today?

Nathan Ruby: 1:52

then you know we've got some good stuff. But, tim, before we get into it, do you mind if I do just a quick ad? Go for it, all right. Well, we talked about this last week and you know, tim and I have been working on some really cool stuff and we started this podcast. One of the primary reasons we started it was to try to build a community of leaders, of nonprofit leaders, that are working with smaller organizations, medium, smaller organizations and it is lonely out there. It is hard to find places to connect, places to network, places to just be yourself, have somebody understand what you're going through and maybe kick around some ideas together and help each other as a group. And so we've been working on those things and we've been working on some additional content and some discounts on our coaching services and even Zoom calls together so that we can build that community. So that's what we're working on and if you're open to being part of that, we are taking to the month of December and building an email list. So if you email us at info at practicenpletercom that's info at practicenpletercom then and we'll also, we'll have that in the show notes so you can, you can read it also, but we're pulling this list together and in January we're going to be kicking off some new stuff and love to have you be part of it. So let us know if you'd like to be part of that and we'll make sure that you're on the list.

Tim Barnes: 3:32

Well, that sounds great, nathan. I'm excited about what's ahead. So, but as for now, let's jump in. What do we got for today, then?

Nathan Ruby: 3:40

All right, let's get at it. So these are. We've got four things that you, as you look at and evaluating yourself, your performance from an organizational standpoint, four things that you can consider to help you evaluate how you did this year. All right, first one is mission alignment. And in mission alignment we assess how aligned were our actions and our decisions with your organization's mission and goals. And you know, one of the ways that I'm doing that this year, tim, is I am going to take I've already I think I've got two already, but I'm going to take five of my biggest decisions this year and I'm going to do a autopsy on them. I don't know, tim, maybe that's a bit of a morbid word there, but it's descriptive. So I'm going to go back and I'm going to look at those decisions and I've got five things that I'm going to ask. So, you know, in the heat of the moment, we make the very best decision that we can and then, right or wrong, we move forward. So a storm comes through and a tree falls on the building, we have a staff person who walks out in the middle of a shift, we have, you know, whatever, all the things that happen to us as we're leading during the year, and we can't be prepared for everything, and so these things happen and we have to make decisions. And so when we're in the middle of that event or maybe, you know, when we're in the middle of the forest, it's hard to focus on the trees right and so we do that we make a decision and we move forward. And, looking back with 2020 hindsight, you know it's easy to make a better decision than you know. So did I. As I look back, did I make the right decision, yes or no, and did I take all of the known variables into account before making a decision? You know, one of the things I struggle with, tim, is lack of decision making is not my personal issue. What is my personal issue is I will make a decision, sometimes before I know all of the facts that were available to me, and you know, just like failing to make a decision that is. That's a bad thing. Making your decision too quick is also a bad thing, and so that's something that I have to really be looking out for. And so and you know, we make decisions as leaders and nonprofits we're making decisions all the time with inaccurate information or not all of the information that we should. That's just. That's just part of the game, it's part of the job description. But we have to make sure that if we, if we made some decision that we could have, if we had waited or if we had looked in another area, we may have found helpful information that would have helped us make a better decision. So, looking at that as well, and then you know, knowing what I know now, would I have done anything different? And again, that's kind of a hindsight thing of, well, yeah, if I would have known that, you know, by pulling the tree off of the building with the crane, you know that the rest of the building fell down. Okay, now I know that. So maybe I would have, you know, chosen a different course of action. But is there? It's helpful to look at that and say, okay, next time, knowing what I know now, I would make a different decision. And then, of course, how can I prepare now to make a better decision next time? Is there a process I need to put in place? Is there a some type of information that I need to have at my fingertips so that I make a better decision next time? So it's basically just going through decisions that you've made and then going through a checklist of how could I do better next time. That's basically what it boils down to.

Tim Barnes: 7:52

Well, I have a question and a comment. Yep Question is any would you share any of the any of the decisions you're looking at?

Nathan Ruby: 8:03

Uh, don't have to, that's a good question Tim, I have some, um, you know what, ask me. Next episode the two that I'm thinking of right now are there. There, I can't uh. There, there are things to do with staff and volunteers that are internal, so I probably can't on that, but ask me next, next episode, and I will have some for you, okay.

Tim Barnes: 8:32

I just I was curious and I understand, so, um, here's a, here's a plug, I'll just put a plug in as well. Um, so our friend Rob has we've talked about a lot I'm actually going to put this in the show notes, but he just let a new book come out. He just written a new book and it came out this week, called success frames, and one of the things that I'm appreciating of his approach is not just looking at the things you did wrong, but looking at the things you did right and learning from what you did right. And so maybe one of this is what are some of the decisions that you actually, man, you did it well, you made the right decision, and instead of saying, oh, what could I have done better, just saying, hey, what did I do well on this decision?

Nathan Ruby: 9:23

That's another approach, yeah absolutely, and I bought Rob's book. I have it. It's in like fourth in line. I think I've got two books that I'm like one and three quarters done and one and a quarter done and I got two. So fourth to fifth whatever it is, but I'm really looking forward to it and I have it. I've read some of the teasers on it, so I have a basic understanding. But you know, I read Rob's other stuff in his weekly newsletter. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure it's going to have good stuff that we can apply right now. So that's good stuff. Yeah, all right. So first one was mission alignment Making sure that your actions and decisions in your organization are aligned with the mission and vision of the organization All right. Number two is impact, and in this we're talking about outcomes versus just outputs. So is your organization that you're leading, is your programs, creating the right outcomes as opposed to just looking for outputs? So here's, and just as a reminder outcomes versus outputs, and output is well, this is the example that we're going to use for that. So if your mission in your organization is to feed people, and that is the sole mission of your organization, then feeding 100 people is an output, but it's also an outcome. So, an output is what you did. We fed 100 people. That is an outcome or that is an output. I'm sorry. That's an output, but if the mission of your organization is to feed people, well, then feeding 100 people is also an outcome. All right so. But let's say, as another example, if your mission is to end homelessness and one of your programs is feeding people, then feeding 100 people is an output. It is something that you did, it is something that your program did, but it's not the outcome. The outcome of your organization is ending homelessness. So when you're evaluating, were we successful, were we not successful? Was I did? Did I do my job? What could I do better? You've got to make sure that you're focusing on the right number and the right metric, that you are focusing on outcomes as opposed to outputs, and whether that outcome is aligned with your organization's missions and values.

Tim Barnes: 12:07

So so important. I mean, sometimes we can do lots of things, but the things aren't leading to what we supposedly. You know why we exist, so it's really important to make you know it's not. It's not bad to feed 100 people, but is it actually bringing you to accomplish the mission that? You know the reason that you exist.

Nathan Ruby: 12:30

Right. And the problem that you get into if you're focused on outputs and not outcomes is that you begin to A, you're focusing on the wrong thing and you're putting energy and effort and resources into something that, while it's good, it is not accomplishing the mission of the organization. And so you know, if we have going back to the feeding thing, if we did, if we fed 100 people this year and it was like that's, I mean, that's great, that's awesome. We only fed 75 people last year, so we had a 25% increase, or more, even more than 25%. And then it's like, well, what do we do to feed 200 people next year? Well, and again, that's not a bad thing, tim, but it's that that. How are you taking that feeding program and how is that helping you get people from living on the streets or living in the shelter and getting them into their own apartment, living on their own, with a job and a sustainable future? So you just got to make sure you're focusing on the right thing, all right, okay, so number three for doing some year-end self-evaluation is financial management, and for this example, we are going to mush the accounting side making sure that you're spending money in the right place, and the fundraising side. We're just going to lump that all together, which you know. That's. That's. It goes against my better judgment. But for this one example, we're going to mush that together into one. And and are you, how did you do this year on financial management? And so you know, and the reason this is important is because if we are backed into a corner as leaders, if we're backed into a corner financially and we're, we're just barely making it, we're just barely making payroll, and we're, we're, you know, we're literally week to week or month to month, you're never going to maximize your organizational outcomes. You're just, you're just never going to do that. You just can't because you're not investing yet. You're not. Your decisions are going to be based on a scarcity mindset and decisions based on scarcity seldom, if ever, going to take into account long term value. So what's an example of that? So let's say that you have a position, a program position, that needs to be filled, whatever your program is. And basically you have, you have three broad options that you can look at. One would be a volunteer. You could find a volunteer to fill whatever role in the program that you need. You could hire a part time new graduate. You know, you could hire a new graduate at 20 hours a week or 25 hours a week you wouldn't have to pay, you wouldn't have to pay benefits, you wouldn't have to pay. You know some other things. Or you could hire an experienced professional who has been in the industry for several years and their particular skill set is this program, this area is what they specialize in. Well, okay, so we have a volunteer, we have a part time new grad, we have an experienced professional. Those are three totally different impacts on the budget. Right, volunteers, free, experience, professional. That's going to take a bite into your, into your budget, but you also have on what those three individuals are going to be able to accomplish and what their output is going to be and what their outcomes are going to be is substantially different as well. So all I'm saying is you have to take financial management into account of as you evaluate what you did this year, because without a strong financial position, you have to make decisions that are not good long term value building decisions. It's just it's really hard to do that if you're, if you don't even know how you're going to make a payroll at the end of the week.

Tim Barnes: 16:42

We've talked about this in some other episodes but again, it's especially if you're more mature organization, being able to look back not only what's happened this year but how that connects to the two or three or four years before that, so you can kind of see the trends. How are you doing? You need to take some time to see whether this year really fit in to the trends or whether something's different has happened. Just taking the time to evaluate where you are financially is really important as you think about making decisions for next year.

Nathan Ruby: 17:14

Right, and it's also a place to say all right. Well, you know what is it about our finances that are out of whack. You know if we ran out of cash Three times this year and it was and you know when you run out of cash, tim, I know this has happened to you, it's happened to me. You talk about stress. I mean, that is it. When you are, when the organization has no money in the checkbook. That is stress and I don't like that, tim. I don't like it when that happens. But if that has happened to you three times in a year, then you know the fact that you were doing the accounting and the and the books yourself. That's probably an indicator that maybe you should find some help. Or, if you're, if your revenue is down and your fundraising is down, well, maybe maybe it's time to get some help. So you know I don't have solutions for you, I'm just saying that is, as you evaluate those things, those. This is the time to look at the past year and say, ok, where the gaps and where are we doing really well? And so just some ideas for that, all right. Number four here we go. Number four leadership and team management. And I think, when it comes to assessing your, your self evaluation and leadership and team management. I think the very best place to start with that is to start with yourself. What are you doing to lead yourself? And you know I the first and foremost. It comes back to learning, and not only learning in your strength areas, but also in your weak areas. Now, I am not a big. I pretty much stay in my strengths. I am not a big proponent of going out and spending time, energy and money to improve your weaknesses. I come from the school of thought that says if I have substantial weaknesses, I will find help to do that, either paid staff or part time or something to help me. That is kind of where I come from. But that also doesn't give you a free pass to say oh well, you know, I don't know how to do databases, so I'm not even going to try to improve. You know my ability to operate, to function within our database and do queries and you know I'm not going to do anything. You have to have some baseline of knowledge in that and as executive director, that means you have to have a baseline of knowledge and basically everything. But start with what are you learning? What, what, how is your skills? How have you? You know, how have you improved your learning over the year? That's a that's a place to start, and I know, tim, you're you're pretty good at that.

Tim Barnes: 19:58

Well, I I mean, I love to learn and I'm just I'm amazed at the access to information and you can. You have to do stuff so you know you don't sit around all your life and just learn, learn, learn. You need to actually put that learning into into practice. But if there are challenges that you have, it's not so hard to say, hey, I'm going to Google this and I'm going to look and find a resource, because it's there you don't have to go back to. You know, maybe you want to get a master's degree, that's fine, but there's a lot of things you can learn just by you know if spending some time googling something and going down the going down the trail. So you don't have an excuse, it's there yeah, you're exactly right.

Nathan Ruby: 20:43

There is anything that you want to learn how to do, probably YouTube video Somewhere on it. And you know, we got our, our youngest, who's an adult, but we I'm not going to say what it is. Birthday is coming up and I'm not going to say what it is, just in case he listens to the episode. But it is a really cool present. I wish it was for me, and it has. It has batteries the eyes you'd imagine and I couldn't. I could not figure out how I want to change the batteries in it, make sure that they were good, and I couldn't find it. Couldn't find it and I was getting a little frustrated and it was like I did. I stopped, got out my phone, google the name of the item and batteries, and within eight seconds there was. Oh, there it is. It was hidden under a thing. I didn't. I didn't see it. So you know that lead in an organization is not putting batteries into a electronic piece of electronics, but it's the same premise if you are struggling with some specific thing, there is help out there. So you just got to go find it. And you know the impacts of COVID-19, we're obviously, you know COVID is not having the impact that it did two, three years ago. Some of us are still catching it once in a while I won't say who but COVID is still, it's still an issue, it's still a thing, and but conferences are back and you know, during COVID, the whole conference thing and the learning opportunities, and I am, I have mixed emotions when it comes to conferences and I dearly miss them Because I haven't been to one since. Well, it would have been. Spring of 19 was probably the last conference I was at. They are so expensive I mean, by the time you you know the travel and the hotel rooms and and that the conference expense and so I'm not saying they're cheap, but they could be really helpful to get out, meet new people, learn from other people, learn what, what's working for other people, kind of get refreshed, get recharged. So I you know, I'm not telling you to go or not go, I'm just saying that conferences are are back and that is a really good way to increase your knowledge. At the same time, while you can, you know, rest and recuperate a little bit and meet some new people.

Tim Barnes: 23:20

And I think I think one of the challenges that we're giving here is, as you evaluate, being able to say, hey, where are my deficiencies, where do I need to add to my knowledge? And conferences are a great opportunity. Again, as you think about 2024, how can I, how can I use that conference to help me take the next step, as, as I've evaluated, where I'm at.

Nathan Ruby: 23:42

Yeah, and and you know, and of course we were just talking about this is that I found out how to change batteries on the on the internet. You can also I mean, you could spend all day, every day, doing nothing but watching videos from online consultants and coaches and people just like us, just like Tim and I. It can be overwhelming, and you know, everybody's an expert, everybody's a guru, and so they're out there and just you just have to be careful and and look at their credentials and and you'll listen to a few episodes or a few of their trainings and see if they resonate with you or not. But that is definitely an option. You just have to be careful not to get sucked into. You know this, this black hole of training and and podcasts and and YouTube videos, and then you just you get so confused you don't even know which way to go, except for us. You got it. You got to stick with us because we're, we're. We're not too bad, tim, not too bad.

Tim Barnes: 24:49

Okay.

Nathan Ruby: 24:51

Okay, leadership, team management. So we start with ourselves and then team. And you know, I think this is my own personal opinion. Call me an optimist, call me a half full guy. I believe most people will do their best Most of the time. All right. I do believe that. I think. I think people want to do good, they want to do a good job, they want to do their best and they will. They will try their best most of the time. But, that said, people still need to be led, they need to be inspired, they need to. They need to know that you love them and that you care for them. That is, that is the primary thing. And I think, when you look back over the year, it's okay. How did I do? In this category, the single most important thing for your team is did I show my cared for him and did I show him that I, that I love him? And you know, as I look back on my own Tim, I am a, I'm a type A driver personality and it is this is an area I got to be. I have to check myself once in a while because I do love them and I do care about them immensely. It is easy for me to just focus on all right, what do we have to get done? Did we get it done? How well did we do it? All right, what's next? What do we need to get done? How well are we gonna do it? And that is. It's easy for me to stay in that box or zone, and so every once in a while I have to check myself and say what have I done? You know, does my team know that I really care about them as individuals, and what have I done for them to know that I do so? I have to be careful of that.

Tim Barnes: 26:39

I think one of the questions would be how well do I know my team? How do I know, how well do I know the people and I'm not necessarily saying getting into everybody's laundry, but dirty laundry but I mean, do you know their kids? Do you know what they enjoy doing? Do you know the struggles they're having at the moment? Is the team situation open enough that they wouldn't have a problem with talking about some of the challenges? Because, whether we like it or not, we try to separate our lives into pieces, but those pieces come together. We're one person and so if we're having problems somewhere else, it's gonna flow into the work that we do and it's important as a leader to know that and be able to walk alongside.

Nathan Ruby: 27:25

Yeah, absolutely. And you know what happens at home, what happens outside of work. It absolutely gets brought into work, and not only for staff and for volunteers, but us as individuals. We bring stuff in as well, and so it's. And, knowing staff, hey, something's not right. There's been three staff meetings in a row where so-and-so just isn't right, and so just reaching out and saying, hey, how are you doing? Goes a long way, and so that is a great way to self-evaluate what have I done, how have I done that and how can I do better.

Tim Barnes: 28:06

So we're minus again the four key things that we should consider when we're taking some time to evaluate.

Nathan Ruby: 28:12

Yeah, so mission alignment. So how well have your decisions and actions lined up with the mission and vision of the organization? And so what I was gonna do for this year and I'll be doing it here in a couple of weeks is taking five of my decisions. And, tim, that was a good point you brought up I'm gonna I think I may adapt, I may go three decisions that didn't go as well, two that worked out really well. So I'm gonna take those five decisions and kind of do a post-mortem on them and or autopsy that's the word I use is autopsy and kind of peel into them a little bit and see what I can learn from them, what I can glean from them. So mission alignment two is impact. So making sure that we're focusing on outcomes, not just outputs. It's okay to focus on outputs and to evaluate that and to see how you did on that. I'm not saying outputs are not valuable at some level, but just make sure that you're really focusing on outcomes as opposed to just outputs. Third was financial management. If our backs are up, backed into a corner, and we are running out of cash or we can't make payroll, you know, week after week, month after month, then we need to. We need to figure something out, and I guess I guess on the other side of that, tim is, you know, some years money's pretty good. You know, expenses actually came in under what we thought. We've got a cash surplus this year Well, that's awesome. Well, what are we gonna do with that? So that's just another set of questions that you need to go through. And then number four was leadership and team management. Starting with yourself and making sure that you're giving the right amount of energy and effort into your own development, your own growth, your own learning, and then caring for your team and making sure they know it and that they're important and that you care about them. So those are the four things, tim. Leading a small to medium nonprofit can be exhausting. You have to be an expert in so many different categories, and most of these categories are things you know little to nothing about. This makes a periodic self-evaluation even more important. Understanding where you're doing well and where you're struggling will then allow you to make better decisions. Being a better leader will, over time, lead to a better organization. A vigorous and honest self-evaluation is an important part of that process.

Tim Barnes: 30:54

Thank you for listening today. If you're benefiting from what's being shared on this podcast, can we ask you to take a moment and share a review on the platform in which you're listening? Let us know how the podcast is benefiting you and, if you'd like to get in touch with us, our contact information is always in the show notes. That's all for today, until next time.