You can have control or growth. It’s impossible to have both at the same time.
But you get to choose which of those is more important to you. You can either have the emotional safety and security of maintaining control, or you can have the immense potential of growth.
But you can’t have both.
I once worked with a Chief Development Officer (CDO) who managed a group of fundraisers who were complete failures. At least that’s how she felt. Interestingly, though she felt like they were all failures, they were raising more money year-over-year than the organization had ever raised before. They were meeting with more donors, building healthier relationships, and increasing engagement with donors well beyond what the organization had achieved in the past.
That’s an interesting view of failure, don’t you think?
As the CDO and I spoke, it became clear why she believed they were failing. They were not following the specific formula she had outlined for how she wanted the work done. For her it was about controlling the process instead of achieving the outcome. And because her people didn’t following the process she wanted them to follow (which, by the way, hadn’t worked for others in the past), she considered them failures. Even though they were rapidly growing the organizations base of support and total revenue.
Her people weren’t failing. They weren’t failures either. She as a leader was failing, because she didn’t understand that controlling the process wasn’t her job. Her job was to set the vision, establish the goal (outcome) for the team, and create an environment where they could be successful. She was struggling to control the how, instead of focusing on the why and what, and celebrating the fact that her team members were nailing the outcomes.
Prioritize the outcomes. Give people the latitude to figure out the process that works best for them.
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You can get this and more than 100 other great tips to accelerate mission impact in my book, 101 Biggest Mistakes Nonprofits Make And How You Can Avoid Them (FREE download).