“You will only know your capacity when you face a great challenge.” -- Anonymous
Perspective – CAPACITY
Organizational capacity + personal capacity = high performance. This is the premise of my book and this month’s newsletter’s theme.
Creating sustainable organizational capacity is one of the most important roles for a non-profit leader. It requires an investment in people, processes and tools with an eye toward future results. There are many “levers” of capacity management including organizational design, operational effectiveness, volunteer management and talent management. I know you are already doing this but formalizing an Organizational Capacity Strategy will take you to another level.
Personal capacity has elements of talent, time and motivation focused on a life objective. We make strategic choices for our lives: the degree of intentionality vs. being an unstructured “free spirit”, the balance of relaxation vs. necessary vs. meaningful work, the time spent on tasks vs. the time spent engaging others and the time spent at work vs. the time spent with family or alone. The challenge is to move these choices from unconscious to conscious. Living to our potential is a choice we can all make. I hope you choose "potential" to make a positive difference in our community.
If you’d like a copy of my book, send me an e-mail; it’s free to Members of the GCMLA. Read below to dig deeper into this notion of capacity.
The Greater Cincinnati Mentor Leadership Alliance is a collaboration of volunteers and service professionals in the Cincinnati/NKY area working to improve the capability of people in need. This newsletter aims to present information, ideas and tools to grow personally and to better serve others. Our target audience includes Alliance Members and Friends, mentor program leaders and new or experienced volunteer mentors and life skills instructors. We hope to touch you with knowledge and skills to allow you to “live, work and serve to your purpose, passion and potential”. Please share this with someone who might consider life skills or mentoring as a volunteer role.
Insight 30 is an ongoing “lunch and learn” Zoom opportunity with 15-20 minutes of “presenting” and 10-15 minutes of “engaging”. We normally meet on the second Wednesday of the month at 12:30. Here is our upcoming schedule:
Next Level(s) Mentoring on May 11 by Greg Metz. Mentoring at its most impactful entails mutually sharing journeys towards purpose, resilience, authenticity, motivation and more. Understandably, immediate contingencies – filing FAFSA, completing college app, showing up at school, etc. – can displace these deeper objectives. In this workshop, Greg Metz – recently retired college student success innovator and founder of Awesome All-Around Life and Learning Coaching – will share and invite tools for facilitating “next level” depth in mentoring. Click here to register.
Ceremony and Ritual in Today's World on June 8 by Lynn Shewmaker. Details to follow.
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The Metrics and Dashboards Workshop is on May 25 at 11am. Metrics are essential to running an effective organization. They can be rear or forward looking. They can be qualitative or quantitative. They can measure quality, quantity or impact. The objectives of this workshop are to encourage the adoption of deeper metrics (quantity, quality and impact) through implementation of mentor programming dashboards. Tony Aloise and Nancy Costello will present a variety of potential mentoring metrics and a framework for building a dashboard specific to your organization and role. Click here to register.
GCMLA Spring Survey – Member Engagement Plan
Once or twice a year, we reach out and request feedback. This time, we’d like to gather feedback on our Member Engagement Plan. We’ll ask how important each of our “offerings” is, from social media to workshops to 1:1 meetings. Click here to see our current Member Engagement Plan. Click here to begin our Spring 2022 survey. It will take less than 5 minutes of your time.
Organizational Capacity
Organizational capacity is the “fuel” on which an organization operates. It includes people, processes, tools and money all linked together to deliver a service or product. It includes elements such as capability (skills), effectiveness (results), sustainability (survive employee transitions) and efficiency (work with less people). It is all of the things that enable delivery of your mission. Each element must be planned and managed. In short, you need an organizational capacity strategy.
Send me an e-mail and I’ll reply with a comprehensive Organizational Capacity Checklist.
Personal Capacity
The foundation of Purpose starts with “knowing yourself deeply” including skills, needs, beliefs and values. With this in place, life planning becomes much easier and focused -- vision and goals emerge. Daily action becomes much easier because your “why” is clear.
Do one important thing every day and you will change your life. Choose to“eat that frog”.
Live with Purpose on Facebook
This Facebook page is a compilation of my personal writing and shared links. The themes include Life, Life Skills, Volunteering and living to our purpose and potential. Consider going back to old posts to see articles and stories about Living with Purpose. Invite your staff and volunteers to follow the page. Here is a recent favorite (just an image).
The Life Solutions Network encourages “purpose, passion and potential” in the form of capability-building service to our community. Thank you for your friendship, partnership and service. Let me know how I can support you. If you are changing jobs and want to continue receiving this newsletter, click the “update your preference link” below to update your e-mail address. If this newsletter is no longer right for you, you can unsubscribe at the link below.
