Do you like to read? The ladies whom I recently finished a six-week Mastering Confidence book club with were a group of leaders who, readers or not, wanted increased confidence. They read the book and worked through additional exercises to build their confidence over the weeks.
At the end of the final session, I asked them to come up with three summary points of what they had learned. Here is what they came up with. How to master your confidence in 3 steps: Step # 1 - AWARENESS Step one is to become aware that you need to build confidence in a particular area of your leadership. Without awareness, you keep settling, putting up with and feeling uncomfortable. Increased awareness of what area you need to grow confidence in starts you on the journey. ASK THIS:
Answering those questions gives you increased awareness. Step # 2 - Pause and Ponder The second step to increasing your confidence is to pause and become self-reflective because confidence is not about what other people think you can do. It's what you believe you are capable of. You need to examine your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, values, and perspectives to shift your confidence. Therefore, the second step to building confidence is to change what you're thinking and experiencing inside you so that your behaviours change outside of you. One of the reasons the book club members identified pausing as a critical step is that it starts the process of examining your thoughts. It's the first step of the Inner Guidance Cycle, which I teach in the book. ASK THIS: What do I believe about my capacity, competence and confidence levels?
Answering these questions will help you feel more competent, capable and lead with confidence. Step # 3 - Build your support team The ladies in the Mastering Confidence Book Club quickly realized how similar their challenges, stories and solutions were. The final point that the Mastering Confidence book club members identified is that you need to create a support network. You are not the only one who has struggled or is struggling with your leadership. Leaning into others on the journey or who are a few steps ahead of where you are can be incredibly helpful in navigating the journey. When you connect with others, you can share a human experience with many striking similarities and learn from each other. DO THIS:
When you create your support team, you will find confidence-building becomes easier. BONUS Step - Teach what you learn Watching these leaders grow over six weeks is a powerful experience for me. I experienced a lack of confidence in my leadership multiple times in my career. As I learned and grew, I taught others. First, it was my team leads and my program managers. Now my students and coaching clients. As I teach confidence, I learn more about it, become more confident in new areas and expand my comfort zone. Mastering Confidence is about the journey to mastery. Masters know they are never really masters. As I said in the book: Mastering your confidence is a transformational journey. You will realize that, in many ways, there is no endpoint to your trip. You won't "get confidence" one day and be done. Instead, you will continually strive to find this place. Then, just when you think you have, you will find that something happens, and you lose balance, feeling unsure again. As you go along, you'll discover an inner process, the Inner Guidance Cycle, to keep you growing as you move forward and bouncing back each time you get knocked down. Inside the book, you get access to a free course. You can join it now! Join the free Mastering Confidence Course. What makes a world of difference is when you turn around and teach what you know. Teaching others helps you grow even more, and your confidence builds exponentially. ASK THIS:
When you find the answers to those questions, not only will you be helping someone else build their confidence, but you'll also be mastering yours! Additional Resources 📙 If you want additional help that, grab Mastering Confidence. 👭👫 If you'd like to build confidence in your leadership team and would like to do a six-week book club with your team, message me, and I will make the arrangements. It might be good to do before summer hits, and it might also be a great Summer experience for your team. ✏️ ☕️ If you want to join The Training Library and join us for the monthly Coffee at the Library calls, you can join here and find more details about the Zoom calls here. You've got this! Confidence for you and your team is yours!!! Become aware it's time, and then do work to make it happen! p.s. When you grab Mastering Confidence: Discover your leadership potential by awakening your inner guidance system, you get access to a free online course!
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If you've written down your nonprofit leadership goals, congratulations. Many never even get to that point. If you are one of the leaders determined to grow this year, you've also devised a plan to accomplish those goals. Now what? Now, you need to take action, and you need to keep taking action throughout the year!
But rather than steadily moving towards your goal, if you aren't careful, you'll join the 80% of people who abandon their goals by February. What, then, is the trick to sticking to your goals? Instead of floundering, forgetting and failing - you successfully achieve your goals by reviewing them regularly. Build a systematic review process Positive thinking, believing you can achieve your goal, is the first step. However, positive thinking alone does not equal success. You actually have to do something! Habitually reviewing where you are on your journey as you progress toward your goal will make you more successful. Being determined, even though adversity will always hit, is how you achieve your goals and become a strong leader. Review your strategy for achieving your goals The actions you take on the journey to achieve your goals make a difference. However, it's consistently taking action that is the hard part. In truth, many of the steps you need to take to achieve your goals won't be easy or enjoyable. That is precisely why many people don't achieve their goals. They stop when it gets tough or they come up against a barrier. Remember that adversity strengthens you Here is the thing, though, you NEED those roadblocks! The difficult parts are the essential parts. By going through the struggle, we learn, grow and become better versions of ourselves. It is during the challenges that we become better leaders. Therefore, getting through the trying segments of the journey is necessary for reaching the goal. The truth is for you to get to the next step: You need to learn something You must increase skills in some area You are required to come to a new awareness This more difficult part of goal attainment is the portion that many of us resist but, sadly, it is also the part that will keep you stuck and unhappy. Your plan keeps you moving To keep moving forward when challenges hit, you must have a plan that includes
Your plan might incorporate coursework
You must keep reviewing your plan Once your strategy is in place, you must regularly review that plan. That way, when you hit a roadblock, feel overwhelmed or want to quit, you can reconnect to your goal and strategies to get over the hump. In addition, reviewing your plan will remind you of what you can do if you feel overwhelmed, confused, apprehensive or stuck. Make the review time effective Create a habit of reviewing your goals to make the review time effective. The following steps give you a process for the weekly review of your goals and your strategic plan to achieve those goals: The 10-minute framework for your weekly review Each week, set aside 10 to 30 minutes to review your goals and the plan you have for achieving them. During this time, create the habit of doing the following: 1. Write out your goals Don't just read them over. Rewrite them. Writing your goals down creates new pathways in your mind that activate the desire to achieve your goals. It keeps them alive and real. 2. Visualize achieving your goals Close your eyes and imagine what it will be like when you reach your goal. Connect emotionally and viscerally to it. Feel the excitement, pride, and sense of accomplishment. Let your tummy get jumbly, and your heart swell and your eyes water. 3. Identify the overarching steps needed to achieve your goals Remind yourself of the steps you identified in your strategic plan that you need to take to achieve your goal. 4. Visualize yourself moving through the steps Close your eyes and see yourself navigating the steps you need to achieve goal attainment. As you do, notice challenges that may pop up and envision yourself overcoming them. Then, as you see yourself moving towards your goal, notice what it takes for you to progress through the difficult times. It may be your determination, increased patience or ongoing persistence. 5. Identify the next step you need to take As you review your plan each week, identify what you need to work on to keep moving towards your goals. Next, write that action step down. Then, schedule it in your day timer and commit to doing it. The ongoing review will help you achieve your goals! To be a better version of yourself this year and, thus, a better leader, you need to set goals. Then, you must have a strategy and a plan for how you will achieve those goals. But from there, the next crucial step is regularly reviewing your goals and plans. Creating the habit of regularly reviewing your goals will help you be the best leader you can be. Nonprofit Leaders: Here's how to measure your leadership development goalsAs a nonprofit leader, if you want to make this year different, then you've likely set goals for yourself, and if you're serious, you've probably created a plan for how you will reach those goals. The Next Step? It's to measure your progress. But how do you measure goals that seem immeasurable? 3 tips to help nonprofit leaders measure immeasurable leadership development goals1) Measure the use of the TOOLThink about what you will use to help you reach your goal. Get clear on how you will use that tool. Then measure the usage of that tool. For example GOAL: Be better able to focus on important but not urgent work TOOL: Practicing meditation MEASUREMENT: Measure how frequently you meditate GOAL: To feel more confident in staff meetings TOOL: A Journal to track and shift thoughts MEASUREMENT: How often are you journaling your thoughts? GOAL: To spend more time doing strategic thinking TOOL: Getting away from your desk and going for a walk MEASUREMENT: Count the times each week you walk and are simply alone with your thoughts 2) Measure the HABIT you need to instill to help you reach your targetIf your goal this year is a more work-life balance, habitually leaving work on time will provide more balance. Therefore, you could measure how often you leave work at five o'clock. To feel more confident in staff meetings, you'll need to be more intentional before going into staff meetings. Choosing how you will respond instead of reacting to a trigger needs to become a habit before meetings. Therefore, you'll measure how often you preplan how you'll manage your emotions during the meeting. Is it becoming a habit that you naturally do? When you find yourself stuck on a problem, you've likely been trying to figure it out in a linear, analytical or in-the-box way. Instead, you may need to think more freely, creatively, or strategically. When you create the habit of scheduling "thinking" time into your week, you'll be on your way to finding more time to think. Count the times you do it. Has it become a weekly habit yet? 3) You can measure the MILESTONES along the journey to the goalCompletion of goals takes time and often involves many steps. However, we feel more engaged in our goals when we can see progress along the way. Therefore, checking off each milestone along the way is a way to measure progress. FOCUS Did you pick which app you'll meditate with?
CONFIDENCE Did you find a journal or scribbler to write down your thoughts in?
STRATEGIC THINKING Did you do your first walk to think, despite feeling guilty about all the work you were walking away from?
What you measure as a nonprofit leader, gets improved!You can't manage what you don't measure says Peter Druker
You'll need to measure your progress regularly to help you achieve your goals this year. To help you do that...
Review this regularly, and you'll FEEL the difference! How to set your leadership goals to be your best as you run your nonprofitNo goals yet for this year? It's not too lateIt is the later in January already, and perhaps you are one of the ones who have yet to set your goals for the year. I have many clients in your shoes. They need to find the time to draft their goals but are struggling. But rest assured. It is not too late to set them. Now that the dust of the holidays has settled, you may be in a better place to do that. Setting goals is essential to leading a nonprofit organization but also essential to the development of your capacity to lead. Yet, it can be challenging to find the time and focus on doing so amidst the busyness of day-to-day operations. Below you'll find easy strategies to help you develop goals that will build your competence and confidence as a leader this year. Leaders do need to have their own goalsFirst, let's get clear. You do need goals. As teleological beings, we perform at our best when we have targets to work towards. You know this if you say you do your best work at the last minute. A looming due date is a fabulous target to motivate most of us. Without your own leadership goals, you wander in circlesWithout goals, we can quickly feel like we are just going through the motions and not making progress. Without targets, you are wandering aimlessly. That is why you may feel like you are just going in circles! When you have your own goals, you are intentionally creating your leadership experienceAre you taking an active role in shaping your future? You are if you are intentionally creating life, days, your career and your personal life as you choose. When you are intentional, you create your leadership and life experiences by reflecting, deciding, setting goals and planning, all before you take action. The Easy Goal Setting Method for Nonprofit Leaders1) Gather Your ThoughtsWhenever anything comes to mind about your goals, jot it down on a sticky note or digital file. Your brain is always thinking, and you have ideas, awarenesses and ah-has. Those are important to capture. 2) Schedule time to review last yearAs little time as 5 minutes will do. Begin by reviewing the past year and reflecting on your strengths, areas of growth, and accomplishment. Here are some prompts to get you started:
3) Create a future visionKnowing where you are going will help you get there. It would help if you had that target to aim at. Craft a quick vision of what you want in your future by answering these questions. If I have the "perfect" life, career and relationship:
4) Rough out your goalsConsider the steps you need to take this year to move closer to that vision. Draft 2-3 goals to help you achieve that vision. They don't need to be perfect, SMART or finalized. Draft is the important word here. You'll continue to refine them as you work on them. Just get something down on paper as a starting point. 5) Expand the goal into a planOnce you have your goals, develop a plan to achieve them, including specific actions, practices, and training. Consider what habits you need to develop to maintain your goals over the long term.
An examples of leadership goals and plansVision Perhaps you imagined yourself as a courageous leader. You visualized how you are stronger, more assertive and more confident. You got a sense that as you grew, you could feel yourself doing tough things like addressing issues, setting boundaries and being true to yourself. Goal Your goal could be to increase your confidence level in your leadership role. Plan Your plan could include:
The bottom line: It's never too late to set goals to be an effective leaderTaking the time to set goals and create a plan to achieve them intentionally can significantly impact the success of your leadership and personal life. By being intentional and self-reflective, you can progress toward your desired experience of blending life and career. Regardless of the time of year, it's always possible to start creating the future you want.
How nonprofit leaders can set goals effectiveAs a nonprofit leader, when was the last time you planned how you wanted to feel? That is a crazy notion, isn't it? However, if you consider how you want to feel and attach goals to those feelings you desire, you will find that you have a way different year ahead of you! Start by looking over the past year for lessonsIn this post, I encouraged you to look back over the past year for the lessons you learned. Pausing and then pondering how things turned out in different situations allows you to collect ideas for what you want to do differently in the future. If you want different results, then you need to do something else. The strategic review of the past year in this post will help you highlight areas of your life that you want to change. Next, look ahead to choose your feelingsNow that you have taken a look back, it's time to pivot and look forward. The backward review and peering into the future are part of laying a solid foundation before setting goals for the new year. As you inspect what might unfold in the new year, I want you to consider how you want to feel. Instead of starting by thinking about what you want to achieve or what you are hoping to accomplish, I want you to think about your feelings first. It may be helpful to note what you DON'T wantLooking at the past year, you can identify what you don't want, and it's an excellent place to start. If you are like most women leading in the nonprofit sector, you know what you don't want:
Then, it's time to shiftBut if not that, then what? That's the easy part. We complain, grumble and moan about what we don't want. However, continuing that cycle of what you don't want in your head keeps you stuck on the negative. Instead, it would be best if you look for something different. Consider the experience you DO wantConsider for a moment what feelings and experiences you want in the coming year. Here are some examples of what feelings you may be looking for:
Hold off on developing goalsIf your mind keeps going to goals, step back from them for a bit. Setting goals are important, and we will get there. But the goal is only part of the picture. When we only identify the target, we miss the importance of attaining that. When you ask yourself what you want to accomplish a goal or achieve, it's about the feeling you will get as a result of completing it.
It matters because it's doing or achieving something that will produce a certain feeling. So it's that feeling that I want you to focus on now. Here are some examplesA goal that so many identify each year is to become healthier. So what difference does it make if you lose weight or change your eating habits?
Imagine that you want to do something different at work, return to school, apply for a new position or start a new project. Consider that outcome for a moment and think about what the feeling is that you are longing for. Changing jobs will make you feel what?
Where do you already feel that?The second part of this exercise is to consider the list of feelings you've identified. Then, look at where you experienced those feelings now.
Combine the lessons learned and feelings desiredPulling these two concepts together (lessons + feelings) looks like this:
Get the free guide to take a strategic look back hereLooking back and then ahead to create effective goalsWhen you pull out lessons learned and pair them with the desired feelings you have for the future, you are in a great place to set goals for the future.
Complete a Deep Review of Your Year with the Leadership Annual Analysis✅ Discover how effective your growth and development plan has been over the last year
✅ Feel pride as you acknowledge your achievements, inner growth, development and progress ✅ Identify the next steps for your continued path towards excellence. Here is how it works:
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