Are you someone who fell into the advancement profession? I was one of those lucky ones to come to the profession in that way. I had planned to be a teacher and coach like my father only to find that there were other things in store for me. Now 25 years later, having served in leadership capacities in large advancement programs (Georgetown University, University of Virginia, and Brown University) and smaller programs (Colby-Sawyer College, Dickinson College, and Carleton College), I am excited to be returning to that original ambition. My life’s work is now focused on talent and career management and organizational development consulting. This new work is fundamentally all about teaching and coaching and I am grateful to the Aspen Leadership Group for giving me a chance to express myself in this way.
My mission now is helping talented leaders in the non-profit community find a path to performing at their highest levels. This manifests itself in my day-to-day coaching with nonprofit leaders, finding great talent for an organization, and partnering to solve a myriad of organizational issues. I am launching Coach’s Corner to complement this work and share what I am learning. This regular communication will present strategic questions from leaders in the field and insights about how to address them.
Four goals of Coach’s Corner:
- Present leadership questions, such as — do I have the talent on my team to achieve my goals; what’s the best way to organize my team; how to educate deans; how to fund a capital campaign; how to get a CEO to set priorities; how to create a principal gifts program; and many more. All of these issues will come directly from my conversations with advancement leaders.
- Stimulate your thinking about leadership, management, and organizational development related issues.
- Offer insights into ways to increase your fundraising and constituent engagement.
- Share best practices as I uncover them in my work.
As you know, these types of communications become all the more valuable if YOU add your own comments, insights, and critiques, as well as liking and sharing the posts. Thank you in advance for participating in this journey with me. You can find all Coach’s Corner articles on LinkedIn and I encourage you to connect with me.
I look forward to seeing where this conversation goes.