Schedule it! Commit to making time for self and organizational assessments.

In best-selling author and organizational psychologist John Amaechi’s book, The Promises of Giants, he mentions that it doesn’t take long for conditions to be in place to earn “tenure” in your organization.  These conditions can be awful, amazing, or anywhere in-between but he says it doesn’t much matter which it is.[1] Regular time needs to be set aside for an analysis of oneself and the organization.  Leadership can be exhausting and lonely at times, and it’s easy to see how we can get in the habit of settling for “pretty good” or “fine” when excellence could be right around the corner waiting for your organization.

It’s fun to read a few quick tips on LinkedIn (we have those too!), like it, and feel inspired until your next meeting that starts in five minutes. Then two hours later you emerge drained and find yourself scrolling again for that next shot of inspiration. But how many of us are really implementing a consistent practice of self and organizational assessment, as well as leadership and professional development? Do you? I hope everyone is nodding their head yes, but the reality is many of us fall into the trap of letting things become “tenured” in our organization and time for a thoughtful objective analysis of ourselves and organization sits at the bottom of priority list. Instead of being a leader within the organization, some individuals become comfortable sitting in the chaos, and become more of a piece of furniture within the building versus an inspirational individual that inspires a shared vision.

Here at Colton Strawser Consulting we want to challenge you to make a habit of consistently taking time to reflect and assess your organization’s goals and whether you feel like you are on the path to achieving them. If you feel like you aren’t on the path you want to be on, it presents a great opportunity to reset and light the inspiration fire again. Simple, regular check-ins with yourself and separately with the organization’s leadership will keep you energized and on the right path to making the impact in your community you have been working towards. 

In some cases, whenever we begin to have a check-in with ourselves, we start with all the things that are going wrong or making our head spin. The goal is not to solve a problem in one sitting since we then get overwhelmed with the sheer size of a problem and instead decide to sit back within our chaos. Starting with some reflection questions around the goal you want to accomplish can help make your check-ins successful. Within leadership coaching, we focus on the future – not the past. Determining where you want to go next is more helpful than questioning how you arrived somewhere in the first place.

Goals are helpful for holding yourself, and others, accountable – especially when they have a deadline. Your goal can be to change something or better understand something. Here are a few questions to consider in setting your goal:

• In one short sentence, what do you want to accomplish, by when?
• What is the goal, and why is it important?
• What challenge are you trying to resolve, or opportunity are you trying to bring about?
• How will you measure progress toward your goal?
• How long has this been a goal? Why haven’t you already achieved it?

We hope you will take us up on this challenge and realize the benefits this can have for you and your organization. We also recommend adding check-ins to your schedule as it’s easy to push off with the everyday demands on your time. If you are interested in learning more about how we support leaders through our coaching programs, please read a little more about our services at https://www.coltonstrawser.com/leadership. Being a leader within a nonprofit organization can sometimes be lonely, but you don’t need to be alone. Also, check out our ‘Top 5 Benefits to Executive Coaching’ on our coaching page (we told you we had those too!).

[1] Amaechi OBE, John. The Promises of Giants: How YOU can fill the leadership void. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 2021.

Want to learn more? Schedule a complimentary strategy session!