Mission Maven

06/18/2026

Change management is one of my areas of focus. Did you know that 70% of organizational change efforts fail. Let that sink in for a second.
If you're a nonprofit leader, you already know change isn't optional — funding shifts, staff turnover, strategic pivots, the next crisis nobody saw coming. The question isn't whether change is coming. It's whether you're set up to lead through it instead of just surviving it.
In one of my earlier blog posts, I dig into why change is so hard on mission-driven teams (hint: it's not about the logistics, it's about the people), and walk through five pillars that actually move the needle — starting with something most leaders skip entirely: doing the work before you announce anything.
If you've ever rolled out a change and watched it stall, or you're bracing for one now, this one's for you. 👇https://www.yourmissionmaven.com/post/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-change

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05/25/2026

Why Nonprofit Leaders Struggle to Retire — and How to Leave When It's Time
Sometimes founders and long-tenured leaders want to stay for the wrong reasons: they don't know what to do next, they haven't planned for their retirement, their identity is with the organization, or they don't think the organization can survive without them. Read more link in comments

05/23/2026

Going to miss Mr. Colbert for sure. This is one of his thoughts that I hope will stick with me.

05/22/2026

How do you handle this? People intimidated by your powerful existence.

05/04/2026

Can We Offer Each Other a Little More Grace? The Case for Private Correction in a High-Stakes World
Never publicly shame anyone — this approach leads to resentment, damaged morale, and a workplace culture headed toward toxicity. That's not a culture any of us wants to build — especially not in mission-driven organizations where trust and psychological safety are foundational. Link to full post in comments

04/20/2026

Are We Paying Consultants to Tell Us What We Already Know?
I'm not here to argue that outside expertise is always theater. It genuinely isn't. And after years of watching organizations navigate this, I'd say there are some situations where the outside voice isn't just useful — it's the honest choice.
Link to full post in comments...

04/13/2026

You're So Tall! — Why We Need to Stop Treating Height Like an Open Invitation to Comment
Height is not a choice. It is not an achievement. It is not an invitation. It is simply a physical characteristic that some of us have, and that we've been reminded of — loudly, repeatedly, our whole lives — by people who thought they were being friendly.
Full article link in comments....

04/07/2026

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't: The Impossible Tightrope of Letting People Learn

There is a specific flavor of this catch-22 that older women in leadership know intimately. When a seasoned male executive pushes back on an idea, he is often described as experienced, strategic, or decisive. When a seasoned female executive does the same thing, the word that tends to surface — sometimes said out loud, sometimes just hanging in the air — is controlling. Or difficult. Or threatened. See comments for link to full article

04/03/2026

You've Lost Your Mojo. Now What? Why This Happens (And It's Not Just Burnout)
Writing this wasn't just an exercise in sharing wisdom — it is me working through my own reckoning out loud, because that's the only way I know how to do hard things.
Before we can talk about getting it back, we need to be honest about what losing it looks like. And here's the tricky part: it rarely announces itself dramatically. It creeps.

In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner write that the most effective leaders consistently "model the way" — they set the example by aligning their actions with their values. When you've lost your mojo, the first thing to go is usually that alignment. Your values haven't changed, but your actions start to drift. You stop taking risks. You stop challenging people. You start managing instead of leading.

link to my full blog post in comments