My amazing daughter and partner Kerry Suddes is in the field almost every day. Last night we were going over some of the really great clients she’s working with around the country. She was sharing how we are engaged to help the organization with funding… but almost always end up working on Organizational Development and Team Development.
A big part of Kerry’s background and experience (which is why she’s so good at this) has been Leadership Development and Team Development. She has run hundreds of programs for companies and organizations at our Eagle Creek Leadership & Challenge Center and around the country.
Kerry inspires me every time she comes back and shares how she (and we) are helping organizations with much more than their funding.
Here’s my take on this.
Face the brutal facts. Every organization has some kind of ‘BUS’ issues. (People issues.) In almost every case, the leadership knows what it needs to do. For some reason, they just don’t do it. I was reminded in my conversation with Kerry how hard it has been for me personally and for almost all the organizations with whom I’ve worked to make those hard decisions around personnel. What I’ve learned is that everyone knows the situation, including the people who need to move on. It is in everybody’s best interest to make that happen.
If your salesperson isn’t selling. If your development director is not developing. If your chief fundraiser is not fundraising. If your new major gift officer is not making visits. If you’ve got people from the ‘old bus’ that were comfortable when it was heading in one direction, and now you’ve got a ‘new bus’ heading in a new direction…
Do what you know you need to do.
