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Is Your Board Working?

JD Coaching & Consulting produced a benchmark study regarding nonprofit board performance. The results formed a framework that helps boards attain high performance.

Since then numerous boards have worked with us to analyze performance. The result? Their boards are now better able to safeguard the mission, vision and assets of the organizations they serve.

Interested in assessing your board’s performance? After some initial consulting, here’s how one aspect of the assessment works:

1. Your board takes the survey and the results are compared to the benchmark study.

2. We analyze the results to uncover your board’s strengths and weaknesses.

3. We report customized details of what is—and isn’t—working for your board.

4. We present the results to your board.

5. We recommend targeted solutions.

Ultimately, your board can focus on improving key areas. Your board gets stronger, and the nonprofit organization benefits.

An interesting fact discovered in the study is that 98 percent of respondents thought their board had the potential to improve its performance. Can your board be improved?

Interested in reading our benchmark study? Request your copy today. For help on improving your board’s performance, contact Jodi Davis.

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Five Tips for a Fabulous Résumé

Today recruiters are speaking out—they want to see a résumé that is clear, concise, comprehensive, current and clean. As a résumé writer, I’ve worked with professionals at all levels of the employment spectrum, from college grads to senior executives. They share a similar need: to craft a résumé that will successfully advance their career.

Writing about your own strengths and accomplishments is a challenge. Some of us lack clarity on which transferable skills and talents will actually attract prospective employers. Others draft pages of detailed job responsibilities that drown out their true value and employ-ability. Many people make the mistake of writing about their own objectives, failing to focus on the employer’s needs.

What makes for a winning résumé? Be authentic, have integrity and present yourself with passion. When JD Coaching & Consulting works with clients, we tailor our services to their specific needs. A résumé service that touts the thousands of people they’ve helped is likely developing boilerplate résumés. While that may be helpful for some job seekers, a more personalized service is often more benefical.

Follow these top recruiter tips to create a résumé that resonates:

  1. Be clear about the qualifications you offer, including career experiences and transferable skills.
  2. Be concise and articulate measurable achievements. Don’t use fluffy adjectives – they will dilute the power of your accomplishments.
  3. Provide a comprehensive summary of your career—education, employment, advanced training, awards and contributions.
  4. Keep your résumé current with your most recent position and success. Always keep a personal log and track current work accomplishments to strengthen your next job search.
  5. Design a résumé that is clean. The document needs to have significant white space, making it easier to read. A cramped résumé will get crumpled quickly!

Remember that while your résumé is an essential element of a career strategy, networking is also critically important to your success. People read résumés, people open doors, and people are the ones who offer jobs. Be sure to network with people during your search!

Executives who utilize the services of a résumé writer are not only saving time, but they are adding value to their career advancement. Spend your time and money wisely. Instead of writing your own résumé, network to meet that next great opportunity!

Learn more about our résumé writing services by contacting Jodi@JodiDavis.com.

 

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Transforming The Leadership Paradigm

Imagine a world where all individuals are empowered to develop their full potential. Imagine the strength of an organization that is able to tap into the intellectual capacity, resourcefulness and creativity of its entire workforce. Imagine the employees who are embraced for their innate talents and unique gifts – producing quality results with a profound sense of fulfillment. Imagine the possibilities in your organization and in your life.

Today, people and organizations are being pushed to perform. There are increasing competitive demands for productivity and growth. Leaders are being called upon to guide and inspire their teams to achieve desired results. Effective communication, collaborative teamwork and quality leadership have never been more important.

In response to the critical demand to develop effective leaders, a variety of leadership approaches have been proposed and popularized. Well-known authors and leadership experts such as Peter Senge, Ken Blanchard, Jim Collins and Stephen Covey have offered their own strategies and tools for developing leaders who inspire and empower others to be their best.

All of these contemporary leadership authors identify essential competencies that an individual should possess and practice to be an effective leader. These attributes are vital if one is to become an authentic, strategic, collaborative and visionary leader. Furthermore, many of these prominent leadership approaches are synergistically aligned with the leadership philosophy conceived of by Robert Greenleaf in his essay “The Servant as Leader. “

His paradoxical term, Servant Leader, has created a quiet revolution and a paradigm shift in management philosophy during the past forty years. Written in 1970, Greenleaf’s thesis highlights characteristics of a leader who successfully serves the needs of others. Upon close examination, the same attributes that Greenleaf espouses are either explicitly or implicitly present in today’s most popular leadership training methodologies.

Servant Leadership draws its strength from Greenleaf’s premise that “the first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.” The focus is clearly on serving the needs of others. Leaders who possess these qualities have the ability to recognize the intrinsic value and unique talents of others. Their capacity to affirm other people’s self-worth is what initiates growth and unleashes potential.

For more information visit The Greenleaf Center.

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Five Steps to Goal Attainment

Remember the model of making SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realist and time-limited) goals? It’s a strong foundation for success, but how do you take it a step further and ensure you’ll follow through on those great goals you’ve set for yourself?

Let’s take a look at five steps for goal attainment:

1. Find a challenge about which you’re passionate. Make it compelling and magnetic so that you are drawn to your vision. If you’re bored with your goal, you’ll forget about it before you come close to achievement.

2. Share it with others. Good intentions are great, but they won’t necessarily get you across the finish line. Making your goals public creates accountability. Talking about them can also give you clarity on what you want to gain.

3. Creative positive emotional connectors. Simply put, when you focus on the positive outcomes of attaining your goal, you’re more likely to achieve it. Dig in for results that excite you. Think: “I will have more freedom and spare time to pursue my hobbies” versus the more negative associations of “I will be less stressed out.”

4. Make it visual. So much of the way we think, feel and are motivated is tied to images. Basically, we think in pictures. Associate your goals with a positive visual of what its achievement will introduce into your life. Think: a desktop image of a coveted vacation spot to motivate that savings goal.

5. Celebrate the progress steps along the way. Take note of the small achievements involved in reaching a larger goal. Meditate on these and your future success. Celebrate even your small successes.

What are some of the ways you stay focused on your goals? Do you have tips for SMART success? Share them with JD Coaching & Consulting on our Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you!

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Why Board Performance Matters

Why does board performance really matter? Because success starts at the top, and the organization’s leaders—board members and executive management—are there as guardians of the mission and caretakers who ensure service to their distinct community. In a classic servant-leadership model, each tier of an organization serves the level beneath it so that service reaches the ultimate end user. In the nonprofit world, the end users are the people who receive the benefits and services from these critically important agencies.

Some could argue the duties of today’s boards, particularly in the nonprofit sector, are among the most important in all of society’s work. Nonprofit boards shepherd and champion the least-served in the least-funded arenas: human services, social causes, education, health and the arts.

Yet as fluctuating economic and business conditions affect the philanthropic sector, nonprofits are too often spotlighted on the precarious edge.  Articles about financial mismanagement and other struggles are more prevalent than ever. When there is negative publicity, it affects an organization’s ability to raise funds and achieve programmatic and financial goals. It can also inhibit an organization’s ability to strategically prepare for the future or achieve sustainable performance.

While most boards do a solid job, forward-thinking board members are asking how to measure their performance to ensure they meet their responsibilities and limit their liabilities. In these challenging times, evaluating board performance is not just a concern—it’s an essential principle of good governance and legal and fiduciary responsibility.

Individuals on boards are often successful high achievers. If a board is not functioning at peak performance, board members may become disillusioned and detached. When board members disengage or when they resign, the organization loses not only committed volunteers, but also valuable donors and a link to the financial community.

Today’s challenge for many organizations is to secure both funding and committed board members. In a time of economic scarcity and competitive adversity, nonprofit boards, already inherently challenged, have an intensified need to successfully execute their duties and achieve consistently high performance. Organizational success and board performance are inextricably linked. Board members are your visionaries and your champions—take care of them so they will stay and make sure you achieve your potential.

Company Profile

JD Consulting and Coaching is an organization development firm that helps corporate and nonprofit leaders, their teams and key contributors improve performance.

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JD Coaching & Consulting
49 North 4th Avenue, #103
Minneapolis, MN 55401

(612) 845.6896
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