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Taking Your Nonprofit Career to the Next level
- 1. Taking Your Nonprofit Career to the Next Level Thursday, May 25, 2017 Hosted by YNPN Pgh Cindy Leonard Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management
- 2. Opening Exercise: What is Your Most Pressing Career Challenge Right Now?
- 3. Agenda Common Challenges Actions You Can Take
- 5. Types of Challenges Intersectional Organizational Incidental Intentional
- 6. Challenge: Lack of Career Path
- 7. Unclear / Non-linear Career Path
- 9. Difficulty Accepting Praise Tend to Discount Your Success Overworker to a Fault Compulsion to be the Best / Described as a Perfectionist Fear of Failure Can Paralyze You Sometimes Avoid Showing Confidence Actually Dread Success, in Some Ways You Chalk Things Up to Your Charm You Focus More on What You Haven't Done You're Convinced You're Not Enough Symptoms of Imposter Syndrome
- 10. “You will never climb Career Mountain and get to the top and shout, ‘I made it!’ You will rarely feel done or complete or even successful. Most people I know struggle with that complicated soup of feeling slighted on one hand and like a total fraud on the other.” - Amy Poehler
- 11. Share Pairs: What is Resonating with You So Far?
- 12. Actions You Can Take
- 13. Ongoing Learning & Skill Building
- 14. Ongoing Learning & Skill Building
- 15. Ongoing Learning & Skill Building
- 16. DIY Nonprofit Career Path
- 19. Exercise: Networking Skills Focus on the other person Don’t take it personally Talk to wallflowers Introduce people to each other Bring business cards
- 20. Group Discussion: Most Pressing Career Challenges
- 22. Thank you! Get in touch anytime, leonard@rmu.edu or @cindy_leonard. I also blog at cindyleonard.org.
Editor's Notes
- Write on an index card, pass forward. (sort through and share most common findings out loud)
- Ask them to think of an example of each type of challenge once have explained it to them… ● Some of these will be intersectional: gender, race, age, ability ● Some of these will be organizational: insufficient resources, inadequate access to management, neverending changes in priorities, bad management ● Some of these will be (unfortunately) incidental: nonprofits struggle with certain functions across the ecosystem ● Intentional: resentment of your role because it points out deficiencies in the organization’s approach, and hardest of all, when someone in power simply has a grudge against you, for whatever reason, FEAR (From my friend Tracy Kronzak)
- In nonprofits, there is no linear career map. Downside – it can be difficult to figure out how to advance. Upside – you generally have a lot of leeway for creating your own path.
- Source: https://www.bustle.com/articles/119129-12-signs-you-might-be-suffering-from-imposter-syndrome-fellow-perfectionists-im-looking-at-you Imposter Syndrome became a “thing” in 1978 thanks to two psychologists who described it as a feeling of “phoniness in people who believe that they are not intelligent, capable or creative despite evidence of high achievement.” While these people “are highly motivated to achieve,” they also “live in fear of being ‘found out’ or exposed as frauds.” http://www.joangarry.com/imposter-syndrome/
- Imposter syndrome is not something we can necessarily overcome, but rather something we need to live with. We cannot fix it by fixing ourselves. The best we can do it acknowledge it and go forward. (from my friend Johanna Bates) How to cope with imposter syndrome You are not alone. - Many have made successful careers via informal learning, or by coming to formal learning later in the game. Use it to push you forward, but never let it hold you back. - Keep learning. The world changes fast, so nobody has the option to stop learning at any point. Know it may never go away. - You may always feel like you’re a fake nonprofiteer, but that doesn’t mean you are. http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity-quotes-on-impostor-syndrome-434739#kjQrrUWXF6jFX58B.99
- Do 5 minutes of share pairs and popcorn report back
- Assess your needs - what do you want to accomplish? Where do you think you’d like to be in the next 3-5 years, career-wise? Stay in current job, get more skills Upward mobility at current org Transition to job at a different org or company Move into a different branch of nonprofit work altogether There are so many variables here, there is no single continuing education approach that is perfect. Best advice is: Visualize what you want for the next step in your career. Hunt down job descriptions for that step, even if you have to go outside of your organization and look at descriptions posted by other nonprofits (use Guidestar to look up 990s so you can determine if org’s are similar in budget size so you are closer to comparing apples to apples) Look at the skills that occur most often in job descriptions for the position you desire For example, if you want to be the executive director at a medium sized nonprofit, and you find 5 job descriptions for that type of position online, and 4 of them say a particular degree program is required, it may be worth looking into a degree program. If particular industry certifications are required, look into those. (like CFRE) If other skills are required, but no particular degree or certifications are named, see if you can learn the skills online.
- Also consider volunteering for additional responsibilities at work. You have to be careful how you do this, to avoid stepping on toes. Volunteer to take on tasks for work nobody else wants to do, or if you see a problem that nobody has tackled, ask if you can give it a try. If your org calls for people to be on project teams or other committees, raise your hand. About the stepping on toes piece, this is about office politics. Pissing someone off is not likely to get you rewarded. For example, if you solve a problem that others have failed at, they may feel humiliated if you succeed. Get them involved, ask what they’ve tried in the past, see if they’d like to help you try again (if not, ask for their blessing and go for it). You can also volunteer outside of your organization to learn new skills. For example, join a board of directors (like YNPN Pgh) and volunteer for tasks and roles that are outside of or slightly above your wheelhouse. Deliberately put yourself in places that are uncomfortable or you won’t grow. Image source: http://www.wmranch.org/images/colourful-volunteer-vector.jpg
- Big question I hear a lot: do I need a degree? As someone with four college degrees and student loan debt that is 3x my annual salary, I would think hard before making this choice. If you already have a bachelor’s degree in something else, you can very likely get the skills you need via online training, certifications, workshops, which will cost you a whole lot less than college. I don’t want to discourage anyone from getting a college degree. I think it’s valuable, but go for other reasons - like learning analytical and reasoning skills, learning project management skills, etc. By the time you finish a four year degree, very little of what you learned will still be 100% relevant - things change too quickly. You will still have to keep learning things on your own outside of formal education - working requires constant learning. Tell them the Jenni story - director of development at an NPO, no degree. Was fine till wanted to change jobs, then was having hard time getting interviews. Finally landed a job, but took longer because no degree. (Point - not impossible to land job with no degree, but may take longer and a little more effort - be sure to point out experience over education on cover letters and resumes.)
- We mentioned this earlier in the challenges section. An old boss of mine once told me a nonprofit career follows a path more like a spiral staircase rather than a ladder. Sometime you have to move laterally AND move up to advance. (Rather than expecting to get promoted within the same organization. Orgs tend to be flat, so not a lot of room for promotion or advancement mostly.) If there’s nowhere to move up at your current organization, stay till you’ve gotten all the good out of the job that you can. If you aren’t being promoted every few years (or not likely to be promoted anytime soon), hit a point where you aren’t learning anything new, aren’t being challenged in ways that make you stretch and grow (which is different from challenges like administrative grunt work, juggling tasks or people-related challenges) – it’s probably time to change organizations. It’s also worth mentioning that, if you are in a toxic work culture, or being bullied at work or putting up with sexual harassment, etc. – don’t wait to leave. Things almost never get better and you’ll be changed before you can change the system.
- According to Bridgespan Group, 85% of senior job openings come through individual endorsements or connections. Your professional network, thus, is one of your biggest resources for furthering your career. Join professional associations & attend conferences. YNPN, AFP, PANO & other groups offer opportunities to meet & exchange information with peers & mentors, online & off. Look for groups on social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Poke around on Meetup.com for nonprofit-related meetup groups in the area.
- Introvert vs. Extrovert exercise Important to know which you are. Anyone can network effectively, but it will come more naturally to some than others. Ask if someone can explain difference between the two? If needed, explain actual difference between introvert and extrovert (introvert = recharge with “me” time / extrovert = recharge by hanging out with other people) Everyone close eyes: Tell them: You’ve just had a really long hard day at work. You need to recharge your batteries. Raise your hand if you would prefer to do this by settling down in a quiet spot at home in a comfy chair with a good book. Estimate the % of people in the room with hands up. Okay, lower your hands. Now raise your hand if you would prefer to do this by going out to dinner with friends. Estimate the % again. (Counting on the room to be mostly introverts here.) If you are a natural extrovert, you probably already network pretty well. You are likely at home in a large crowd of people and can always find something to talk about, no matter who you are around. If you are a natural introvert, you may need a little more inner motivation to put yourself out there.
- 5 tips for networking that are helpful for anyone, but especially for natural introverts (from my blog post a while back) (summarize points rather than reading word for word) 1) Focus on the other person. When I am feeling shy at an event, it's usually because these kind of thoughts are running through my brain: Why in the world would they want to talk to me? I'm not that interesting. What could I possibly talk to this person about? Will I sound dumb or make a fool of myself? You get the picture. I'm feeling shy because I'm overly focusing on me. When I take a deep breath and shift my focus, it makes it easier. I think about the person I want to approach and turn on my curiosity about his or her life, work and interests. I introduce myself and ask them questions, keeping the focus off of myself, at least until I've built up my courage. 2) Not everyone will want to talk to you and that's okay. It could be that the person brushes you aside because he or she is simply a jerk, or it could be that they just got a piece of bad news or are distracted by some other troubles. Don't assume it's about you. If someone doesn't seem interested in speaking with you, don't force it - move on to the next person and try again. 3) Talk to people standing off by themselves along the sidelines. I've made some great friends by finding the "wallflowers" in a group and engaging them in conversation. In fact, I frequently make it a point to go up and talk to people who look a little lonely at events. 4) Introduce people to each other. This is a great networking technique that benefits you and others. You're helping people get to know each other and bringing additional people into your conversation circle at the event. It's really simple to do: as you're talking to person #1 and you see someone you happen to know come close or pass by your cirlce, wave person #2 over and say "hey, ____, do you know ___?" I usually try to include where each person works in my introduction too. 5) Bring business cards. I'm always a little shocked when young people show up at events without business cards. I was bad about that when I was younger too, so I get it, but it's really important to have cards on you at events. (I keep a stash in my purse now so I'm never without them.) There's an art to knowing when it's appropriate to give your card. If someone asks you for it, give it. If you've had a conversation that has potential for needing follow-up, ask for the other person's card. On the other hand, don't be that person who automatically comes up to a group and starts handing out the cards. It's kind of like dating - you want to establish a mutual interest before you start handing out your phone number.
- Break out index cards and see what hasn’t been answered yet – do general discussion with the group, answer the questions left.