Giving Way

Practical Inspiration for Nonprofit Leaders

           
Todd J. Sukol
Todd J. Sukol
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Resources
  • Inside Job
  • Contact
Menu

Category: Nonprofit Management & Leadership

Between Inspiration and Perspiration

Posted on February 9, 2021February 9, 2021 by Todd J. Sukol

Thomas Edison, whose remarkable mind turned discoveries into groundbreaking technologies, famously said that “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration.”  Indeed, many of the world’s spiritual traditions warn that, as the New Testament puts it in the book of James, “..faith without works is dead.” From my own Jewish tradition, it is…

Read more

Make Peace with the Messy Middle

Posted on February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 by Todd J. Sukol

As a nonprofit leader you will often find yourself in the middle. The middle can be exhausting, with stakeholders on both sides pulling you in opposite directions or using you as an intermediary to telegraph their displeasure to the other. This can take the form of two powerful board members with opposing visions for the…

Read more

Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Todd J. Sukol

I stumbled upon a precious lesson in a gritty industrial town in Northern New Jersey. It happened many years ago, in a plastic bag factory, to be precise. I was visiting the owner, a donor to the organization for which I was executive director at the time. After handing me a check for our humanitarian…

Read more

Drawing Together Both Sides of the Brain

Posted on December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 by Todd J. Sukol

A fantastic nonprofit professional I recently encountered described struggling to integrate two valuable parts of herself at work. She is a person of extraordinary work ethic and accomplishment. She works systematically and thoroughly, never missing deadlines or quotas and always remembering to “dot the I’s and cross the T’s.  She is also incredibly creative. She…

Read more

Posts navigation

  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 10
  • Next

Newsletter

Sign up here to receive occasional announcements, opportunities and special information.

The Inside Job

When is “enough” enough?

May 6, 2022

We work so hard to be the best we can be. To make our organizations the best they can be. When does our obligation reach its limits?  Ours is a field where there is always something more that can be done more, or better. A system can be improved. A problem can be solved. A success can be made greater. Another dollar can be raised. Another beneficiary served. Another staff member assisted. There are so many pulls on you as a nonprofit organization leader – when is “good enough” finally good enough?

In truth, the real question isn’t “how hard” should we work, but “HOW” should we work. Please remember that there is a deep, divine spark inside of you. This same spark lives inside of every person, place, thing or circumstance you encounter. As a nonprofit professional and as a human being, your first obligation is to recognize, reveal and fan the flames of that spark in yourself and in those you work with. When you’re pushing so hard that your efforts no longer support this objective, it’s time to step back. 

No matter how dedicated we are to the missions of our organizations, we cannot turn to our work for all of the meaning in our lives. You are uniquely special because you come from a divine source. We all need to step away from our work and take a break for spiritual and physical refreshment from time to time. We all need to remember and reconnect with the loved ones from whom we derive our identities and our strength.

Ask yourself: “In my work today, is my best self in the driver’s seat? Or, am I burning myself out by chasing “symptoms of success” rather than allowing my inner spark to express itself as I go about my work?”

Image above may be purchased as a print from https://www.hebrica.com/collections/torah-and-texts/products/you-shall-be-holy-jewish-paper-cut-art

Inside Job Archive

Categories

  • Nonprofit Fundraising
  • Nonprofit Governance
  • Nonprofit Management & Leadership
  • Nonprofit Measurement & Impact
  • Nonprofit Organizations
  • Politics, Business & Society
  • Smart Philanthropy
  • Third Sector Perspectives
  • Timeless Wisdom
  • Uncategorized

Tweets by toddsukol

© 2023 Giving Way | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme