Three Additional Thoughts: The Annual Fund Is Outdated 1. If a mechanism you’re using to raise funds for your programs/operations is called the “Annual Fund,” and if you solicit the same constituency more than once each year, then a response you’re likely to get from donors is, “I already gave this year.” You may not …

Today in Boston the Board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center today fined chief executive Paul Levy $50,000 for engaging in a personal relationship with an employee that over time “created an improper appearance and became a distraction within the hospital,” according to a statement by Board Chairman Stephen Kay. Mr. Levy has had a …

Last Friday I was interviewed for almost five minutes on Bloomberg TV regarding crisis management and the Goldman Sachs debacle, with about 20 seconds at the end of the interview regarding the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Funny thing at the interview itself — you probably can’t tell that, in this high-tech TV studio, …

I taught an Ethical Leadership class at Virginia Tech and posed a question to my students the first day of class- “What is a well lived life for you?” It is worth considering. People have various answers for this, but most talk about having good relationships with family and friends, leaving a legacy of something …

I have spent a great deal of time writing about the paper trail. My previous two posts discuss steps in overcoming it and building a culture of performance. So often, Human Resource (HR) professionals must provide the legal voice concerning employee issues in the organization.

I just returned from the 11th Social Enterprise Alliance Summit+ World Forum in San Francisco. A record 700+ attendees from around the world attest to the growing strength of this vibrant sector. I met folks from Canada, the UK, Australia, the Philippines, Africa, and South America. In an earlier blog I described social enterprise as …

A vision, during strategic planning, is depiction of the organization and its customers at some point in the future. Like mission statements, there are many different perspectives about what should be in a vision statement. Vision statements can depict the overall result sought by the organization. They also can be used to inspire and motivate …

Business plans tend to be mostly head, and mostly left brain at that. They describe a business idea for making and selling stuff, and good ones present strong reasons and compelling data. That’s important, and trumps so many plans that offer little more than grandiose assertions and generic arguments. But the heart of any business …

It’s common in change-management projects to have a vision for change. It’s very useful to have clients consider both a grand vision and a strategic vision. We do this in our consultant training services, and the consultants usually greatly appreciate that approach. Grand visions and strategic visions can be used in strategic planning, as well. …

Imagine that you have just returned from attending a concert or play. When asked if your enjoyed the event, you reply “It was good.” What do you really mean by this statement? Do you want it understood that the musicians, actors, and support staff were talented or that the basic sheet music or script was …