Kate is a director on the board of a large national not-for-profit company. The board is comprised of well-intentioned and conscientious professionals who bring diverse viewpoints and bountiful energy to their board discussions. None of them are qualified in governance or have experience on other boards but all take their responsibilities seriously and strive to …

In the 7 Keys to CFC Success, Key #3 is “Use all 12 months of the Year.” By the time you get to the actual CFC solicitation period in the fall, you’ll need to have already planted the seeds of awareness in the minds of your current and potential new donors. Communication and marketing professionals …

Taking damage from searches for your own key terms Politicians are no strangers to controversy, but as we become more and more immersed in the digital world, regular citizens are gaining the power to cause serious reputation management issues for these seemingly lofty figures. The following quote, from a MediaPost article by Derek Gordon, highlights …

Research shows that most employees want feedback – they want to know how they’re doing – but many managers are doing a poor job of giving it to them. Why is that? Here are some reasons why managers avoid providing performance feedback: 1. Lack of know-how. Providing employees with honest and useful performance feedback is …

If you’re the only staff person devoted to grantsmanship at your organization, then you’re the one on first … and you’re also the manager! But, you have a great team, and each member plays an important role in helping to win the grant. As in baseball, each member of your team has specific responsibilities and …

Effective Communication: Are You Getting The Message? The saying that “people do not leave their jobs, they leave their bosses” is overused, but true. In employee exit surveys, the most frequent employee complaint is about their former supervisor’s communications skills—too little, too much, too ineffective. Poor communication does account for a multitude of workplace woes …

Protect your business, be prepared for social media crisis management Let’s face it, social media isn’t going away. People love to talk about what’s going on in their lives, and now that they can do it with millions of others right from the smart phone in their pocket, it’s practically irresistable. What this means to …

You get a resignation notice from a top performing manager. You weren't prepared. You have been talking about succession planning, but other priorities got in the way. Now you have the notice. So what do you? This is an important role and will be key to the future success of the company. Knowing the spot can't go vacant, you take a look at the team and offer the position to the top performer. The top performer tells you he's not ready. You know that he will be fine. You tell him that, hand him a set of keys and get busy on those other priorities.

Two years ago I was deploying a high-technology project for a client. It was a worthwhile project, whereby we were going to give sales people the ability to communicate instantly with their developers in Asia. A few weeks into the project, the client’s own Security organization became very interested… and proceeded to shut us down! …

Until recently, most government grant proposals were developed in a defined physical space. The proposal team worked near each other, had frequent face-to-face contact, and used conference rooms in their work. The New Virtual World of Grant Proposal Construction Today, however, this traditional model of proposal development is rapidly changing. An increasing number of government …