When you’re connected to your email – to the tune of checking it every few minutes – you’re constantly interrupting flows of thought or attention that may be better focused elsewhere… like on your partner or child. I was browsing though articles the other day and came across a couple of pieces about working motherhood. … Continue reading
Your head is spinning. You’ve got a gazillion things going on and they’re all due NOW. Chances are, your desk is a mess. You’re trying to coordinate the loose ends before the program’s launch and swearing that – never again, will you ____. Except you find that 3 months later, you’re in the same situation. … Continue reading
More people are volunteering and more organizations are depending upon the work of volunteers than ever before. So how can volunteers ensure that they can sustain their activity over the long-term? Service can be another way of contributing to the world around us, to make us feel good, to carry out certain moral responsibilities, to … Continue reading
Who of you finds yourself desperately wanting to slay that procrastination beast of yours, but keeps putting it off until tomorrow? You vow to “get it done now”, and do alright for a few days, but then find yourself slipping back into the old habits of putting off for tomorrow what you just can’t seem to … Continue reading
Last week, I shared “The Struggle” on LinkedIn under the tagline: “Remember to care for yourself… and avoid burnout”. I asked how people maintain their mental health during intense periods of service. The response from readers across many groups was wonderful and I’m including some of the comments below for the wider readership’s benefit. Many … Continue reading
Raise your hand if you are currently or have recently felt utterly exhausted… For me, I was in the office yesterday and felt like there were so many things to do, that just getting started on anything was a challenge – like too much powder in a funnel that gets blocked up. Those of us … Continue reading
Summer’s here and for many, it means that school is out. Right now, there are a lot of youth who are available to engage in service to their communities. Yes, we often go on vacation during this time, but it is prime opportunity to work intensively with a potent, potential force in society. I’m not … Continue reading
Cross-sector leadership can only lead to cross-sector collaboration if it is undertaken with purposeful intent. Many cross-sector leadership activities focus on looking for ways to transfer learnings from one sector into formats or methods appropriate for another sector. This is fine and valuable unto itself, but I would argue that it doesn’t constitute actual collaboration. Rather, to achieve true collaboration leaders need … Continue reading
My daughter asked me to read aloud a quote she found this morning, in a book on “hope”: “Look ye not upon the present, fix your gaze upon the times to come. In the beginning, how small is the seed, yet in the end it is a mighty tree. Look ye not upon the seed, … Continue reading
Many of us who work in the non-profit sector don’t feel confident with money or numbers. We go into social work, community development, or any number of social fields due to their soft-science nature and relegate hard financial considerations to other professionals. Perhaps we were told or assumed we weren’t good at math early in … Continue reading
Collaborator Magazine 