The Daily Heroic Multitasking Trap
I've led nonprofits for a long time, and I was talking to a fellow ED recently about funding pressures and unreal expectations. We knew that one thing is consistent: We are asked to do a lot with very little.
We weren't complaining. It comes with the territory. And honestly, we get really good at it.
Most nonprofit leaders I know hold two or three jobs inside one role.
- They run core programs and manage the social media.
- They lead teams and raise the money.
- They plan the annual gala and assemble the donated office furniture.
This creativity is vital to the sector and deserves to be celebrated.
But it can also become a trap.
Being celebrated for heroic multitasking can trick us into thinking that everything should require heroic multitasking.
Being celebrated for heroic multitasking can trick us into thinking that everything should require heroic multitasking.
Here's why the trap is so effective: the sector rewards it. Funders pay for programs, not for the organizations that deliver them. So capacity gaps get absorbed personally by the leader. The leader who stays until 9pm becomes the model. The one who takes everything on becomes the standard. Sure a board member might question it (a little) but everyone knows that the task has to be done, and no one else is stepping up. Over time, the organization mistakes that pattern for culture. And culture that runs on individual sacrifice has an expiry date.
Great leadership isn't just celebrating our hustle. Effective leaders ask a simple question.
Should this still require heroics?
Strong organizations — and healthy leaders — focus on:
- simplifying the organizational offering (vision and mission)
- releasing the team and letting go of perfection (trusting people to deliver at 80% of what the leader could do)
- building shared priorities and agreements on how we work (including real limits so we last)
These three priorities will do more to reduce your stress and strengthen your team than any pep talk or doubling down on the task could ever do.
Ready to see where the pressure is actually showing up in your leadership? The Leadership Check-In is a free 20-minute diagnostic — specific to you, no personality type, instant results.
En route — but aren't we all.