You came in capable, and three months later you're quietly failing. Here's the truth no one in the nonprofit will tell you — because they need what you bring too much to say it.
You've led teams. You've hit targets. You know how to move quickly and do things well, and that track record is exactly why the nonprofit wanted you. So the last thing you expected, three months in, was the quiet sense that you're failing. Here's the part no one inside that organization will tell you — because they need what you bring too much to be honest about it.
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Most managers who become directors keep doing the thing that made them good managers. That’s the problem. The skills that earned you the role are not the skills that will let you lead in it.
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The pressure we're under as leaders always comes out somewhere. The question is where.
I once told my team that what I was most looking forward to was a nondescript Wednesday in the fall. A day I'd come in, do a normal day's work, go home. Nothing would happen. No crisis. Just a regular day. That fall turned out to be a mess. But the moment stuck with me.
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Mission-driven leaders get celebrated for doing everything. That's starting to look like a trap.
Most nonprofit leaders I know hold two or three jobs inside one role. That creativity is vital to the sector. But being celebrated for daily heroics can trick us into thinking that everything should require daily heroics.
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