Rescue Mission Blog

Understanding other perspectives

  

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Have you ever had someone surprise you with their point of view?  The other day a little boy looked at my bald head and said, "Why don't you have hair yet?"  After I stopped laughing, I tried to explain that I used to have more hair, but now it's gone.  He was genuinely surprised.  His perspective was one of a little boy - when you are a baby you are bald, when you grow up you get more hair, so why don't you have more hair? 

As leaders and innovators, we need to understand the power of perspective.  Some people see the world differently, and that can be a good thing.  But often times we don't consider the source of the opinion when we are reacting to it, whether positive or negative.  We instinctively value every opinion equally, and that's not helpful or healthy.  The quality of feedback various depending on who is giving it.  

To help us better understand the feedback we are getting it helps to consider the following questions:

What are they seeing?

Where are they coming from emotionally?

What is their background?

What is their motive?

What is their experience?

How have they been hurt?

How have they succeeded?

Who are they allied with?

How are they right?

Is there a flaw in their thinking?

Is there something I can benefit from their perspective?

There must be a hundred different questions you could ask to help determine if a persons perspective is helpful or just off.  

What do you ask yourself when you are receiving feedback?

David Curry

The honor of birth

  

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There is power in honoring those who gave birth to companies, organizations, structures, and ideas.  Why do we celebrate Mother's day with such honor and respect?  Of course it's because you love your mom, but it's more than that.  In part it's that we respect the effort and committment it takes to give birth to a child.  So it is in honoring those who went before you in your work, albiet less personal.

Does your team honor the people who gave birth to your organization?  Do you take time to thank those who helped birth something good in your career?  Do you take the time to think about those who made what you do possible? 

This year the Rescue Mission has been celebrating our 100th anniversary of providing services in Pierce County.  We celebrate because we want to honor those who worked hard to give birth to this critally important work.  But while we celebrate we are also building gratitude in ourselves and an understanding and respect for the responsiblity we have to continue on.  Honoring those who gave birth is part of the development of maturity as a leader and as a person.  

Take time to honor those who have helped make you

what you and your organization have become.  

David Curry

Developing Superstars

  

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It's always easier to develop superstars from within your team than it is to try and import superstars from other organizations.  This is the conclusion of a book that I read last year, Chasing Stars by Boris Groysberg.  But it's also in line what with I've found to be true.  What makes someone a superstar has a lot to do with the unique context in which they work. It's tough to import that into your organization.  But more than that, for non-profits, it's tough to "buy" a superstar.  However there are a few things you can do to develop your team.

1. Hire potential.  Some people don't have all the stuff on their resume that you might expect, but they've got that special something.  Don't over look potential while searching for people qualified with degrees.  

2. Build around strengths.  If you have a team that is build around job descriptions, you'll have a hard time developing superstars.  However, if you are allowing great workers to tailor their jobs around their strengths, you will see people blossom.

3. Promote from with in. Sometimes we're dazzled by what's new, so we go with the person who we just met, but if you want to have an organization filled with top-tier people you'll need to look to move your best people up.

What are other ways to develop superstars within your group?

David Curry

Easily pleased

  

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"Winston Churchill is easily pleased...with the very best."  

Lord Beaverbrook

Is being easily pleased a good thing? Not always.

High standards of quality make a huge difference in your suceess and impact in life.

Sometimes we're altogether too easily pleased with substandard.  You don't have to be obnoxious, mean, condescending or petty to hold a high standard.  Instead, start with your own performance, and don't settle.  

Before long you'll find you're really making a difference with your work, environment, life, words, and demeanor. 

Aim high.

David Curry

Importance of Celebration

  

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Tomorrow we celebrate the 100th birthday of the Rescue Mission with a special gala event.  Most people enjoy a good party, but there are sometimes questions when a non-profit spends time celebrating when there is so much work to be done.  Especially at the Rescue Mission, where there are no shortages of challenges and tasks to do.  Nevertheless, celebration is important for us as individuals, and as organizations.

Here's why we celebrate, and why everyone should work celebration into their regular routine.

1. It's part of the journey.  Life isn't just a check list of things to accomplish, we have to savor the moments, and the difficulties we have encountered and surmounted.  If we don't celebrate life just becomes one long death march.  However, when you stop and celebrate, even when you have work yet to do, you make the journey so much sweeter.

2. Reinvigorates the team.  Our RM team works so hard, we never close and the work is never finished.   So it's even more important in those circumstances to celebrate the faithfulness and consistency of the organization and those that have worked, and do work, to make it happen.  

3. It's fun.  The harder the work, the more you need to bring fun, laughter and joy into the process.  Celebrate the people, laugh at the things that went wrong, tell stories, hug and squeeze those that battle with you in your fights.  It makes life so much better when you are enjoying yourself.  

The work of the Rescue Mission goes on, even as the celebration Saturday night and through out this centennial year, but it's so important for us to pause to enjoy the milestone and look forward to more great years to come.

What keeps us from enjoying the milestones in our own lives and work?  What do you do to take time out to celebrate?

David Curry

Non-Profit Leadership: How New Media Development Happens

  

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Today I'm spending the day with leaders of Youth for Christ from across America.  They've kindly asked me to share my thoughts on how leaders can use social media and other new innovations in media to be more effective in their personal and organizational mission.

Fortunately, the keys to learning to use new media to make the better world a better place are at everyone's disposal.  However, knowing that innovations exist, and putting those innovations to use in your life, work, ministry or non-profit are two different things.  

Here's how I process innovation in new media and filter it through to my work at the Rescue Mission:

1. Personal experimentation:  Several years ago I was tinkering with Skype and I had the breakthrough idea that the Rescue Mission should be streaming it's daily classes from our Challenge Learning Center.  While trying out the Ipad a few years ago I saw how it had the potential to be very helpful to shift manager or our directors who were mobile between and around our various campuses.  Everything starts with you trying new things and finding what works well for you.  Try facebook, twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Linkedin.  Take a look at new apps, phones, tablets and programs that may help you in your work, or may help you to share your work in new and innovative ways.  If you are not trying new things you'll be missing valuable opportunities and innovations.

2. Play:  Once a leader has a concept of how innovation could possibly be used, then encourage your team to play with the ideas, concepts, and tools.  You'll often find that the innovation is impractical, or in some way gets modified to work better than you could have imagined.  Plus, it bring others into the discovery process.  After I began to use twitter and FB a few years ago, I encouraged teammates to play with these tools and see how they might affect relationship building with alumni, donors and clients.  No conclusions necessary, just play.

3. Share:  Once you've had enough time to test and play, then start the process of using these new innovations to multiply the affect of your work, interests, opinions and passions.  This is where most people get bogged down because play is unfocused, and sharing takes intention and managment.  But this is where the power of mutliplication is for the cause of good.  For myself and my team, it was easier to post about something happening than to record it and stream it around.  But the payoff was well worth it.  

4. Leverage:  This is a rare stage that few organizations or teams acheive with innovation, but it's something to shoot towards.  Using the new technologies, tools, innovations and methods to make a game changing breakthrough in how your work happens and in it's effectivenesss.  

Those are a few of my thoughts, but what do you think is critical to using new media effectively?  What is your organization or team doing that is improved or mutliplied through the usign of these tools?

David Curry

How to examine enabling behaviors

  

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From the outside looking in on a relationship, it appears easy to spot enabling.  You can be objective, you clearly understand the motives of the addicted, and you know that the one who is "helping" the addict, is actually making it easier for the addict to live the addictive lifestyle.  The enabler is paying the bills, covering up for the addict, and generally doing all the things enablers do.

But when looking at our own behaviors and examining our own relationships we have rationalizations and excuses for why we enable.  Yes, you realize you are making excuses for the addict, but no one understands them like you do.  of course you understand that providing financial support to an addict is dangerous enabling, but you think in this situation it's different.  There is no shortage of excuses, and we are likely to cling to any and all to excuse our own behavior.

Enabling is any behavior which removes or softens consequences of addiction.  To properly examine your own behavior relating to an addict you have to focus on the behavior, not the reason or excuse given for why the behavior.  

In other words, by holding tight to your reason, no matter how justified you feel, you will never be able to grasp whether your behavior is actually making it easier for the person you love, the addict you love, to continue using.  In the end, if what you are doing is keeping the person you love active in their addiction - you are enabling - no matter how you may feel about it.

David Curry 

How to deliver happiness and purpose in life

  

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Many people have difficulty knowing what the vision and purpose of their life and work is.  Equally difficult, but seldom discussed, is knowing the due-date for the vision and dream.  

Too soon:  Sometimes you feel confident in the path you are walking, in the vision of your family, team, company, or life, yet you want everything to happen right now.  Often times your due-date is in the future and it's frustrating. 

Too late:  In other situations you come upon the right course of action, but too late for it to be effective.  Often times, peopel realize mistaken strategies, missed opportunities, wrong attitudes far down the road, and seek to rectify the situation but the timing is all wrong.  How many times have i talked to someone who went through a difficult work, family, or marriage struggle, only to realize that perhaps they should forgive or seek forgiveness, but time has moved on and the relationships seemingly can't be repaired.  It's still the right thing to do, but it won't necessarily get your job, family or spouse back.  Right idea, bad timing.  

Just right:  The optimum idea is to life in the present.  When you are living in the present moment, you are always right on with the due-date.  We can't predict the future, but doing the right thing today is much easier to predict.  If you are maximizing your NOW, then your future will be bright.  Guaranteed.

What are you waiting for to arrive in the future that you could be working on today?  What are you regretting in the past that is keeping you from your purpose in this present moment?

David Curry

Partnerships are a necessary ingredient to success

  

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Perhaps we'd all like to believe that we could do it all ourselves, or that no one could do it quite as good as we can.  However, I've come to believe just the opposite is true: that almost job and task is better when I'm in partnership with others.  

Here's why partnership works best:

1. Knowledge  In fact, there's very little that any one person could know.  Together with others, we cover more bases and expand our knowledge.

2. Strengths.  Not only don't i know everything, I'm not the best at everything.  There are a few things I'm great at, but I like to hand off the other tasks to those who are great in those areas.  It makes for a better experience and more fulfillment, in addition to a better product.

3. Community.  It's just more fun working with others than by yourself.  That doens't mean you've got to be with people all the time, it just means that you can have others there with you to celebrate, commiserate, and share the ups and downs of every project.

Why wouldn't you want to partner?  I'm sure there must be some good reasons why it's not always optimal, but generally speaking, teams are better than individual performance.

David Curry

Volunteer to serve others

  

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Not long ago I was contacted by someone who wanted to volunteer at our Rescue Mission.  He had a particular skill that he was offering to our clients.  Through a series of connections unconnected to the Rescue Mission, the newspaper was called to see if they were interested in doing a story on this volunteer.  A time was scheduled, and the volunteer came prepared to work.  But then something happened.  The newspaper reporter didn't show up.  So, instead of going about this service, he just packed up and went home.  Shortly after, the reporter arrived but he was already gone.  

When I heard this story from a member of our team, I had mixed emotions.  First I was incensed that someone would volunteer just to get a story in the newspaper.  I must admit that there was also a feeling of satisfaction that the reporter was a little late and it hadn't worked out.

In everything, it's good to check our motives, that which is driving us to do what we do.  There is no better reason to volunteer than the simplicity of service.  Service for it's own sake.  It's likely that no one will ever know all that you do for others, but it's still worth it.

Service makes us all better.  It gets us focused on the needs of others, rather than our own issues.  It helps us appreciate all the blessings we have, and all that we can give to others.

Volunteer to serve.

David Curry