About Natasha
Ever since I was a teenager, I have loved being a part of social change. Whether it was collecting food for the food bank, coordinating school fundraising events, long-term international missions or serving meals at a local homeless shelter, I have always loved doing life-impacting work.
As I became an adult, my focus became less on social good and more on social standing. For the first nine years of my career I poured myself into building a company where lifestyle, financial freedom and personal achievements were my goal and doing work to change-the-world became an afterthought. I lived chasing my goals – that was all I thought about.
On the approach of my ten year entrepreneurial anniversary I began a project that had a dramatic effect on my career path. During a casual conversation with my church pastor, he asked if I would be willing to help him with some strategic planning work he and his key leaders were working on: organizing ideas, making plans and managing the process. Up until this point, I had never done any business related work for him nor had any experience strategic-planning outside of the for-profit sector.
Within a year of serving in the nonprofit environment, I had left my business and was working full time coaching executive directors of non profit organizations: church, causes, and schools. After partnering with these leaders and experiencing their passion for their cause, it was impossible to not help equip them with the tools to fulfil their organization’s vision.
In the words of Stephen R Block author of “Why Nonprofits Fail” he says “successful nonprofits will be those that have the capacity to change in response to changing environments and political winds. They require executive directors, managers, and board members who are responsive and who are not afraid to take bold steps to solve their organizational problems.”
Darren Hardy SUCCESS publisher adds “today, the speed of change demands a completely different leader: one who can rapidly adapt to change, requiring constant involvement in skill development. The will need to be expert in human capital, not just financial capital; master at emotional intelligence, not just economic competence; know how to collaborate, not just control; lead through networks, not hierarchies; and align people through meaning and purpose, not structures and spreadsheets. Leadership will rely more on emotional and relational aptitude rather than technical or financial expertise.
The leaders who will succeed going forward will be those who can build leadership in others. You do this by developing the mindset and emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-confidence and self-management) and skill sets (communication, time management, networking and team-building” so everyone can lead themselves in this constantly changing environment, thus leading you and the organization in the direction of your greater goals.”
Having a great vision is not enough to see your organization succeed. The truth is that when a leader lacks the business skills to execute their organization’s strategy – failure is almost guaranteed. Passion, belief and faith alone will not help you arrive at your goal: accomplishing results requires that Executive Directors become good-doers as well as do-gooders.
A Fortune Magazine study has shown that 7 out of 10 CEOs, who fail, do so not because of bad strategy, but because of bad execution. In another study of Times 1000 companies, 80% of directors said they had the right strategies but only 14% thought they were implementing them well. Our mission is to help the 86% of organizations who have the right strategy but whose strategies fail because of poor execution and need tools for implementing the strategy successfully.
I look forward to connecting with you.
Natasha
