The Nonprofit CEO Briefing

“Ugh, people are the worst.” I say this sometimes to get a laugh. But it is something I believe, a truism. We humans are a messy lot. We are rude to each other. We are petty. We abuse each other. We rape and pillage and commit genocide. We even listen

I am not a psychologist. But this week, Eugene Cho, CEO of Bread for the World, told me that our conversation felt like a free therapy session.  I simply ask a lot of questions. And many CEOs end up saying things that they don’t usually get to discuss. Eugene

This week, I experienced magic.  I talked with Peter Greer, CEO of Hope International. He said something that got me thinking, which sent me back into notes and transcripts from hundreds of other CEO conversations. I saw the same thing everywhere. It snapped into focus. Like magic. Here’s what

This week, I was with 250 nonprofit CEOs at an event in Portland, hosted by the Murdock Trust. Trust CEO Romanita Hairston said, "Some walls are so old and have existed so long...that we have mistaken them for reality itself. We have stopped seeing them as constructed and

In my conversations with CEOs, AI comes up a lot: ChatGPT or Claude? How are you using it? What have you tried? Are you changing roles and expectations? What are you seeing across the sector?  There were some interesting conversations: * “I created a full training handbook for new managers. It

This week, at Bible Project in Portland, I hosted a small gathering of CEOs. One told me, “When I was starting, an experienced CEO recommended finding a small group of peers to talk with, to sustain me in the role. Through the years, I’ve often thought I should get

Most CEOs I talk to are alert to “mission drift.” They don’t want to unintentionally meander away from the what and why of their work. But another risk threatens the leadership and efficacy of most nonprofit CEOs.  Unconsciously, they conflate a way of doing things with the reason for

We say we care about outcomes.  We claim we are driven by the mission.  We tell people we are called to make a difference. But every week, another CEO is telling me that their greatest headache is an employee that they should have removed years ago. These people are still

“Does this work for everyone?” “Are we all on the same page?” “What do you think about this?” We use these sorts of markers to check for consensus, and they are awful little gremlins.  Groups are terrible at decisions. (Think about the last time you and three friends were trying

Nonprofit CEOs are isolated. The vast majority of CEOs have told me they do not have the connection and support to do their best work, to make their best decisions.  This pattern has emerged from my 230+ conversations with CEOs across this sector. And the isolation makes everything else harder: