The problem with consistency (+ what to choose instead)
I’m not sure who decided “consistent” meant posting on social media every day and calling donors 5 or 6 days a week “or else.”
When did we decide to put so much pressure on ourselves?
We need to stop setting impossibly high standards. Even though it’s very much in every Executive Directors’ DNA. We can’t keep operating like we’re a 20-person team in one single person.
As a leader of a Small Shop nonprofit, you need to stop believing consistency means being perfect. Because constantly going above and beyond isn’t sustainable.
Priding yourself on “wearing a lot of hats” only works for a year or so before burnout catches in. We can’t keep running ourselves into the ground. In this post, we’ll uncover the problem with aiming for consistency and what to choose instead.
The problem with consistency
By definition, consistency is “the quality of staying the same at different times.”
Sounds nice, right? We love consistent messaging, consistent social media presence, consistent donations.
But I’m starting to see a problem with the word consistency. How does one “stay the same at different times”?
I don’t know about you, but my motivation is decidedly different on Monday mornings than it is on Thursday afternoons.
And my creativity doesn’t show up between my meetings on Wednesdays—they come on Saturday mornings (or sometimes after midnight on a Tuesday).
There are so many things you just can’t control:
Having a last-minute doctor’s appointment pop up
Needing to pick up your kid from school
Childcare falling through
Even with the best intentions, the best project management tools, and a stellar team, life happens.
We know this, but we still get pissed at ourselves when we didn’t check every item off the to-do list. Nonprofit executive directors are NOTORIOUS for biting off more than we can chew. (What can I say, it comes with the trade!).
This was a big topic last week during the Essentials annual planning work sprint too. Mid way through the week when I asked how planning was going one ED said, “Good, but brutal.”
Ouch. Let’s NEVER let our jobs be brutal.
So how can we dial back the pressure we put on ourselves to be perfect? Is there a better way? An alternative to consistency?
What if we chose STEADY over consistency?
I’m not sure why I’m big into definitions today, but I think you’re going to like this image of steadiness. Here’s how steady is defined:
direct or sure in movement.
firm in position.
not easily disturbed or upset.
If that’s not a roadmap for effective nonprofit leadership, I don’t know what is.
But…what would being steady look like in practice? How can we be confident in our plan?
How can we know whether or not we’re making steady progress?
The key to becoming a steady nonprofit leader
Don’t hate me but…this is where project management comes in.
I promise - I’m not going to tell you to download new software or hire a certified project manager.
When I say project management, I mean understanding your annual goals, breaking your goals down into quarterly tasks, and scheduling them month-by-month, week-by-week.
Okay, yeah. Now you officially hate me. The thing is, project management is only intimidating if you’re not doing it right. We get way too caught up in trying to plan the entire year, when trying to plan a whole month can be too much.
So what should you be doing instead?
In case you don’t know this about me: I believe in teaching EVERYTHING I know. So, after years of flying by the seat of my pants, I put together a method to make steady planning easier on executive directors.
Grab your free, customizable project planner. You don’t need any tech skills. You just need a Google account (or access to Excel or Mac Numbers).
Enter steady nonprofit project management:
List your quarterly goals into categories:
Marketing + communications
Donor stewardship
Accounting + finance
Foundations + grants
Corporate partnerships
Admin
Now bullet point the things you need to do every month for each of these tasks. (So for Accounting, it might be gather your profit and loss statement, reconcile your accounts, and updating your donor database.)
Then, pick which week in the coming month that you’ll complete those tasks. (If you’ve skipped ahead to downloading the project planner, look at January for inspiration).
Don’t add ANYTHING ELSE to your weekly to-do list until the week before, max. Seriously. Only plan additional subtasks one week at a time. Otherwise you’ll feel overwhelmed and something is bound to get lost in the shuffle.
What I love about using this system is you can confidently say “yes…no…or maybe later” to ideas that come across your desk. AND—you know that your bare minimum is getting hit. You’re not worried about being inconsistent or not doing enough because you planned the must-do’s a month in advance.
It’s time for steady movement in the right direction
Small, intentional action will bring you closer to your goals much sooner than scrambling and feeling like you’re never doing enough.
There may be dozens of reasons you don’t feel sure in your movement right now, but putting pen-to-paper is the first step.
