Tip #1068: You Can’t Do It All and Have a Life
Nonprofit managers and executive directors! You can’t do it all and have a life! Are you missing dinner with your family? Do you have trouble
March 10, 2025
Equipping Nonprofit Leaders to Build Stronger Teams and Drive Lasting Impact
We provide management training for mid-sized nonprofits, teaching essential skills like delegation, motivation, and team building to improve employee retention and create a thriving workplace culture.
We have supported nonprofit organizations for the past 38 years. This includes working with nonprofit boards of directors to facilitate communication both internally and with the executive director. This also includes working with nonprofit executive directors to improve their leadership skills as well as the morale and performance of employees and volunteers
In addition to facilitating management training and board development services, Laurel and Associates, Ltd. offers employee development training to maximize employee effectiveness and minimize their stress. Our other services include curriculum design, train-the-trainer programs, and training audits.
Laurel and Associates, Ltd.’s Management and Team Development programs strengthen your leadership skills in areas like communication, delegation, motivation, and team building. We provide training that equips your managers to lead more effectively, fostering a productive and engaged workforce.
Laurel and Associates, Ltd.’s Management and Team Development programs are being converted into online training programs. We provide training that equips your managers to lead more effectively, by fostering a productive and engaged workforce.
You know how nonprofit executives often have high burnout levels because of heavy workloads and high expectations without support?
What we do is provide comprehensive leadership training and board development so that the executive director is able to set realistic goals, delegate tasks, ensure high staff morale, and collaborate with the board of directors to manage expectations.
At Laurel and Associates, Ltd., we believe that effective training creates lasting change. We help organizations across industries improve employee performance and leadership capacity by designing training programs that are practical, engaging, and grounded in research-based methods.
Our approach centers on adult learning principles, ensuring that every workshop or course we design for you is relevant, interactive, and immediately applicable. From novice trainers to seasoned executives, our solutions are crafted to meet your unique needs of your workforce.
Introduction: A state agency sought to develop a more cohesive management team.
Challenge: Preliminary survey results and individual interviews indicated that there was a low level of trust and a lack of open communication both within the team and outside it.
Strategies: Facilitate a full day in-person retreat with highly interactive skill-building learning activities that enabled the team members to get to know each other better, develop team operating principles, and collaborate in a problem-solving activities.
Results: Participant evaluations indicated a positive response to the retreat. A survey conducted two months after the retreat indicated that the levels of trust and open communication had increased dramatically.
Impact: The team members felt that the management team now fostered a culture of collaboration and cooperation.
Introduction: An international nonprofit organization needed to help its managers become more comfortable with coaching poor performers.
Challenge: The managers tended to avoid handling issues of poor performance.
Strategies: Facilitate a full-day in-person workshop with highly interactive skill-building learning activities that enabled the managers to learn how to give coaching feedback to poor performers and then practice their new skills to build a level of confidence.
Results: Participant evaluations indicated a positive response to the workshop. The effectiveness of the program convinced the nonprofit to provide the same skill-building training program to additional managers from around the world. They, also, learned how to give coaching feedback and then practiced their new skills.
Impact: Both groups of managers became more comfortable with coaching poor performers.
Performance Management: A Six Step Model.
Performance Management Skills Week 1: Performance management should involve ongoing coaching dialogue throughout the year. This week will introduce a six step model of a user-friendly performance evaluation system. If you are a manager who would like an alternative to the stressful annual evaluation process that makes both you and your employee uncomfortable, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on March 18th at 10 am CST.
Performance Management:
Create a Job Description. Performance Management Skills Week 2: The first two steps in the six step user-friendly model focus on creating the position description. This includes identifying the employee’s key responsibilities and clarifying the worker activities. If you are a manager who would like to ensure that your employees understand what they are expected to do and how they are expected to do it, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on March 25th at 10 am CST.
Performance Management: Establish Performance Standards. Performance Management Skills Week 3: The third step in the user-friendly model involves creating qualitative and quantitative performance standards that define acceptable performance for significant worker activities. They must be specific, observable, measurable, realistic, documentable, and job-related. If you are a manager who would like to ensure that your employees perform their jobs at an acceptable level, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on April 1st at 10 am CST.
Performance Management: Monitor and Provide Feedback.
Performance Management Skills Week 4: The fourth and fifth steps in the user-friendly model recognize that, now that there are performance standards, they need to be monitored and then meaningful and timely feedback needs to be provided. You have to identify the means and frequency of measurement- and then follow through and give feedback so your employees stay on track. If you are a manager who is unsure how and when to monitor employee performance, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on April 8th at 10 am CST.
Performance Management: Take Supportive or Remedial Action.
Performance Management Skills Week 5: The sixth step in the user-friendly model recognizes that after you monitor employee performance against the established standards, you need to take action. You may retain or revise the standards, provide rewards for satisfactory or better performance, or remedy unsatisfactory or below standard performance. If you are a manager who would appreciate a decision tree that will help you determine how to handle unsatisfactory performance, join us on our LinkedIn Live series titled What Managers Need to Know on April 15th at 10 am CST.
Nonprofit managers and executive directors! You can’t do it all and have a life! Are you missing dinner with your family? Do you have trouble
This Tip looks at six key steps managers can take to guide staff through stressful times so they gain a sense of control. Staff can
If you’re in a toxic workplace, you need to take constructive actions to keep yourself safe from harm physically, emotionally, psychologically, and professionally. What to
This Tip provides a checklist of the actions that effective managers take to set their employees up for success. There is a lot written about
Thank you Deb for all the great learning!!!
We answer all email and requests as they come in.
Unlocking Potential Through
Tailored Training Solutions
Get New Blog Posts in Your Inbox Weekly.
Wisconsin Woman-Owned Business Enterprise
