There is a central career question that we all must grapple with: “What do you care more about — doing something or being someone?” – a mentor We should all have life goals – personal and professional goals that we aim to achieve over the course of some period of time. The most important reason…
Category: Leadership
The Unique Giving Proposition
Our friends in the marketing world long ago came up with the notion of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Simply put, the USP is the impelling reason why a customer would choose one product over another. It is that “thing” that gives a company’s product or service a distinct advantage over the competition. It may be…
Begin With The Journey In Mind
You’ve heard the saying, “Begin with the end in mind.” (Habit 2 of Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”). With all respect to Covey. . . I think this isn’t completely right. Here’s why: What is it that we plan that ever ends? I mean really ends? Stopped. Completed. No more. Finished. Finito. A successful…
Why You Need A Case Statement
You need a case statement. Most development folk know this. They know they need a case statement which has been “tested” and is characterized by what I term the 3 C’s: clarity, concision, and compulsion. They know they need a case statement because: Every organization has a glossy, oversized, impressive case statement, and; Donors will…
The Good Patterns
This weekend I received a great little book – The War of Art – given to me by friend, Dave Jobe, CEO of Karmadillo. Dave works with professional service businesses – law firms, architecture firms, consultants, etc. – to help them grow their business through permission-based marketing and thought leadership strategies. Good stuff. The War…
The Preacher and the Sinner
If you’ve been to Santa Monica, California you are familiar with the Santa Monica Pier and the 3rd Street Promenade. Both are fun, bustling, outdoor gathering places which mimic ongoing carnivals, complete with barkers, street performers, and vendors of all sorts. Yesterday, on the 3rd Street Promenade I ran into one such carnival barker who…
Flattery Will Get You Further Than You Thought
We know that the sound of our own name falls easily on our ears. We also know that receiving a sincere compliment brings a quick smile to our face. Apparently, all of us are physiologically hard-wired to enjoy both of these occurrences. Of course, in our work with donors, we understand the power of being…
The Imagination Factor
I came across a list of Famously Wrong Predictions the other day. Read and smile: “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” –Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea…
Investors Invest In People
“When I buy businesses, it’s the same as investing in philanthropy. I’m looking for somebody who will get the job done and is in synch with my goals. You can have the greatest goals in the world, but if you have the wrong people running it, it isn’t going to work. On the other hand,…
Your Goal: Achieve 65% of the Impossible
Google is taking over. With an incredibly array of products – from Gmail, Google Earth, and cloud-computing Google Docs to the Google phone, Nexus One, to the new social networking offering Google Buzz, the number of ways in which Google now intersects with and impacts our lives is staggering. And to think that just a…