• Kate M's Project Statement
• Kate M's Roles Overview
• Kate M's MOCHA Model
• Kate M's Residential Ops Lead Job Description
• Kate M's Project Summary
• Kate M's Kick-Off Agenda
• Project Kick-Off Meeting Agenda Template
• Kate M's Team's List of Questions
• Kate M's Project Assignment Sheet
• Project Assignment Sheets Template
• Kate M's Project Time line
• Project Work Stream Map Template
• Kate M's Master Project Plan
• Kate M's Project Meeting Agenda
• Kate M's Debrief Meeting Materials
Chapter 13 : Become a Dynamic Duo: Maximize Your Assistant
• Collegiate Academies' Assistant Job Description
• Assistant Prioritization Activity
• Mila S's Response for Prioritization Activity
• Mila S's Onboarding Plan
• Sample Calendar Entry
• Maggie K's Calendar Scrub Checklist
• Maia's Weekly Summary
• Maia's Pending Meetings Tracker
• Pending Meetings Tracker Template
• Sarah H's Daily E-mail
• Erica P's Daily Check-In Tracker
• Mark & Michelle's Check-In Agenda
• Mila S's Weekly Priorities E-mail
• Sample Assistant Priority Plan
• Mila & Maia's Stepback Agenda
• Kate & Elissa's Briefings Folder
See It In Action: The Management Memo
• Harris F's Management Memo
• Management Memo Template
Chapter 14 : Keep Track of Stuff, Space, and Knowledge
• Sharon J's Office Photos
• Sarah S's Desk Photos
• Emily F's Folders
• Mary Clare R's File Names
• Achievement First's Working Agreements PowerPoint
• TNTP's Wiki Samples
Chapter 15 : Create a Culture of Togetherness
• TNTP's Strategic Prioritization Definition
• Relay Graduate School of Education Rubric
• Joe R's Onboarding Deck
• Ron G's Tuba Time Sign
Chapter 16 : Conclusion: Keep It All Together
• Weekly Family Meeting Agenda
Section 1
Set the Stage
Chapter 1
Leading in a Mission-Driven Context
It was June 17, 2003, 12:30 pm. I had no choice. I pulled my car over on a residential Houston street, threw down the driver's seat, and curled up for a catnap. In approximately sixty minutes, I'd be training fifty veteran educators on how to support rookie teachers over the summer. But right then, I needed to sleep. My backseat was packed to the brim with training materials and supplies hastily thrown into boxes. The address and directions for the training were scrawled on the back of an envelope. Oh, and did I mention I had another session scheduled for the very next day that I had not yet planned?
Now how did I get in this precarious predicament, you may ask? A dreadful combination of a new job, unclear roles and responsibilities, not enough sleep, poor delegation, and lack of preparation. I was an un-Together Leader, and I had hit a breaking point. And the stakes were high. We were preparing teachers to go in front of students. So on this day almost fifteen years ago, I made a vow to never, ever get myself into that kind of situation again.
Perhaps you empathize? You, too, may be trying to juggle the high volume of work and responsibility thrown at you every day. Maybe you have all your to-dos reasonably under control but wish you could be more planned ahead. Or maybe you're just exhausted and looking for a better way?
This book can work for you if you are a new manager. It can work for you if you've shifted careers from the corporate world into the nonprofit sector and you're thoroughly confused about the culture. Or maybe you've made the move from teaching to school or district leadership, or you've quickly realized your MBA was practical but didn't teach you how to prioritize in a world of limited resources. Or maybe you have been in your role for a few years and you realize that lack of Togetherness is holding you back from achieving your goals or securing a promotion. Perhaps you are trying to get your own mission-driven work off the ground. You may have unlimited vision and passion but require finer execution skills to make your dream a reality. Regardless of who you are, let this book be your guide in managing your time, energy, people's work, meetings, projects, and stuff. If we leaders are not Together, we will not get the ambitious results we want for our organizations. But if we are Together (along with a few other things), big and meaningful change can happen.
Some of you may have read my first book, The Together Teacher, a guide for teachers and other folks who work on a fixed schedule in on-your-feet environments without much discretionary time. But now you're a leader, and you have a different challenge: choice. You get to choose how you use your time. It's wonderful and daunting all at once.
What Do You Mean by Mission-Driven Work?
There are many, many books, blogs, apps, hacks, and more designed to boost your productivity and hone your time-management skills. This book is unique because it's designed for leaders in mission-driven settings who do their own work and manage the work of others. By mission driven, I simply mean anyone whose work ultimately serves the greater good. It doesn't have to be limited to nonprofit work, either. A mission-driven leader could be the person who oversees a community theater group, a Sunday school director, a chief financial officer of a housing organization, or a school principal.
So why is mission-driven work so different? In my work coaching leaders, I've seen mission-driven leaders face these specific challenges:
• The problems we are trying to eliminate (homelessness, poverty, and environmental concerns, just to name a few) or create solutions and innovations for are enormous, urgent, and critical.
• Our work is never ending. Resources are limited. We are often both managers and makers.
• Our goals can and should be ambitious. The volume of our work is intense.
• The emotional toll of our work cannot be understated. In any given week, leaders face tough conversations about apartment evictions, breaking up fights between students, or big layoffs.
It is no wonder that many mission-driven leaders are overwhelmed and ineffective and eventually burn out.
What Do You Mean by Togetherness, Anyway?
What does a Together Leader look like anyway? What is my definition of Togetherness? I'm deliberately not using the term organized because, well, just being organized