Author Archives: dnrevel

One Overlooked Element that Can Stop or Supercharge Any Project, DPPE

Leaders know that good data is essential to good decisions. But what data? Finding the right data, at the right time, from the right sources is critical. Data is the first of four elements from a simple acronym DPPE that stands for Data, Purpose, Plan, Evaluate. DPPE is an easy way to describe and categorize project phases asContinue reading “One Overlooked Element that Can Stop or Supercharge Any Project, DPPE”

Seven Ways New NonProfit Leaders Succeed the First Year on the Job

Leadership skill is built upon skilled listening, including listening to yourself for health and wellness.  Busy leaders know intellectually that taking care of yourself is how you are best able to take care of others.  The challenge, in this part three of our series, continues to be putting this principle into disciplined, regular practice.  Leadership coaching, as my clients have told me, hasContinue reading “Seven Ways New NonProfit Leaders Succeed the First Year on the Job”

Nonprofit Leader Partnerships: How to Achieve the Right Balance

Like a well-played symphony, when nonprofit leaders partner well with their board, staff and volunteers, magic happens.  Though a board of directors or council holds ultimate legal and fiduciary responsibility, true success requires a solid partnership between the chief executive officer (or staff officer) (CEO / CSO) and chief elected officer, a board chair or council president.

Courage for New Leaders To Listen and Learn in the New Year

It takes courage to listen. Whether it’s a first or fifth transition to a new leader role, these non-profit leadership lessons learned are timeless. Pause, reflect, choose (from horse-guided leadership & learning.) In your first months, resist the urgent and not important tasks and follow these practical steps to ensure your success.

Leaders Know Talent Wins: 4 Strategies to Ramp Up Retention

Successful organizations focus on people as well as profits, often built with talented staff that take action as co-owners of the business. Twenty-first century talent retention practices can build greater success in your organization. Here’s are 4 ways leaders can help this happen: 1) Check your “hire smart” bench strength & compensationNothing breeds success like talented staff and the abilityContinue reading “Leaders Know Talent Wins: 4 Strategies to Ramp Up Retention”

4 Leadership Lessons from Horse-Guided Coaching

What can a 1200 pound horse teach you about leadership? In 2010, I found out as Cherokee walked up and chose me in an experience that has forever changed the way I relate to both people and animals in my professional and personal work as a coach and consultant. The photos below reflect my earlyContinue reading “4 Leadership Lessons from Horse-Guided Coaching”

6 Steps Beyond Industrial Age Performance Appraisals

Let it go, let it go, let it go! Let go of performance appraisal practices and industrial age thinking. In our post 9-11, now Covid-era, no-such-thing as “New Normal” world, business models continue to evolve dramatically and surprise us. Yes, the old relic of performance appraisal from twentieth century business practices persists. For example, aContinue reading “6 Steps Beyond Industrial Age Performance Appraisals”

Think like an Entrepreneur: Be AntiFragile No Matter Where You Work

So many things can change quickly in the 21st century work world that it helps us to polish our natural abilities toward adaptive change. How can you FRAME an approach to entrepreneurial change that helps you adapt to a business climate that is always changing?

Curing ONE of the Seven Deadly Diseases of Management, Performance Appraisals

Entrenched habits tend to persist, mostly invisible, until poets, reformers and provocateurs start writing, talking and asking questions. They challenge us to reexamine long-standing practices that no longer fit our current world and what’s on the horizon.