Unfortunately the previous month’s “May-hem” trickled into June. Beginning with the morning I forgot my laptop at home (because I was trying to multitask on the way out the door) to the morning I mistakenly voice-messaged a childhood friend "work updates" because she happens to share the same first name as a colleague. ?? (No, really, I did that and ONLY REALIZED my mistake when my colleague told me she didn’t know what I was talking about after I SWORE up and down I had “Vox’ed” her about it). In hindsight, I feel fortunate for these (and many other) honest but silly mistakes because they helped me see early on in June that I needed to sloooowwww waaay down.
Sometimes “full speed ahead” simply needs to become “slow and steady” to win the game.
With this insight now glaringly front and center, I begrudgingly turned my expectations down a notch and bared the discomfort of imperfection. Month 6 was all about letting go a bit, giving myself true permission to be okay with imperfection, and continuing to simply place one foot in front of the other. I can’t possibly know everything, so sometimes, only knowing the next step has to be enough. With that in mind, here we go with June's review...
?? As always, I welcome your thoughtful perspective and insight as I take this new journey leading the National Museum of the Great Lakes. Do any of my goals, successes, challenges, lessons learned, and next steps resonate with you? Let me know!
Month #6 (June) Goals:
- Financial knowledge-building and planning.
- Addressing staff displacement while creating a more-cohesive team during a chaotic time.
- Furthering our Second Wave Expansion's public fundraising campaign.
- Finding time for me!
Successes:
- Internal Communication: There is no way to fully solve the physical disconnect of our team during the
National Museum of the Great Lakes
' Second Wave Expansion construction
, BUT a small step forward is a win in my book. (As they say, Rome wasn’t created in a day.) Making sure there is transparency and trust in our team members during this time of displacement (which also happens to be our busiest visitation season), is vitally important. To begin addressing this, we’ve begun an internal update email we plan to send regularly providing team-member kudos, highlighting important internal process and/or changes, and sharing knowledge to better keep staff “in-the-know.” To help prioritize this communication I’ve (a.) dedicated weekly time on my calendar, (b.) set up a communication template using a Goggle Doc email template (a new, GAME-CHANGING collaborative tool I just discovered!), and (c.) have a team-member who is equally committed to the update (holding me accountable to the process). I am also working to schedule more in-person continuing education opportunities over the next few months (something we have never before prioritized over our museum’s crazy summer season).
- Strategic Planning: It’s incredibly important to me to be as transparent and collaborative as possible around our museum’s current strategic planning progress—especially among our board, staff and key stakeholders. This month I wrote an Executive Summary recapping the strategic planning process to date and giving additional insight into our strategic plan’s next steps. I shared this summary for feedback first with our board’s executive committee, then with the full board, and shortly afterwords with our staff. (Want to see it? Message me and I’ll gladly send it to you!) It was very rewarding to reflect on how far we have come in furthering this process including having completed the drafting of an (a.) updated mission, (b.) new vision and value statements, (c.) strategic priorities, and (d.) an aggressive but feasible strategic planning timeline. Equally rewarding was knowing we are THAT MUCH CLOSER to ensuring we have establish a foundation and pathway forward to help guide our future growth!
- Financial knowledge and processes: So much growth in this department, yet so far to go… (As such, you will see this one listed both in successes AND challenges!) We conducted our annual audit. I also got some great internal and external feedback and insights to support next steps in budgeting for the years to come. Additionally, we established some really great, knowledge-building processes and reoccurring conversations fully supported and used by all key individuals involved in our financial processes. Everything we’ve done to date is both an incredible relief and undeniable step forward.
Challenges:
- Financial knowledge and processes: For as much advancement as we’ve made, there still seems like so much left to do… and often it just feels SO overwhelming. A big kudos to our past and present board members and our former Executive Director who ALL managed unprecedented organizational growth amongst equally unprecedented challenges (such as a life-changing pandemic and long-awaited, ongoing investments in the East Toledo community where our museum is located). There is just SO MUCH to catch up with specifically related to financial processes and the underlying issue is quick growth over a short period of time—which leads me to my next challenge…
- Growth. Physical growth, organizational growth, and visitor growth—all taking place at the Exact. Same. Time. I love it! But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s a lot to navigate. And, all these growing segments inadvertently impact each other. Increased visitation and increased physical space means the need for an increased (and different) staffing structure. Increased staffing (from about 2.5 to about 25 staff in just one decade) means an increased need for processes to support the organization’s structure—human resource processes, financial processes, programming processes, etc., etc., etc. It’s a challenge—but I (and our team) definitely feel up to the task.
- Second Wave Capital Campaign: To say fundraising at the tail end of our expansion’s capital campaign is both frustrating and challenging would be an understatement. We ARE making forward strides—it simply feels like we are moving at a snails-pace. In January of 2020, when we decided to move forward on our museum’s expansion, the project was estimated to cost approximately $3.2M. Our plans (and our momentum) were put on pause almost as quickly as we started due to the pandemic. During the pandemic our visitation growth continued—a good problem to have, but one that needs to be kept up with and in check. And soon it became obvious that the physical growth of our museum was not just “icing on our already state-of-the-art museum’s cake”, but a necessity. Yet, post-pandemic construction costs and costs in general also have grown. Our $3.2M project is now $5.5 - 6M. I am PROUD to say we’ve raised over a million and a half more than we initially projected needing (we’re at approximately $4.9M as I post this)—but the hurdles we’ve come across (from corporate to individual contributions that have fallen through often due to pandemic-related changes or other mitigating factors) have been challenging to say the least. The bottom line: I’m getting weary and tired. I wish I had a magic wand to usher in the remaining $600-1,100,000 necessary to fully complete the project's funding.?
What I Learned:
- Finding time for me takes creativity: The pandemic opened my eyes to the value of my health both as a professional and personal necessity. From prioritizing a good night's rest, to understanding the strength in being physically and mentally fit—it is my personal position that physical and mental health should be categorized as “needs” not “wants”. I’ve become pretty good at ensuring a good night's rest, but finding time to build my physical and mental wellbeing has been more difficult since beginning my new role. I have started looking for ways to incorporate these aspects into my day-to-day vs. setting aside a specific time. For instance, a few years ago I decided to intentionally add more culture and friends to my life, by co-organizing a docent-led Toledo Museum of Art gallery group that meets six times a year on Friday afternoons. This group was life-changing for me because it reminded me how much I love art and connected me to friends during a time of day that (a.) wouldn't be interrupted by one of my kids' sporting events and which (b.) minimally interfered with my work day. I knew I was onto something when 3 years and 15+ guided tours later it was still a life priority! So, I’ve decided to take that solution and see how else I can create win-win opportunities to support my health and wellbeing. Enter Yoga by the Boat
! I wanted to return to my pre-pandemic yoga practice, but I refused to give up my early morning walks with my husband (that took its place over the pandemic). So, I attempted to bring yoga to me by giving the green light for the museum to host “Yoga by the Boat” a few Saturday mornings this summer. Thus far I have started off two weekends (and still counting) with Yoga in downtown Toledo at the museum. (As a bonus, my daughter also joined me both times!) Similarly, I love tending flowers and gardening. It’s calming, mindless, and such a beautiful way to spend time outdoors. Each week on Wednesdays we are fortunate to have Master Gardener volunteers come to the National Museum of the Great Lakes from 4-6 pm to help tend to our museum grounds. I may not be a master gardener (maybe some day!), but I have committed to bringing my gardening clothes and tools as many Wednesday afternoons as possible to take some “steam off” by playing in dirt on our museum grounds. I realize this is by far a perfect solution to "me time". Yet, I am determined to minimally continue to look at creative, win-win solutions during this sometimes grueling and busy phase of my life to ensure pockets of my time are dedicated to my mental and physical wellbeing.
- The loneliness of leadership. I’ll try not to spend too much time on this (because it’s not all encompassing nor prevalent but it is worth noting). I have known for sometime through the experiences of my husband (who was a school teacher turned school administrator turned school superintendent) that relationships change when you become the one at the top. I’m at peace (most days ) with this—but that doesn’t make it easier. I have a great team. A team that knows me, understands me, and supports me… but I also know it’s different now. And sometimes, well, leadership can be lonely. P.S. To my team (who I know reads this from time-to-time), don’t dig into this lesson too much. It’s not you, it’s me. ?? I promise!
UP NEXT:
- Beginning 2025 Budget Conversations and Strategic Planning Financial Modeling
- Navigating the “missing month of July” (vacations—my own, my teams, our key stakeholders and more)
In Conclusion:
Gaining knowledge, knowing when to slow down or speed up my pace a bit, dealing with frustrations and setbacks, and staying healthy and happy—continue to consume my day-to-day. Over the past 5 years I'm grateful to have rediscovered my love of reading. A passion that once consumed me as a child, I've now rekindle by listening to audiobooks and podcasts during my daily commutes. Diversifying and growing knowledge in this way provides me with inspiration—especially during those days when "I simply can’t focus on more than just the next logical step forward." Finding inspiration feeds my soul and drives my excitement for the work I do. This past month I was given the opportunity to attend a Women's Summit featuring
Reshma Saujani
. During her inspirational talk she spoke of courage and feeling comfortable with imperfection—of being "Brave, Not Perfect". Those words truly resonated with me and remind me about the power of bravery and the burden of perfectionism—both characteristics I aim for and struggle with.
Did you miss any of my past reflections? Catch-up with my journey and follow along!
Executive Director at Leadership Toledo
3 个月I always enjoy your insights, Kate!