Leaving Well: nonprofit leadership guidance for workplace exits and transitions

• 76: Ingrid Kirst on Interim Executive Director Engagements and Leaving Well

  Ingrid facilitates smooth leadership transitions for nonprofit organizations. Ingrid has built a consulting practice that focuses on strengthening nonprofit leadership, especially during transitions. Over the course of five interim executive director appointments, Ingrid has seen a variety of ways leaving well can be implemented.  She also offers executive search services and guides organizations to develop comprehensive succession plans that promote leaving well. Over the last twenty-five years, Ingrid has served in a wide variety of roles in nonprofit organizations. This includes eleven years as the executive director of a food system nonprofit, where she built the fledgling organization to be a community institution.   Main quote: There’s a lot of great work being done but people are burning out because they're doing too much. If we can get organizations to work together, they can cut down on some of that and really improve their efficiencies.   ‌Additional Quotes: Leaving well is really being intentional in how you go, and not burning bridges, not taking a lot of knowledge with you that other people don't have. But really intentionally transferring that knowledge, those relationships, so that that work can continue. To connect with Ingrid: Website Facebook Linkedin Learn more about the Interim Executive Academy   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley  

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• 75: Jennie Armstrong on Knowing When it’s Time to Leave Elected Office

  Jennie supports women who are ready to step into their legacy and maximize the impact they can have in the world. She has dedicated her life + career to building a more equitable world and supporting female founders and leaders at every stage of their journey.  🪩 At Wild Awake, she supports ambitious consultants who better the world through her signature program Consultant Catalyst, which centers on strengthening your systems and operations, elevating as a leader, and creating a magnetic brand + knockout website.  🪄 Delve is a mission-driven communications and creative agency that launches social good initiatives and works with nonprofits to make their work as impactful as possible.  🏛️ Outside of Wild Awake and Delve, Jennie is an elected state representative in Alaska, where she advocates for LGBTQ+ equality, paid family leave, mental health, and reducing violence against women, among other progressive issues. When not working, you can find her exploring Alaska with her family, cooking, reading a romance novel, or taking a course. She has lived, worked, and traveled across four continents + over 30 countries.   Main quote: I learned and grew so much from the experience of having people who don't know you make judgments about you, make threats against you, come to your home. And if anything, it helped me step into my highest self and feel more confident in who I am and operate even more closely to my North star. Because if every day I knew I was acting in that way, what people said about me meant so much less because I couldn't be shaken. I knew the place from which I was working. I knew the values that I hold.   ‌Additional Quotes: Honestly, I just got scared. And I'm sad to say that because I didn't want to be scared and I didn't want them to ‘win’. But I just couldn't do it. If I didn't have kids, I would have just kept going. But I had my family to think about. Ultimately I just felt that it was going to erode me and age me in a way that was going to make me less effective.   To me, success is going to be when a single mom can run for office and be in the legislature. That takes support. It takes planning. It takes thinking.   Sometimes we have this thing where we want to look back. I think we need to just accept where we're at and then focus on what we're doing next because when we're holding on to the thing that we chose or didn’t choose to leave, it's taking away from the things that you can be doing and building right now. To connect with Jennie: LinkedIn Wild Awake Creative Delve for Good ~ Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley  

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• 74: Melanie Jones on the Importance of Having a Chief of Staff

  Melanie is a 3x former Chief of Staff passionate about the profession, spreading awareness on how impactful it is, and helping others get into this career path. She’s also a mom who loves watching her son grow (a 6’4 high school freshman - lots of growing going on). Her favorite way to spend an afternoon is reading a good book, when she has the time to do so.    Main quote: We're not just problem solvers, we're problem seekers. So we say ‘what are the roadblocks coming up?’ What are the risks that we might be running into? What are the gaps that we need to fill, what bridges are we going to cross in the future?’ So the Chief of Staff seeks that out and then puts together a strategic plan for it. We’re a blend of the strategic and the execution.   ‌Additional Quotes: Chiefs of staff come in and create processes, they improve procedures, create and implement policies, and then hand the work off to other people.   Having a strong Chief of Staff who can be the home base, helping with decision making, making sure all the projects are running on track and getting you out of the weeds means then you can use your bandwidth to really shine.   To register for the free Chief of Staff masterclass To check out the Chief of Staff training (with a special discount for podcast listeners!!): use code NAOMI for 24% off!   To connect with Melanie: Website LinkedIn Instagram The Case for a Chief of Staff - Harvard Business Review   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley  

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• 73: Lisa Marshall on Workplace Management and Leaving Well

  Lisa Marshall is founder and principal of Good Work Consulting, where she helps for-purpose professionals get to the strategic part of their to-do list.  She knows how it feels to be stuck fielding an endless list of to-dos that are urgent and important, but don’t necessarily build capacity. And what it’s like to daydream about the projects that would make things better (if there were only time to get to them). She specializes in project management, implementation support, and data visualization and reporting. The work that energizes her the most is connecting people and tools, so that (work) life becomes just a little more manageable. She lives in Dallas, TX with her husband and two dogs, Eleanor and Franklin.     Main quote: “If you can create an inflow of all of the tasks and all of the information that comes to you into the work management system that you're using, you will get so much more done. There will not be balls dropped. You’ll be able to do more than you thought you could, and you'll be less stressed while you're doing it.”   ‌Additional Quotes: “There’s dashboards that nonprofits need and they fall into three buckets: executive, analytical, and public facing.”   “For me, leaving well is about having a mindset or looking at things through the lens of what's the best that could happen? And that's for the person who's leaving. It's for the people who are staying. It's for the things that are yet to come. But what's the best that could happen?” To connect with Lisa: LinkedIn Good Work Resources Good Work Services   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

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• 72: Minda Harts on Trust in the Workplace and Workplace Transitions

  Minda Harts is a celebrated author and influential speaker, best known for her bestsellers "The Memo," "Right Within," and the YA book "You Are More Than Magic." She is a respected voice in advancing women of color, self-advocacy, and restoring trust at work. Minda frequently speaks at major conferences and companies, including Nike, Google, Disney, Best Buy, Dreamforce, and the Aspen Ideas Festival. As an NYU assistant professor, Minda shapes future leaders and empowers professionals. Honored by LinkedIn as the #1 Top Voice for Equity in the Workplace in 2020 and by Business Insider as one of the top 100 People Transforming Business in 2022. Minda is currently working on a new book with Flatiron Books, focusing on the crucial topic of restoring trust in the workplace. Main quote: “Each and every one of us, our voices are our legacy. And the moment that we allow people to shut our voices down, even ourselves, then that's impeding upon our legacy.”   ‌Additional Quotes: “When it comes to trust in the workplace, we don't necessarily put a high value stake on it. In our romantic and platonic relationships, trust is everything. So why wouldn't we want that same character trait inside the workplace with our colleagues, with our managers, with our leadership. Because you can't have equity in the workplace without trust.”   “You belong in every room, but not every room deserves to have you.”   “Leaving well is freedom. Definition wise it’s one no longer feeling confined and I want us all to be free. I want us all to be able to experience our lives inside and outside the workplace, the way that we were created to experience them, which I feel is joy, peace and equity.”   To purchase Minda’s books: Talk To Me Nice: Amazon | Bookshop The Memo: Amazon | Bookshop Right Within: Amazon | Bookshop You Are More Than Magic: Amazon | Bookshop   To connect with Minda: Website Instagram LinkedIn   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well  

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