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Do you have a nagging concern about your team’s effectiveness?

Maybe meetings feel flat, with little engagement or shared purpose. Maybe your team generates plenty of ideas, but struggles to decide what to do next. Or perhaps new initiatives get launched, only to lose momentum because no one can sustain them.

Something just isn’t clicking… and you can’t quite figure out why.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

And here’s the surprising truth: Most team challenges aren’t caused by a lack of talent, commitment, or effort. They’re caused by misalignment.

In many teams, people are consistently asked to do work that drains them instead of work that energizes them. Over time, that leads to disengagement, frustration, and underperformance, even among highly capable individuals.

That’s exactly the problem Patrick Lencioni and The Table Group set out to solve with the Six Types of Working Genius.

I’ve been having conversations lately with several nonprofit leaders I trust. CEOs, Executive Directors, Development Directors who care deeply about their missions and take their responsibility seriously.

And even though their organizations look different, I keep hearing familiar observations and challenges.

Fundraising is moving. Fundraising is changing. And the question underneath it all is: How does our team change with it?

Congratulations!You have wrapped up annual giving for 2025. Whether you missed, met or exceeded your goal, it’s time to reset the clock and dive into 2026!Or is it?

Not so fast!

Over the last 12 months you invited hundreds of individuals, businesses and foundations into your amazing story of community need and critical impact.Through letters, posts, displays and conversation you educated everyone who would listen about your organization’s ability to solve problems and invited them to support your great work.

Well done. . .but you’re not done yet.

Recently passed tax legislation will bring significant changes to charitable giving starting in 2026, creating both opportunities and challenges for donors across all income levels. Understanding these changes now could help you thoughtfully guide your donors through this altered landscape as they plan their year-end giving.

The ocean has a funny way of teaching you humility. Several years ago, I decided to tackle a new challenge: surfing. My first foray into the Pacific was less than graceful. Armed with a rented board and a healthy dose of overconfidence, I paddled out with the singular goal of getting beyond those crashing, churning waves.

And fight, I did.

Ever wish you could just hit “reset” on a hectic day? Or on a season of your work that feels heavy, cluttered, and out of focus?

Here’s the truth: your team feels that, too. And sometimes, the best leadership move you can make is to pause, step back, and help everyone realign around what truly matters.

While every day offers the option for a reset, it seems that most of us use a specific point in time, anniversary, or significant life event to pause, reflect and begin again. Psychologists say that resetting involves re-centering or a fresh start, often aiming to clear mental clutter and negative patterns.

We have all at some point found ourselves heading down the wrong path faced with the choice to push forward or retrace our steps and start out again. If we are not careful, we can view this needed U-turn as time wasted, resources squandered or even failure. If you are the leader and your team has been following close on your heels, this change in direction can feel embarrassing and humbling. You might worry that others will questions your ability to lead.

A quick Google search on “How many messages are adults receiving daily?” and “How much information are we exposed to each day?” produced varied results, but suffice it to say – it’s a lot. Between the media (printed and digital) we are actively consuming and the not-so-subtle ads and messages that creep in, it can feel like information overload.

Apply this to the work of nonprofits and it’s more important than ever to be able to clearly – and quickly – articulate your case for support.

Aspects of our work often lend themselves to sports-driven analogies and for good reason. Fundraising, like sports, is strategic, competitive, and driven by shared purpose and heart.

With the uncertainty nonprofits face today, leaning into an axiom coined by my son’s basketball coach provides us a valuable and effective approach to navigate our shifting landscape: Control the Controllables or C.T.C. Let go of what you can’t change and take control of the things you can = C.T.C.

Nonprofit leaders are known for wearing many hats—budget balancer, community builder, last-minute-slide-deck-finisher, professional schlepper—but the hat we too often leave on the shelf is the one labeled “curiosity captain”. Whether it's embracing AI, reimagining donor stewardship, or treating events as more than just logistical nightmares lifts with a side of lukewarm veggie trays and sweaty cheese cubes, we sometimes meet new ideas with hesitation or quiet resistance.

It’s time for a reset—not of our strategy, but of our attitude. Because—gulp—we might just be the problem. And that’s uncomfortable… but also incredibly fixable. What if we chose curiosity over fear, and open-minded exploration over the comfort of our preconceived notions? These shifts aren’t detours from our mission—they’re invitations to deepen and expand it. And spoiler: we don’t need to have all the answers to get started. We just need to be willing to ask better questions and create space for curiosity.