Tips for leadership sustainability

Our recommendations to social justice leaders and activists and their organizations are:

1. Put it in your to-do list to apply to Windcall or one of the programs on our referral list.

Tell a friend or co-worker about your plan and ask them to hold you accountable to it. Social justice leaders are notorious for putting themselves last. Treat making a renewal plan the same as you would any other important task.

2. Survey your organization’s thinking and practices

Most large organizations, and even small ones, could do a better job of promoting work practices to decrease the cycle of burnout and turnover. There are many better practices to create more reflection time on the job and improve working conditions.

In our experience, while resources are a real problem, the deeper problem is a culture within social justice movements (and the larger culture) that puts everything else ahead of sustaining the people doing the work. Please consider what the real dynamics are in your organization.

Remember…Firefighters put water in a thermos so they can fight the fire before turning the rest of their water on it. On a plane, the emergency instructions are to put the oxygen mask on yourself before trying to save someone else.

By paying attention to what people in our organizations need, we can help them be better leaders and stay in this work for the long haul.

3. Have a vision for how long you would like people to stay with your organization. And a plan to support it through:

• Encouraging people to apply for renewal programs and make individual renewal plans, including offering financial support
• Offering a significant sabbatical to anyone who has worked for 7-10 years
• Asking allies for access to a place in a natural setting that staff and leaders could use to renew themselves
• Increasing vacation and comp time and requiring people to take time off
• Creating a pool of time to offer staff who are facing a significant illness or family crisis. This prevents vacation time from being eaten up by the crisis, instead of being a restorative time
• Educating funders about the real costs of supporting your leadership sustainability plan

4. Even without going away, there are many things individuals can do to create more balance in their lives, the benefits of which come back to their organization, community and families.

 

Survey your friends about what sustains them. Look at Windcall co-founder Susan Wells’ list of tips on www.changingcourse.org.

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