“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six of them sharpening my axe.”― Abraham Lincoln

Did you know that the great Lebron James spends $1.5M per year on maintaining his body and mind for peak performance?

Lebron considers these costs as an investment in himself so that he can continue to play at top levels and generate the millions of dollars that he earns every year.

I find this example so instructive because in the nonprofit sector, we don’t think about investing in ourselves to maximize our performance.  

Instead, we fall back on “work harder.”

If we don’t have enough donors in our pipeline…work harder to feverishly dial for dollars.

If one of our staff quits in the middle of a busy period…work harder to cover your job and theirs.

If our board isn’t responding the way that we want…work harder to do the work for your board.

I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with hard work.  It’s when the hard work is a substitute for planning and/or there is a smarter way to do it that it becomes a problem.

Eventually, if you push yourself to work harder without filling the tank, you’ll break down.

Like Lebron, executives should not hesitate to make strategic investments in themselves and their performance in order to “work smarter, not harder.”

But what does that really mean?

It means investing in your skills and performance to achieve your desired outcome more efficiently.

It means getting out of reactive mode and playing chess instead of Whack-a-Mole.

It means modeling behavior for your staff and board that is based on an abundance, not scarcity, mindset.

It means making a commitment to yourself to be the best leader you can be without burning yourself out.

It means stopping telling yourself the story that the only way to be successful in this work is to bleed.

It means stop being a martyr and start having fun at work. (BTW, there’s no gold medal for suffering the most).

PS: If this sounds like you, I invite you to learn more about my Fundraising Accelerator, guaranteed to help you stop freaking out about fundraising and start getting clear, calm and effective.  

PPS: I want to thank everyone who sent such kind words in response to my last blog post.  I appreciate your love and support so much.