(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Tuti Scott, our leadership expert.)

In a room full of women leaders I remind them that power is not a bad word – only the abuse of power is.

Power is simply the ability to motivate people to do what you want them to do; to influence others. Power is manifested by how you communicate and how others receive you.

Often power is a subjective experience. There are three factors which influence the perception of power:

• Power of position – hold title and/or authority/access
• Power of wealth – have or are connected to wealth
• Power of knowledge or expertise – master of facts and arguments

Power of wealth and power of title or the ‘corner office’ are places that women and people of color have not traditionally had access to. Centuries of structural and systemic sexism or racism have kept us out of these spheres.

There are hundreds of folks who have spoken and written on the ‘light’ topic of “The history of patriarchy and the creation of race as a construct for domination.” Feel free to read bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, Barbara Jordan’s speeches, and others.

Without equal access to positions of power or power stemming from wealth (which women and people of color generally do not have) what is the best access to power in this framework? For many of us it is the third frame or knowledge, data, and expertise.

Having knowledge and data gives you the power to think, to rationalize, and to make the best choice so that you and your organization can be successful. You are more likely to get a CEO or leader to commit to a project if you make your case using established facts, data, and by explaining how the choice will impact society, the staff, and the constituents the organization serves.

We can all work toward the three ‘stations’ of power being broadened with smart community organizing, increased social capital, and the changing of who sits in the corner office. In the meantime, and on this auspicious day of celebration of International Women’s Day,  let’s also keep framing a powerful story and case that offers what we stand for rather than what we are against.

P. S.  For those of you who have a spiritual or physical understanding of the connection of sport and how this can help shape one’s approach toward power, feel free to check out an organization I serve on the U.S. Board of and their brilliant launch of International Sports for Women’s Rights Day.

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.”

- from the 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address by Barbara Jordan

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

I finally found it – my new apartment in San Francisco. In a little bit more than a month, I saw 40 apartments!

When it came down to the final two, I was stuck trying to decide between an apartment with lots of sun, bay windows and French doors or one with arched doorways, 1,000 square feet and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I chose the view.

At first my choice felt frivolous, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. First of all, every time I look out the window, I stop and I breathe, deeply. The view literally compels me to expand my sights – to look out beyond what’s right in front of me.

And it resonates with a goal that I’d set two years ago, when I took a 3-day class on facilitative leadership presented by the Interaction Institute for Social Change.  Facilitative Leadership calls upon leaders to be “servant leaders” who involve others in the process of change and continuous improvement that our organizations and communities require.

In preparation for the class, we were asked to think about the seven practices of facilitative leadership and then decide which one we wanted to focus on during the three days.

1. Share an Inspiring Vision
2. Focus on Results, Process and Relationship
3. Seek Maximum Appropriate Involvement
4. Design Pathways to Action
5. Facilitate Agreement
6. Coach for Performance
7. Celebrate Accomplishment

It was hard to choose, because who doesn’t want to be great at everything? But I decided that I wanted to improve my ability to convey a clear and compelling vision, closely followed by designing a pathway to action.

Why? Because I have spent much of my career being the one who does what needs to be done, rather than leading a team that carries out the work. As I’ve grown, and increased my area of responsibility, it’s become clear that not only is it impossible to do it all myself, but the outcome is vastly improved when a team of people skilled at working together produces the work.

I wanted to learn how to be the kind of leader that brings out the best in the team and in myself, while also deeply enjoying the process. After setting my focus on learning how to imagine and articulate a clear and compelling vision, the three days of the workshop proved to be just the beginning.

Everywhere I turned, I saw examples of how to do it. I saw it when a colleague insisted that we do regular presentations to staff about the work of our communications team. I saw it in Obama’s campaign, which not only included inspiring articulation of a vision of unity and hope, but was accompanied by a social media campaign that gave people the tools they needed to run their OWN campaigns on behalf of the candidate. And I saw it in fundraising letters that do a good job of describing both the problem and a vision for how the world will be different.

We will not be able to transform the world if we don’t become very good at stopping, taking a breath, and giving ourselves space to widen our sights. We must imagine, describe and co-create our vision of the world that all of our fundraising and advocacy is trying to create. Research shows that people work with greater commitment and excitement when they are guided by a vision and feel their efforts can make a difference.

Can YOU see it?

~ Audre Lorde

There’s just something about seeing someone’s eyes and having the chance to hear a laugh that trumps any Facebook or Twitter update.

A friend gave me a book recently that I love. The message is simple and yet profound.

The author, Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 33. She spent months immobilized by depression, unable to stop thinking about how the disease would ruin her life and dreams. She became addicted to her meds and self-absorbed in her problems.

She had a friend and spiritual adviser, Mbali Creazzo who told her that she needed to stop thinking about herself. “If you spend all of your time and energy focusing on your pain, you’re feeding the disease. You’re making it worse by putting all of your attention there.”

She encouraged Cami to spend some time focused on others – and to do this by giving away 29 gifts in 29 days. But Cami insisted that she needed to focus all her attention on her own healing, she was worried that focusing on others would sap energy she needed for herself.

Mbali replied, “Healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but through our interactions with other people. By giving, you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life. Giving of any kind is taking a positive action that begins the process of change. It will shift your energy for life.“

And it did! You can read Cami’s inspiring story in her book: 29 Gifts – How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life. Or watch a video of her on the Today Show as she describes how the simple act of giving transformed everything.

Now, 29 Gifts is a global giving movement with nearly ten thousand members in 42 countries. I joined today. My first gift was $5 to the man who sings love songs at the train station entrance in the evenings. His music is always a gift to me after a long day of work – a reminder of the joy of giving and sharing without expecting anything back.

What do you have to give?

- Mbali Creazzo, who inspired the 29-day Giving Challenge

(Today’s post is from Elizabeth Husserl, our money expert.)

As fund raisers we can often feel the awkwardness that comes with asking for money.

We know that our donors want to support our causes and are willing to put their checkbook forward when we do our yearly appeals. Yet, even knowing that we are channeling money to something worthwhile does not make the awkwardness go away.

What would money say? “Don’t be afraid to ask for me”. The more clarity you have on what you need, the more you can accurately communicate that to the world around you and the more you can relax into knowing that there is enough.

In the work I do with individuals and groups, the scariest moment often comes when I ask people to look at their money flow- how exactly does money flow into and out of their lives? This feels terrifying at first because it means looking, it means knowing, and it means facing up to any discrepancies that arise.

But when we go through the exercise and put the numbers down on paper we see that the numbers really just want to talk- they tell us what we need to make our projects and lives a reality. They give us a cornerstone on which to base our plans.

By looking at numbers and doing the “budgets” (or what I prefer to call conscious spending plans) we can then take a deeper step into our projects, our organizations and our lives. We can move beyond the fogginess of “not knowing” into a place of clarity and empowerment where asking becomes more of a spiritual practice of communicating to life that you do know what you need in life.

The question then becomes- how can the flow of abundance provide? (The trick here is then to let abundance flow to you without being attached to what that looks like.)

Ask money to come to you. Look at the dialogue you are currently having with it. Don’t be afraid to invite more into your life- you are big enough to hold it.

Happy Monday!
- Elizabeth