Hey, recently I wrote a blog post outlining some of my philosophies, and mentioned that there was more to come. I figure I should follow through.
On Time Management and Effectiveness –
When I think about effective orgs, I ask, do they have the ability to actually get things done? Because that’s not true of a lot of nonprofits or other well intentioned people or groups.
A lot have good intentions, but there’s a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s important to mean well, but also have the ability to get stuff done.
Let’s say if an org smells good, in that direction, then I turn to the people who actually know stuff, the team around me. I may have some inclination that a group can get stuff done, but I’m not a nonprofit expert.
When looking for effectiveness, I look for people’s ability to conduct themselves briefly and well. If you can articulate what you’re about in 45 seconds or less, then I’m more generous time-wise and I try to be a nicer person. But anyone you want resources from will be judging you based on how well you can articulate yourself.
On Passion and My Sunset Years-
I’m kind of tired of passion, especially as I enter my sunset years. But the deal is, you really want commitment from people. You want the excitement, but then they need to follow through. Following through is the hard part, and that’s what I look for.
In addition to passion or excitement, I’m looking for commitment. People can get excited about something, realize it’s hard, then that passion might not count for anything.
By the way, when I talk about the sunset years, I’m not far from claiming my AARP discount. I’m not kidding as much as you think I am.
Craig Connects 
“Follow through” from others is hard to find! Everyone wants to be “part of the next great band” but it’s hard to find people that want to practice hard to make the band great! Passion shows you a path – but the need to be great keeps you blazing new trails no matter what… nice post!
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He who knows, has no need to speak.
He who does not know, has need to speak.
-Anonymous
Thank you for sharing such insightful information.
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good management is the key to success,not good intentions. Unfortunately good managing means setting priorities and that means saying no to people sometimes. Most social crusades are looking for immediate results, not long term results. Think about it, if all low payed workers were retrained for better jobs, a new group of workers would take over their old jobs and you would be back at square 1, nothing solved. Lowering the cost of living for the poor is something hardly looked at.all of our current social programs actually increase the cost of living for everyone,making the poor’s burden greater. Increased housing cost for last 50 years is the greatest burden for the poor.
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Commitment is the basic element of work or action oriented mood of a person, needed in every kind of organization as a part of human resource. I think you are at home in selecting or recruiting like-minded people as friends or subordinates.
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I’ve been thinking about the passion issue since recently joining Linkedin. It reeks with passion! I wondered if I should be here. Surely there is also room for reflectors….
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