“Put on your oxygen mask before helping the passenger next to you.”

That’s the directive you hear from a flight attendant as they review the safety instructions at the beginning of every flight. Whether you are a leader, manager, front-line fundraiser, or a person working behind the scenes pulling reports or sending stewardship letters it is important that you take care of yourself as you seek to care for others.

Self-care is very personal but in a time such as this, we can find ourselves flailing. Even though I’ve lived through 9/11, other epidemics, multiple market downturns, and the loss of all of my immediate family members, I found myself unsure how to live with the uncertainty of life that the Coronavirus has made even more palpable.

However, I knew I could not live in this limbo for long. I have a team of people with whom I work and I wanted and needed to be there with and for them. We work with University faculty and staff who address many of the kinds of issues being discussed today — the impact of inequity on healthcare access, disease research, food insecurity, and much more — secure funding to support their work so it is critical that we be able to move forward. I also have a family and I want to be my best for them.

It was as I wrote my monthly newsletter an idea came to me, I had to take care of me before I could care for anyone else. I had to determine what had enabled me to survive major losses and find a way to move forward. The following exercise is the one that came to mind and is what I shared with readers this week.

Time to put on your oxygen mask

1. Think about a difficult thing that happened in your life or

2. Identify a crisis that you have experienced.

3. Take out a pen and paper or your laptop.

4. Reflect on all that you have survived and then

5. Write thoughts about what helped you to not only survive but to thrive.

Once I did this for myself I identified a reservoir of attitudes, skills, and abilities that I could tap into that have enabled me to move forward. I entered the week with confidence even in the face of uncertainty, confidence that I had within me that which would enable me to move forward.

As important, I remembered that I am not on this journey alone. Working with a team, reading the writing of others, and participating in various online groups have all provided helpful insight and support.

In other words, we’ll all riding on this plane together.

Once we put on our own mask we can help one another. To that end I ask:

1. What reservoir lies in you?
2. What has helped you move forward in these trying times?

I hope that as my LinkedIn friend Shanna Hocking posted today, you will speak about what has helped you to move forward. If ever there was a time such sharing is needed it is now. We will save lives by remaining apart physically, but we can connect, support one another, and move forward together.

Wishing you strength, hope, and peace.

You may have heard this nursery rhyme: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick. According to Wikipedia if you could jump a candlestick without being burned you would experience good luck.

Being nimble is on my mind as stock markets churn. You might be worried that the friction caused by that churning will burn a hole in your fundraising revenue.

It’s far too soon to tell if markets will continue to roil or to know what will transpire with the Coronavirus. What’s more all of this is taking place with the backdrop of a Presidential campaign in the U.S. and events such as Brexit in the U.K.

If you are wondering how to navigate times of tumult you might want to read Leading Through Change: 3 Facts and 1 Point to Ponder. In that piece I said that I believe that we struggle the most with unwelcome or unexpected change. It’s difficult to think about being nimble but is critical when the:

• Donor who we thought was going to make the lead campaign gift tells us that she now needs to wait until she knows when and where markets will settle and the
• Campaign was to go public in a few months.

What’s a professional to do? I suggest Jill be Nimble.

But what if being nimble doesn’t come easily? Is it possible to learn how to roll with the punches?

I believe that the ability to be nimble relates to our capacity to lead through change.

As this Fast Company article – Change or Die – indicates, it might not be easy to navigate change, but it can be done. Pulling from this article and others I offer three steps that I believe can help us be nimble and lead through changing times: 

1. Face your fear
2. Reframe the Situation (see Change or Die article)
3. Review Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great” (here’s a synopsis by Mr. Collins) or check out the work of Barbara Trautlein from Change Catalysts.

When I speak about change leadership I always find myself returning to the concept of resilience. If you haven’t read the book Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance you might review it or read Diane Coutu’s Harvard Business Review article How Resilience Works (May 2002).

I myself am a work in progress when it comes to leading through change and being resilient. Might you help me build my skills in this arena by answering this question:

• What books or articles have you read that have helped you to lead through change or become more resilient?

Here’s hoping you will share because we can all learn from one another.