How can administrators self-advocate?

Nonprofit administrators are frequently the unsung heroes working behind the scenes to make possible the work of thousands of life-changing organizations.

Coworkers will frequently see us arriving at the office first in the morning and leaving last at night.  If that’s what it takes for us to do excellent work, and to cover our responsibilities, we’ll do it, right?

Coworkers will rarely call us “drama queens” and, in fact, it can take a real effort to get us to open up about our feelings at all!  Complaining isn’t in our nature and we can’t forget that the communities we serve have much bigger life challenges that we do.

However, these super powers also represent a ticking time-bomb for everyone:  administrators and nonprofits.  I saw it too much before the pandemic and even more since it began:  hard-working administrators walking away from the missions they’ve loyally and lovingly served for years because they were so burned out that it took a massive effort to even give two weeks’ notice.

Too often, nobody in the organization saw it coming.

I’ve been there myself.  It’s terrible.  For everyone.

For these reasons and more, we need to think about how we as administrators can do a better job of self-advocating so that we can prevent burnout and sustainably engage back-office professionals for many, many years.

Step 1:  name the pain points

Although everyone has a unique experience, we often share pain points. Here are a few examples.

Can you take real time off?  Or, when it’s vacation time might you have to:

• Take calls from the office?

• Actually work from the beach?

• Time your vacation between payroll and other cycles?

• Plan to work long nights and weekends after returning just to get caught up?

• Quietly let your time off accrue and pray for the day you might actually use it?

Do you have work-life balance?  Something resembling a 40-hour work week most of the time, and never exceeding 50 hours?

Can you make the improvements to processes, procedures, and technology that you know the organization needs?  Or does your list of special projects just keep growing?  Or are you so discouraged that you’ve stopped building that list?

Naming your pain points will help you begin to craft the message you need to prevent your own burnout.

Step 2:  get perspective from trusted friends and family

Trusted friends and family, especially those who will tell you the honest truth even when it’s hard to hear, can help you get perspective.

They can confirm, for example, are you a whiner?  Or do you suffer silently?  Or do you do an average job of communicating your wants and needs?

Their answers will help inform your next step.  If you’re like most nonprofit administrators, you may need to learn how to “turn up the volume,” even if that makes you feel like a drama queen!

Step 3:  Believe in yourself

You deserve a workplace with dignity, respect, and a reasonable workload.

Yes, plenty of people in the world live a harder life than you.

But you still deserve dignity, respect, and a reasonable workload because everyone does.  And it’s so much harder to save the world if you don’t take care of yourself.

Step 4:  Believe in the organization’s mission

The organization and the mission deserve the best, right? 

You want them to succeed and you want the community you serve to thrive, right?

Now remember:  the organization and mission will fail to thrive if the staff don’t have work-life balance.

Step 5:  Identify solutions

What might resolve your pain points? 

You know the pain points best and your boss will rightly look to you to propose solutions.  They will be much more receptive to your message that way.  (If all you present is problems, that makes it harder for them to help you or even give you a meaningful answer – especially if they aren’t an administrator themselves.)

The particular solution will depend on your specific situation.  For example, it might look like:

• A month-long sabbatical – because you’re one step away from total burnout and need to recharge your batteries.

• An assistant or intern – to help share the workload, get you time to document key processes so you can actually take time off, and then start making headway on that backlog of special projects.

• A new computer – because the one you’re using is so slow it impacts your productivity and because it will quickly pay for itself.

• Permission to work remotely three days per week – Because you’re more productive that way, you feel less stress when not in a noisy office, and losing your 60-minute commute would help restore work-life balance.

• A professional coach – to help you grow as a professional and co-create the long-term solution to your work-life imbalance.

Step 6:  Craft then deliver your message

Take time to craft and practice your message.

Personally, I like to get my ideas out on paper and then build an outline for conversations like this.  Not a full script, but enough notes so that I can present all my key ideas in the right order.

As someone whose superpowers include managing details, your instinct might be to build a 100-page report to justify your proposal.  Build that report if it helps you organize your thoughts, but in your meeting you do want to be sure you cover your key points succinctly in 5 minutes or less.  Ideally 2-3 minutes.

By keeping it short and sweet, that will make it easier for your listener to understand your main points, to engage with you, and to ask questions about what they don’t understand.   

If these sorts of conversations don’t come easily to you, practice with a trusted friend, family member, or your coach. 

Extra Credit Reading:  Taking Flight

Different people have different communication styles.  When we learn how to translate our message into the other person’s style, they’re much more likely to hear us and respond in a helpful way.

Taking Flight by Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert provides a great introduction to the DISC styles, a methodology to help us quickly understand how we communicate, how others communicate, and how we can have more effective communication with people who are wired differently from us.

It’s a quick, easy read and could provide you some valuable inspiration to fine tune your message.  You may even find that its lessons apply elsewhere in life.

Remember: You can’t fix everything

Nobody has a perfect workplace or supervisor.  While many nonprofits provide a good, caring work experience to their staff, some lack the resources or skills to respond to even humble requests.  A few are truly toxic and wouldn’t respond to your request even if they could.

Whatever the cause, if you’ve made your case to your supervisor and they haven’t created the change you need within a reasonable timeframe, you have some decisions to make. You can either continue to suffer until you break or you can find a greener pasture. 

Talk to trusted friends, family, or your coach to help you discern your path. 

Keep in mind that at this point your employer has had the opportunity to show their true colors.  If you’ve given them a reasonable request and they have not followed through on it, then they’re not likely to grant your request in the future either. 

From burnout to shining bright

Self-advocacy, done right, can become a tool for your long-term professional (and personal) growth. 

I can’t promise that you’ll get your desired outcome the first time you use it; after all, your employer might be tone-deaf, have their hands tied, or have made a life-long commitment to being a jerk.  We can’t control their response even when we’ve put our best foot forward.

But if you learn to self-advocate regularly, especially before you get anywhere close to burnout, you’ll get better outcomes more frequently.  That will allow your light to shine brighter and for the organization you serve to deliver better on its mission.