Dr. Tom Connally retired from his internal medicine practice in 2000, but his appointment calendar still doesn't have many blank spaces. Whether it's working as the newly elected chair of the board of VPP investment partner Center for Multicultural Human Services (CMHS), serving as a volunteer physician at the Arlington Free Clinic, or babysitting one of his five grandchildren, Connally is using his 30+ years of experience to stay involved in his community.

Connally had a private internal medicine practice in the District from 1968 to 1996, and served on the full-time staff of Georgetown University Medical Center from 1996-2000. He was also on staff at Sibley Hospital from 1971 to 2000, where he served as Chief of Internal Medicine in the early 90s. "As my practice matured, so did my patients, and I became interested in geriatric medicine," he said.

That led him to write The Third Third: A Physician's Guide to a Healthy, Happy, Longer Life. Though the book received favorable reviews, it was released on September 15, 2001, when Americans were preoccupied with the 9/11 attacks, and sales did not meet expectations. Connally continues to write. "I'm currently about a third of the way through a futuristic novel on healthcare, in the style of Brave New World or 1984. And, I'm also working on a series of essays on a number of health care issues in the 21st century," he said.

Connally also spends time on advocacy issues. "I've been to Richmond to visit the legislature several times this season in my role as a board member of the Virginia Association of Free Clinics, and I'm also involved with the Progressive Policy Institute on health care issues. Throughout my adult life, I have read a great deal about public policy and history and I feel we first need to look at how big a problem is and then understand how our resources and capacity can affect the issues."

Connally sees much opportunity for CMHS and has already set priorities for his term as board chair. "I think the staff and board of CMHS are extraordinary. There's a wonderful array of talent. My number one short-term goal for the board is to 'school ourselves' so that we can explain, both through statistics and anecdotes, the population we serve, the needs of the communities, and the high quality of the CMHS product. As board members, our responsibility is to ensure that the delivery of service is of the highest quality, that finances are appropriately used and accounted for, and that we are able to match, through reaching out to leaders, the needs of the community and the options for expansion."

CMHS Executive Director Dennis Hunt is pleased to have Dr. Connally as an addition to the board. "Dr. Connally brings an amazing combination of intelligence, experience, and passion to his new role. It is exciting to have a seasoned professional of Dr. Connally's caliber leading the CMHS board at a time when we are poised for a phase of significant growth."

In The Third Third, Connally suggests that being occupied with "contributions to society, close relationships, and personal interests" is key to strong physical health. His current calendar certainly reflects that philosophy.

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One of the hardest challenges facing the nonprofit sector is how to attract, retain, and develop senior management—executive directors, chief operating officers, chief financial officers, and other executives—so critical to the health, survival, and success of any organization. All too often, boards and executive directors alike don’t place enough emphasis on strategies to develop executive leadership and management. And it is important for executive directors and other senior managers to look inside themselves to understand how they need to grow and develop their skills and approaches to continue to serve their constituencies.

Executive directors in organizations experiencing rapid growth often have trouble keeping pace with what they and their organizations are facing. They primarily learn “on the job,” running as fast as they can to keep up with a constantly changing world. As one executive said recently, “I’m an educator. I know how to teach kids and develop curriculum. I’ve never been trained to be a manager and all of a sudden my days are consumed with a growing organization, budgets, administration, plans, and stuff like that—management!” This is not a problem unique to nonprofits; I remember a friend commiserating on how firms in the private sector advance their management: “We knight them, instead of train them!”

Often, we don’t appreciate how performance expectations are changing around us, while we’re still working to yesterday’s standard or expectation. And, this cycle never ends. There is an anecdotal “rule of thumb” in management described as the “Theory of 2’s,” which suggests that the most traumatic changes for organizations and their leaders come when a organization grows from 2 to 20 people, from 20 to 200, 200 to 2000, and so on. Not only do I believe this, I have lived it. My own experience taught me that growth, success, political risk, and other internal and external factors all create increased expectations, and, just when you think you’ve mastered these increased expectations, they change again. Over time you realize that continual self-improvement and adjustment is the norm.

As organizations grow and executive directors find themselves in very different roles, it is tempting to use a stop-gap approach for a larger, systemic problem. Sometimes, a board member or even the executive director may suggest bringing in an “executive coach.” While executive coaching can certainly be valuable, it oftentimes puts a Band-Aid on what is a much more fundamental issue. Executive coaching should be viewed as one of a series of steps that is part of an ongoing process of growth and development. Some of these additional steps should include:

-- Find an alter ego, a guide and coach that will be with you a while. Everyone needs one. I still turn to key people who I have full trust in, who will level with me, serve as a check-and-balance when I get overzealous, tell me when I’m being an idiot or wrong, and push or encourage me when they think it’s needed. Hard to find? You bet, but I can’t say strongly enough how building this relationship with someone you trust and confide in can help you (and your organization) grow. There’s a lot of truth to the saying “it’s lonely at the top” and the more you grow, the lonelier it can become. We all need someone to remind us to stay focused, push us to be honest to ourselves, or be the nudge on our shoulder that adds an additional touch of conscience to our actions.

Whenever I make this suggestion, the immediate question is “How do you find this person?” First, look around and see if you already know someone who has the experience and wisdom to help. If not, you—and your board—should keep this as a conscious goal as you select new board members, seek advisors, and recruit members of the management team. I was very fortunate that several people came into my life through these channels—the co-founder of the firm we created was my partner for more than a dozen years and played the role of alter ego, guide, and coach; the head of the firm that invested in us became a trusted advisor; and a chairman and CEO we brought in later in the company’s evolution helped me adjust, yet again, to changing expectations. After all this time, they’re still there when I need help.

-- Have a few board members who provide counsel. As I said in last month’s column, I firmly believe that executives need to develop close relationships with one or two members of their board who will have the time and be able share insight and advice, both personally and managerially. If you don’t have those relationships right now, we urge you to recruit people for your board who can provide that guidance. Developing close relationships with them—people who have been where you need to grow—helps you navigate through leadership and management challenges you’ve not faced before.

-- Hire up! Hire people you will learn from, who will challenge and push you to grow. This, obviously, requires balance. You can develop some folks from within, but don’t be afraid to “rattle the system” and bring in someone from the outside whose experience and knowledge can help raise the bar for the whole team. The sports world sometimes says the greatest athletes are those who raise the play of the others on the team. Same thing here—bring in people who raise your play and that of the organization.

-- Reach out to others. Admitting we need help is sometimes hard because we think it displays vulnerability. I’ve found, though, that most people welcome being asked for advice. When you’re facing a problem for the first time, again, reach out to those who have “been there” and benefit from their hard-learned lessons. This again is where the members of your board can be of great value, helping to introduce you to people in their networks who can provide this advice.

-- If you decide you need (or want) assistance in the form of executive coaching, make certain you find the right person. "Executive coaching" is an amorphous term—there are various modes of delivery and, unfortunately, a lack of consistency in execution. Look for executive consultants and advisors who will address your specific needs: time management, focus, interpersonal skills, delegation, etc. We also encourage you to pinpoint defined areas of need, rather than simply relegating the resolution to the generic label of "executive coaching." If you’re not sure what those needs are, ask your board, your team, your advisors, and then spend time in introspection before bringing an executive consultant or advisor into the mix. And, be sure that the executive coach works in tandem with your other resources—not as a “lone ranger.”

Finally, realize that the core of leadership and management comes from within—who you are, the values you live by, and the way in which you relate to, learn from, and respect others. Recognize that you alone are ultimately responsible for your professional and personal growth and ensure you reach out to others to learn and to grow. Your board should hold you accountable for growth, and, more importantly, you must also be accountable to yourself. Always remember that expectations change and increase over time, and you need to change as well.

This advice applies, in some form, to each of us. Learning and growing, in preparation for the next phase of our careers or, more importantly our lives, should never stop.

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Sandy Dang Named Pablo Eisenberg Award Winner

Sandy Hoa Dang, executive director of VPP investment partner Asian American LEAD, has won the National Neighborhood Coalition's (NNC) 2004 Pablo Eisenberg Award for Neighborhood Leadership. The award recognizes exceptional leaders and organizations for their change-making and community-building contributions to low-income neighborhoods. In a recent email, Anne Pasmanick, NNC executive director, said, “[Sandy] Dang's exemplary work with youth and families bridging Asian and American cultures greatly merits this award.” Sandy will accept the award at a reception at the Monaco Hotel on March 8, 2004.

NNC will also honor Bill Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Chuck Collins, co-founder of United for a Fair Economy, with a Making a Difference Award for their leadership and advocacy in support of a fair and equitable tax system. They are the authors of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.

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Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves. Bill Shore pours his heart out in his writing. He emails poignant, haunting stories to friends and colleagues on such compelling issues as mindless acts of brutality in Patterson, NJ, and glimpses of pride and hope in a desperately poor migrant village near the Mexican border. His 2003 holiday greeting was about Alima Dari, a beautiful 13-year-old Ethiopian girl who died of TB and malaria—a sobering reminder of the needs of others and how to count the blessings we take for granted.

Think of Bill Shore (Billy), founder of Share Our Strength (SOS) and Community Wealth Ventures, as the Charles Kurault of the Internet. He expands on these tales, plus many amusing vignettes about parenting, in his books. “Writing,” he says, “makes me pay closer attention to things. The solitary nature of it makes me more reflective.”

Billy’s letters are intended to take us on journeys that will prick our conscience, and perhaps spur us to act. His third book, The Light of Conscience, is full of stories about ordinary and extraordinary acts of conscience. This latest book, following in the wake of Revolution of the Heart and The Cathedral Within, will be in bookstores later this month. “It’s not acts of Congress, but acts of conscience that will change the world,” Billy says. In the new book he writes, “Acts of conscience…don’t happen by accident. Nor can they always be planned. But they can be prepared for…Keep your conscience finely tuned, as a pitcher does his arm…expose it to...those who desperately need to be served and may never be.”

After being moved by the issues of famine in Ethiopia and hunger in the US, Billy and his sister, Debbie Shore, decided to create Share Our Strength in 1994. They organized chefs and others in the culinary industry to cook for fundraisers and host events. Through cause-related marketing efforts like “Charge Against Hunger” with American Express and “Taste of the Nation,” SOS has distributed over $70 million to more than 1,000 anti-hunger, anti-poverty organizations in the US and abroad.

When SOS was founded, Billy was a campaign strategist for Colorado Senator Gary Hart. When Hart’s bid for the White House crashed in 1987, Shore went to work for another presidential hopeful, Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey. In 1991 he turned his full time attention to SOS. In 1997, he started the for-profit Community Wealth Ventures, a consulting firm that helps nonprofit organizations generate earned income through business ventures and partnerships with corporations such as those used at SOS. Today, Billy and the organizations he founded are stalwart leaders in the growing field of social entrepreneurship

The idea of nonprofits pursuing business opportunities in addition to relying on charity captured the interest of VPP Chairman Mario Morino, who paid a visit to Billy in 1993. Their meeting over the battered folding table that Billy has used as a desk for two decades led to collaboration and a rich friendship. Billy helped Mario learn about the nonprofit sector, and he helped design VPP. Mario often turns to him for research and guidance, and Billy has served on VPP’s board since the beginning.

The admiration between the two men is mutual. In his new book Billy calls Mario a “moral entrepreneur.” Entrepreneurs, he writes, are “jaywalkers, too impatient and resourceful to wait for the light to change…Moral entrepreneurs embrace new responsibilities, making them their own, and persuade their peers to do likewise.” Billy says he’s been fascinated to watch VPP unfold, its investment partners bloom, and to see others learn new approaches from this work. “Nonprofits hurt themselves by pitching that they can make a little bit go a long way…only a lot goes a long way, and VPP gets that,” he says.

Billy is not surprised to find himself championing the cause of nonprofit organizations and the people they serve. He was groomed for a life of service, it was the family business. He and Debbie grew up in Pittsburgh where their father ran the office of a Democratic congressman. Nate Shore was the guy you called when snow needed to be moved or someone’s son needed help getting into the naval academy. Billy recalls that many Sunday mornings began with visits from police officers bearing gifts of pastry and donuts to fill his father in on the latest news and to thank him for helping address some problem.

Like his father, Billy went to law school at night, thinking perhaps he’d become a “Clarence Darrow-like defense attorney—an advocate for the underdog.” And he did, through a career in politics and trailblazing new ideas to address the age-old scourges of poverty and hunger. The SOS offices in Washington, DC are reminiscent of the many political campaign offices that Billy worked in, with busy, earnest young people bustling about. Billy still works on that old folding table, and posters of Ethiopia and European cathedrals adorn his walls. Stacks of carefully folded yellow legal pages hold the notes of many meetings and visits—fodder for his letters and books. A boom box sits near the computer next to stacks of CDs—from Paganini to Emmie Lou Harris—ready to entertain or inspire, depending on his mood.

Bill Shore says he is a happy man. He sees his two children every day that he is in town. He remarried at the end of 2003 and he is excited about his upcoming book tour. There are still simple moments that take his breath away—like when a man in a small border town between Eritrea and Ethiopia invited Billy and a coworker into what was left of his war-ravaged house to serve them coffee.

Billy is also a realist. He knows that the work that has chosen him is often uphill, and poverty will not be wiped out in his lifetime. After all, he sighs, this is a society that “celebrates the frivolous.” Still he says, “I love every day what I do.”

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