Why I very rarely work to improve my weaknesses

Disclaimer: The “Behind the scenes” blog is not entertaining at all. This is “journal of how we are creating Mirth and Dignity”, written as we go. It’s a purely educational resource (and a place for me to record what I’m thinking… A kind of diary). I’d have killed for this resource five years ago, but unless you’re my particularly narrow kind of weird, this blog is not recommended reading.

In the fundraising class last night, the instructor encouraged us to think about what we do well, what we do adequately, and what we do poorly.

Okay…

Here is what we do well:

1. Kathy and Lynn run a FREAKING FANTASTIC Facebook group.

2. We make good content. It’s funny and people like it, especially our Sunday Services and podcast.

3. Our board structure is fabulous and easy and fun.

This is what we do adequately:

1. Our record keeping is sufficient to meet the requirements of Revenue Canada (maybe? Is that who I’m submitting papers to each year? I am not actually sure, but I do follow the checklist and track all the expenses and Anne helps me turn them into a pretty spreadsheet).

This is what we do poorly:

Absolutely everything else including updating the website, putting out the newsletter, responding to emails and messages to the Facebook page, networking, keeping a decent calendar, updating Patrons and donors, to say nothing of all the types of policies and procedures and best practices that organizations are supposed to have. We have zero of any of that.

So I looked at this list and thought “Oh crap. We have so much to improve”.

But then the lady said “Your number one job is to make friends with adequacy.” And I realized she was right. Shoring up the weaknesses (or even worse, expanding into areas that you feel you “should” be working in) is usually a pretty poor use of time. Your areas of strength are by definition the things you are best at. They’re also the things your people value most (or they wouldn't be there). You don’t look at an investment portfolio and say “Which funds are really struggling and in need of my investment?”.

I’m not saying never shore up a weakness… But I am saying that we should be SO VERY CHOOSY about the things we work on.