24. Paul McKenzie – ENERGY and FOCUS. Leadership during the crisis, part 2

In spite of all the pressures on your team, and even when you’re separated physically, is it still possible to nurture and achieve a positive team culture? If you are the leader of a fundraising team, I think you’re going to find this episode really interesting. It’s the second half of my interview with Paul McKenzie, a fabulous fundraiser and an experienced fundraising leader, and the Executive Director of Fundraising and Communications from Depaul UK. Paul’s team are doing really well right now, and I wanted to understand his approach to leadership and how that might contribute to the culture where they’re operating at this high level. In Episode 23 we discussed what leaders can do, practically, in the crucial areas of wellbeing, trust and communication. And in Episode 24, the second half of my conversation with Paul, we explore two more things that he believes are disproportionately important for a leader to give their attention to during this crisis. In particular, we look at what Paul does to create a positive, fun energy, even in difficult times, and where we believe many charities go wrong in their attempts to celebrate success. We also explore the Power of Focus, and how he goes about deciding what to focus on strategically, when everything is moving so fast. We also touch on what to say to funders at a time when you just don’t have all the detail on your charities’ evolving strategy. If you’d like more powerful strategies to help you raise funds during the crisis – including one chapter on ‘Leadership During the Pandemic’, then do check out my new free E-book : Power Through The Pandemic – Seven ways to raise high value income, even now. You can download it for FREE here: brightspotfundraising.co.uk/power If you found Episode 24 of this podcast helpful, please do subscribe today, so you won’t miss out on all the other pandemic-challenging episodes we’ve got lined up; and also, I’d be really grateful if you could take a moment to share it on with your colleagues or on social media. Thank you! If you want to get in touch, Paul and I would love to hear from you – we’re both on Linked In, and on twitter Paul is @scotttallpaul and I’m @woods_rob. Thank you for listening and stay safe.