Permission to Pivot: A New Framework for Sustainable Leadership
Not "do more with less" - the tired rallying cry that's become shorthand for asking already-stretched people to give even more of themselves. We're talking about something more honest, more humane, and frankly, more effective: doing less with less.
It sounds almost scandalous. But stick with us. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and this year, instead of adding another wellness initiative to your already overflowing plate, what if we tried something different?
How many times have you sat in a meeting, nodded along to a strategic plan packed with goals and initiatives, and quietly wondered how on earth we're supposed to do all of this? How many Sunday evenings have been consumed with anxiety about the week ahead? How many people on your team, or maybe you yourself, are running on fumes and calling it resilience?
Joan Garry said, "Doing more with less is a lie we tell teams to avoid harder conversations."
The harder conversation we keep avoiding is this: we are asking too much of too many people, for too long, with too few resources: what are we going to do about it? And nowhere is this more true than in the nonprofit sector, where the scarcity mindset runs deep and "never enoughness" is practically a cultural value.
This Mental Health Month, let's have a harder conversation.
First, let's be clear about what this is not. Doing less with less is not an invitation to underperform, to abandon your mission, or to stop caring deeply about the work. It's not about giving up.
It's about refusing to pretend that chronic urgency is the same thing as impact.
Doing less means:
Zeroing in on the goals that truly matter - and having the courage to let the others wait (or disappear entirely). As Peter Drucker famously put it, "If you have more than five goals, you have none."
Celebrating manageable workloads instead of quietly shaming them
Embracing "both/and" thinking - where people, systems, and culture can be sustainable and productive at the same time
Giving yourself and your team explicit permission to not take over the world this quarter
This isn't a radical new productivity hack. It's a return to something basic: the recognition that human beings have limits, and those limits are not character flaws. Real organizational wellbeing is a shared project. Individuals can set honest limits and get curious about their own sustainability, not just their productivity. Leaders can advocate when workloads are unsustainable and model self-care visibly. Boards can stop proposing new initiatives without first listening deeply to staff about capacity.
Culture is built by everyone, every day, in small choices about what gets celebrated, what gets normalized, and what gets named.
Ask yourself - and your team - a few honest questions:
What conversations have we been avoiding?
Where does chronic urgency show up, and is it serving us?
What's one thing we could stop, delay, or hand off?
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is honesty, and from honesty, the possibility of something healthier.
Want to hear more on this topic? Join us on May 14th at the Connecting Colorado Conference in Colorado Springs. Tickets are still available! https://coloradononprofits.org/connecting-colorado/colorado-springs-coco/