During the course of your career, you’ve likely encountered leaders and team members at both ends of the spectrum - the upbeat person who pushes you beyond your comfort zone, and inspires action and belief, and the naysayer who seems to be full of pessimism and 100 reasons why something won’t work. Whether you are an executive director, fundraiser or accountant, when you’re a member of an organization on a mission, you are a leader - of one, or of many. How you approach your daily work, as well as the bigger challenges has an impact on those around you.

This weekend I finally watched The Secret, given to me by my first big nonprofit client about a year ago (another reason why I love working with the nonprofit sector - great people). So I am a little late to the party, but I was pleasantly surprised that it really didn’t offer any big surprise. It reinforced my experience, which is that you get back what you put out there, negative or positive. If you focus on what you can’t do, you will get exactly that. There are many variations on this theme - "we tried it and it didn’t work" or "that other organization seems to get all the funding, so there’s no point in asking" or "we spent all that money on advertising and it didn’t make a difference". The inspiring leader balances reality with a healthy shot of aiming higher than others would. A great leader also recognizes comfort zones and crushes them! The point is to be deliberate in your planning, without putting up your own barriers before you even get out of the gate. Organizations don’t succeed, people do. The secret I’m offering the nonprofit universe today is to take a page from Eleanor Roosevelt’s book: "Do one thing every day that scares you."

p.s. if you want a lesson in defying odds and thinking like a winner, how about the Super Bowl yesterday?