8: Leadership Lessons & Telling Your Nonprofit Story (Don Jonas)

008: Leadership Lessons & Telling Your Nonprofit Story (Don Jonas)

SUMMARY

Don Jonas knows that the key to effectiveness in the nonprofit realm is being able to explain the good work you are doing.  He has always been a student of nonprofit leadership, and we had a great conversation about communication strategies, mindfulness/wellness techniques, and leadership lessons he’s learned during his career.  We discussed the factors that influenced his career path and the lateral entry into the nonprofit sector after early aspirations to become a college professor!  Dr. Jonas offers great advice he’s gathered during each stage of his career, and he also shares excellent resources for your continuing pursuit of professional development.  Finally, he makes a compelling case about how to better articulate the good work your nonprofit is doing through more content creation and creative methods such as podcasting.  

ABOUT DON

Don serves as Assistant Vice President of Social Strategy and Impact at Atrium Health. Prior to this, he served as chief executive for one of the oldest and largest health care agencies in the Carolinas, Care Ring, which is based in Charlotte, NC, and helps individuals with limited resources find quality health care.  Don is passionate about building long-term partnerships that accelerate community building and improve lives.  His academic career includes stops at UNC Chapel Hill for his undergraduate degree in Political Science, Appalachian State University for his Masters in Political Science and Government, and the University of Kentucky for his Ph.D. in Political Science and Government.  His career has included stops at the Hudson Institute, the Foundation For The Carolinas and Novant Health’s Presbyterian Hospital Foundation before his current role leading Care Ring.

Learn more about Don here, and check out Care Ring’s Seeking the Heart podcast as you evaluate how your nonprofit can best share the good work it’s doing and elevate the community partnerships you are building.  

EPISODE TOPICS & RESOURCES

• Don’s productivity: calendar blocking, “think time”, meditation
• Rituals: evening, morning and start-up at work
• Importance of succession planning for board and staff
• Simon Sinek’s Start With Why
• Don’s excellent blog on applying Sinek’s principles to his nonprofit
• Evaluating your organization’s communication strategies and tactics 
• Only the Paranoid Survive (Andrew Grove)
• The Carolina Way - Leadership Lessons  (Dean Smith)
• Wooden on Leadership (John Wooden)