New Year, Clear Vision: Building a better way to support mission-driven organizations

There's something just so magical about a new year. Maybe it's the collective energy of possibility, or maybe it's the extra coffee we're all drinking to recover from the holidays. Either way, I'm stepping into 2025 with both excitement and purpose for coLeague's next chapter.

This year, I'm doing something a bit different. Instead of keeping our intentions tucked away in a strategic plan somewhere, I'm sharing them publicly. Think of this as both a commitment and an invitation to hold us accountable.

Documenting coLeague’s “Secret Sauce”

When I started coLeague, I had strong convictions about how we should work - deep partnership, capacity building, and ensuring our impact outlasts our engagement. At our core, we believe that people are the key, and their voices need to be heard throughout the process.

What surprised me was realizing I had equally strong beliefs about outcomes. For instance, while linking compensation to performance sounds ideal, I’ve found that for mission-driven organizations, the effort to ensure unbiased metrics often outweighs the benefits. Once market rates are met, other factors tend to have a bigger impact on staff feeling valued.

When supporting mission-driven organizations, the “how” matters just as much as the “who.” To that end, this year, we're creating a learning platform for our team to document and share what people-centric work really looks like. Think of it as our "secret sauce" recipe - tested, refined, and soon to be shared with the broader Talent & HR community.

Taking the Talent Diagnostic to the Next Level

Our Talent Diagnostic, based on the Employee Hierarchy of Needs, has become a powerful tool for identifying critical focus areas in organizations. It's like having an organizational MRI that shows exactly where attention is needed most.

But knowing what's what’s wrong is only half the battle. This year, we're focusing on an offering that builds clear roadmaps for addressing these challenges. Because let's face it - when your team is telling you they need better promotion pathways, but your basic systems aren't in place, you need a plan that addresses both immediate needs and long-term success.

The Art and Science of coLeaguer Matching

We’ve spent over two years getting really good at understanding what makes a great coLeaguer and now seek out these traits in our candidates:

• High EQ - ability to understand and impact feelings in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.

• Adaptive Communication - ability to shift approach based on audience; can find a way to say the hard things when and how they need to be said.

• Navigating Ambiguity - strong judgment and ability to work without clarity and be flexible in changing circumstances.

• Project Management - ability to see the big milestones and steps to get there and then can put it all on paper so that the work can be executed, bringing others into the work as needed.

• Design Thinking - ability to create frameworks, talent systems, and structures from scratch; desire to get to the root of a problem and solve from there

• Organizational Intelligence (we may have made up this term) - ability to think across the organization and determine who and what are necessary for impact. Has the political savvy to navigate the organization as a whole.

• Change Management Instincts - ability to plan for the communication and training necessary for upcoming changes in an inclusive, thoughtful way so that people are set up to embrace change.

• Getting Things Done - they not only make the promises, but they consistently deliver. They roll up their sleeves and get the work done, no matter how big or small the task.

While all coLeaguers have these traits in common, their individual approaches are made up of styles, preferences, and experiences (“vibes,” if you will). Our partners and their teams also have varying needs based on their organizational culture and current circumstances. A successful partnership depends on alignment of the coLeaguer profile and what the organization needs from a fractional leader. It’s an art, for sure, but we think there might also be some science there.

We think we’ve done a good job so far, but as with all things, we expect we could get much, much better (and more efficient!) with matchmaking. Vibes are good, but data and process are better. So far we have been able to do this because our team is small and the same folks who assess and select coLeaguers talk directly to clients about their needs. As we grow, however, we need to study what is working, figure out what more we can do to facilitate great matches, and systematize it so we can keep up with demand.

The Road Ahead

These aren't just new year's resolutions - they're commitments to our community. By the time we're watching that ball drop again, ringing in 2026, we want to have:

• A robust learning platform sharing best practices in people-centric work

• Clear roadmaps helping organizations navigate from diagnosis to solution

• A refined matching system that maintains the human touch while adding more structure

Most importantly, we want to continue building a world where mission-driven organizations have the tools and support they need so their people can thrive.