“To be an effective Board Member of a nonprofit, you need to be passionate about the mission of the organization.” -Vonna Laue
[00:00:00] Vonna Laue: One of the indicators for nonprofits that anyone who hears me speak knows that I’m always going to harp on a little bit, and that is available cash. Not just cash, because you can look at the balance sheet and see, wow, we’ve got $700,000 in cash. If that’s what the board looks at and starts making decisions based on, you could find yourself in trouble because the available cash that I’m talking about takes that cash number, but then it subtracts two things out of there.
[00:00:33] Vonna Laue: It subtracts the things that we’re going to pay this week. So maybe we’ve got payroll coming up this week and we’ve got a bunch of accounts we’re going to pay. I’m going to take that out of there. And I’m also going to take out any temporarily restricted funds that have been given by donors for a specific purpose.
If those amounts are held in that cash number, I’m going to back those out. If you back out those two things, that $700,000 might be $200,000. And that board and those leaders are going to make significantly different decisions based on $700,000 versus $200,000. Right? That’s a financial metric.
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[00:01:10] Tommy Thomas: You and I have a mutual friend, Alec Hill, former President of InterVarsity. And he wrote of some of the pain and suffering he experienced while being the President of Intervarsity. And he writes, if we pause and reflect long enough, pain is a great teacher. Our character can be transformed more through a day of suffering than a month of study.
As I think about your book that’s coming out here in a couple of weeks, I would imagine that played into the writing of the book.
[00:01:39] Vonna Laue: You are absolutely correct. So, the book is Glad I Didn’t Know, and then it’s subtitled Lessons Learned Through Life’s Challenges and Unexpected Blessings, so it absolutely does play into that.
The premise of the book is that there are a lot of difficult things that we go through that if we’d known in advance, we would have done everything we could to avoid those, but if we had avoided those, we’d have missed out on what God had planned for us and the lessons that we learned as a result of it.
[00:02:12] Vonna Laue: The flip side of that is also the unexpected blessings. And when I look at things like serving on the World Vision Board, if someone had told me in advance, you’re going to be on the World Vision Board. I’d have thought, okay, I need this education and I need this experience and I need to network with this person, and I’d have totally messed it up.
But I just faithfully follow one thing to the next. And so would totally agree with Alec there. And I’m glad I don’t know a lot of the things that I’m going to go through. And each time we go through something, it makes it a little bit easier the next time to look back on the faithfulness of God and realize, okay, we’re going to come out the other side of this and there will be blessings as a result of it, even though it’s a challenge at the time.
[00:03:01] Tommy Thomas: What lesson did you learn from writing this book? A real practical question.
[00:03:07] Vonna Laue: Yeah. One of the things that just in the process that I learned initially, I had chapters for the whole book, and I was just going to write their life stories. And then in some discussions and some just careful consideration, I realized if I did that, it would be really easy for a reader to say, oh, that’s nice for that person and dismiss it.
And the applicability that it had to their lives. And so, within the book, there are 16 other contributors that all contributed a story of their life that they were glad they didn’t know. And so, the encouragement there and just the lesson was if we’re willing to be honest with ourselves and honest with those around us, we’ve all got those stories and in sharing them, there is a blessing to be had both by the giver and the receiver.
[00:04:09] Vonna Laue: Tommy, I had a number of people that wrote chapters that when they submitted them said something like, I needed to do that. Or it was a blessing to me to go through this, and there were a few people that I had ideas of the stories that they would contribute because I knew specific things about their life.
But all of them, I just asked them to do a story. And many of the ones that I thought the story they would do was not the story. They actually contributed. And so fun to see, just how God’s orchestrated that.
[00:04:45] Tommy Thomas: What’s the most dangerous behavior trait that you’ve seen that can derail a leader’s career?
[00:04:54] Vonna Laue: I’m going to look at, especially those who have been leading for a long time. A few years ago, I was pondering a few of the leaders that had not finished well. And, you get, I think you use the word distinguished when you introduced me and I translated that to experienced or old, one of the two, some length of time and so as I think about that, it really hit home.
Partially because of the people and the disappointment that I had in the situation, but partially because I realized I’m not in the first half of my career. And so, I want to make sure that I do what I can to finish well. And so back to your question. One of the things that really came out to me was the idea of having people speak truth into your life.
The more experience we gain in leadership, the scarcer it becomes to have people who will candidly share the truth with us. With time, leaders tend to surround themselves with fewer people who are ready to speak honestly and openly with them.
[00:05:51] Vonna Laue: And the longer we lead, the fewer people I find that leaders have around them that are willing to speak truth into them. We talk about being put on a pedestal. That can happen in a number of different ways. It doesn’t mean we’re famous. Doesn’t mean we have all the glory that some of the people you would think of might have.
It can happen to any leader, but we rise up far enough in our career or our organization that we just don’t have as many close confidants around us that will challenge us. That will speak truth. And I think that when that happens is when people are more likely to not finish well.
[00:06:38] Tommy Thomas: I’m sure. Ross Hoskins at One Hope, he says, surround yourself with people who know you better than yourself and will tell you the truth out of love. This is how we grow.
[00:06:49] Vonna Laue: Amen. He just perfectly summarized what I would agree with. Perfectly.
[00:06:57] Tommy Thomas: So, if you were going to write another book and this book was going to be about the burdens of leadership that only the president or the CEO can bear, what would be some of your chapter headings?
[00:07:10] Vonna Laue: Have to think about that one a little bit……Chapter headings?
[00:07:18] Tommy Thomas: Or topics that you think have to be talked about.
[00:07:22] Vonna Laue: Yep. I think the topics definitely are similar to what was just said, choosing people that are extremely accomplished to be around you. We talk about having smarter people than you. I’m a big fan of that. I would also say working in a team. We are not as good by ourselves as we are with a team around us.
And so, when you’re looking at that key leadership position, you’re only as good as the team that is around you. I think also you’ve got to have that personal and spiritual aspect to it. So encouraging leaders, I often find, and as I speak on personal leadership, when I’m at my busiest, the two things that are easiest for me to give up are my workout and my devotion time.
The two things I need most when I’m busiest are my workout and my devotion time
[00:08:19] Vonna Laue: The two things I need most when I’m busiest are my workout and my devotion time. And so reminding leaders that you’re only as good as you are healthy. That’s really important and that’s, in a number of different way,s that health spiritually that health physically and the health relationally, you know that you don’t sacrifice those relationships that are closest to you because you don’t get the time back.
We often say I’ll do that when this project is over. I’ll do that when this season is over. And I think all of the people listening to this podcast probably realize there is no normal, right? We used to say when things get back to normal, I’ll do this. And that hectic life that we live as Americans, I think is just normal.
And so those are a few of the keys that I think are so crucial for leaders.
[00:09:18] Tommy Thomas: I remember when I interviewed Rich Stearns and I’m not going to remember the person’s name, but he was talking about his career at Parker Brothers, and he said that there was one of the people in the family that didn’t know anything at all about toys, but he knew how to hire a team and that was what made the success of Parker Brothers was this man’s ability to bring people onto the team that could lead.
[00:09:41] Vonna Laue: I would fully agree with that. I mentioned that I usually am doing a lot of different things. So right now, I’m serving as the COO and CFO of an organization and director of internal audit for another one and doing some audit and advisory with a third and some projects, all of that. But the way that works is the teams that are established in each of those places.
Within the team, the mission’s organization where I serve, the director of global services role that I have, that’s like the COO role, that has operations and finance and personnel and IT and security, that’s a lot just in and of itself, but I have four phenomenal directors. That they need encouragement.
[00:10:31] Vonna Laue: They need a champion, and they need a sounding board. And as long as I can provide those things, they will do their roles far better than I ever could. In fact, I often say when you hire, you better keep them happy and keep them around because you probably can’t do their job.
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[00:10:50] Tommy Thomas: If you were creating a dashboard to get at a nonprofit organization’s health, what would be some of your dials?
[00:10:57] Vonna Laue: Oh, I love dashboards. You just spoke one of my love languages there. So, one of the things that I think is key to a dashboard is that I’m a CPA, so it has to have some financial indicators on it, right?
[00:11:11] Tommy Thomas: Absolutely.
[00:11:13] Vonna Laue: You have to have those. And the basic ones, you’re going to have some things like where you are versus, actual.
And you’re gonna do some trend analysis in that a little bit, I say, this way in a church. Everybody knows it’s December. What season of the year is the lowest attendance and the lowest giving season? Always summer, right? And how do we know that? It’s because of trends. And so, trend information can be really helpful. So, I think that a dashboard should include trends.
One of the indicators for nonprofits that anyone who hears me speak knows that I’m always going to harp on a little bit, and that is available cash.
[00:12:08] Vonna Laue: So not just cash, because you can look at the balance sheet and see, wow, we’ve got $700,000 cash. If that’s what the board looks at and starts making decisions based on, you could find yourself in trouble because the available cash that I’m talking about takes that cash number, but then it subtracts two things out of there.
It subtracts the things that we’re going to pay this week. So maybe we’ve got payroll coming up this week and we’ve got a bunch of accounts we’re going to pay. I’m going to take that out of there. And I’m also going to take out any temporarily restricted funds that have been given by donors for a specific purpose.
[00:12:46] Vonna Laue: If those amounts are held in that cash number, I’m going to back those out. If you back out those two things, that $700,000 might be $200,000. And that board and those leaders are going to make significantly different decisions based on $700,000 versus $200,000. Right? That’s a financial metric. But as far as dashboards as a whole, my real encouragement there is to look at what your key drivers are.
So, look at the financial pieces that you need to monitor, but also look at your non-financial and make sure that they are included in that dashboard as well. Maybe it’s your turnover percentage.
Maybe it’s your involvement in X program. How many meals are we feeding? How many beds have we provided depending on what your program is, but that dashboard report ought to tie to whatever your strategic plan is, so the strategic things that you’re looking at. Those are the guideposts of that dashboard that you’re going to be monitoring to make sure that your strategic plan is being fulfilled.
[00:14:00] Tommy Thomas: On a little bit lighter note, but still probably following the same track. If you were a judge on a non-profit version of the Shark Tank and people were coming to you for early-stage investments, what questions would you need solid answers to before you would open your checkbook?
[00:14:18] Vonna Laue: I’m always going to want to know what their budgeting process is. Again, you’re asking an accountant.
I want to understand that. I want to understand who they’ve vetted this with. What are the focus groups that you’ve talked to? Who are the mentors or coaches that have processed this with you? What are your strengths? And where you don’t have strengths, who are the people that you have identified and already discussed with that are going to come around you to shore up those weaknesses, if you will.
So those are a few of the things that I want to make sure that this is well thought out and it’s not just the flavor of the week.
[00:15:00] Tommy Thomas: Let’s go to board service for a few minutes. So, you’re now the chairman of the World Vision Board, or the chairperson, I guess I should say. Give us some highlights of what you’ve learned about the Chairman’s role.
I know you watched Joan for several years and watched her successes, and I’m sure lack of on some days. What have you learned there?
[00:15:22] Vonna Laue: I will tell you, Tommy, when they asked me if I would consider taking the chair role, the first thing I said was, did you ask this individual? And I named someone from the Board, and they said, yes.
And he serves on a couple of large for-profit boards and doesn’t have the time and capacity. And I said, okay, as long as you’ve shown the discernment that you asked him first, we’re good. But then I actually went to that individual and I said, if I do this, will you coach me? Would you be willing to debrief with me after the meetings?
[00:16:01] Vonna Laue: And honestly, we just finished up meetings on Tuesday this week. And he and I have a call scheduled for Monday. And he said I’d love to do that. He graciously agreed. And so that, to me, was important. Because I didn’t know the role. I had served on the board, but that role is different.
And so, the relationship between the Board Chair and the CEO is obviously the most critical. We have a pretty, no, we have a very sophisticated board. I’m odd by who God has assembled in that room. And so, when I first came into it, I would say I was just trying not to embarrass myself, but they are such a gracious group of people.
“To run an effective Board Meeting, I review agendas and pre-reads in advance, addressing my questions beforehand so meeting time is focused on others’ concerns.”
[00:16:51] Vonna Laue: And it’s important to me that the meetings are well run. And that means I want to see the agendas in advance and speak into those. I want to see the pre reads in advance and have gone through all of those so that if I have questions, I can answer them. I’m not asking those questions during the meeting that’s reserved for others, and that those may be questions that others would have.
So, let’s get those addressed in the pre reads or be prepared. So, I think that the preparation that goes into the time before the meetings is critical.
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[00:17:26] Tommy Thomas: So, here’s a couple of quotes about boards and board chairs. And one is the Chair and the CEO must learn to dance together. And neither can stray very far from each other’s gaze or proceed independently.
[00:17:42] Vonna Laue: Yeah, I would agree with that. Those are two key roles in the organization. And you have to, I’ll use the same analogy I used before. You better be pulling in the same direction. The Board Chair has a responsibility to be the voice on behalf of the Board, and so I feel like that’s an important responsibility that it’s not Vonna’s opinion that I take into there.
I seek wise counsel from my board and want to make sure that when I’m having conversations with my CEO, that either the board is informed about those things or that, I’m able to speak on their behalf. But on the day-to-day interactions, if you will, or week to week, those two leaders better be aligned.
[00:18:30] Tommy Thomas: Another one, Dr. Rebecca Basinger. Governing boards are charged with safeguarding an institution’s ability to fulfill its mission with economic vitality. To this I add, responsibility for tending to the soul of the institution.
[00:18:50] Vonna Laue: In an institution like World Vision, the soul of that organization to me is very critical. And it’s interesting. I chair the World Vision U. S. Board. I have the privilege of also sitting on the World Vision International Board because we are a federated model and there are World Vision offices around the world and Christ at the center is one of them. It’s our foremost principle by which we operate. And, if that’s not lived out in the board, the tone at the top is critical for everything. And so, I would agree that the soul of the organization starts with tone at the top.
[00:19:32] Tommy Thomas: So, it’s been my experience that the good news about having successful executives on the board is they’re used to getting things done.
The flip side is that they might have a hard time taking off their CEO hat and putting on their board member hat at a board meeting. Have you experienced that?
[00:19:53] Vonna Laue: To the credit of the current board that I have at World Vision US, I would say I don’t struggle with that there.
There is a spirit of collaboration by God’s grace that exists within there. And so, people are willing to share their experiences and their opinions, but they’re not sold on them. They’re very open. Have I experienced it in other boards? Absolutely. And one of the challenges that I see in the nonprofit sector, Tommy, is that there are experienced board members that come in with for profit expertise.
[00:20:32] Vonna Laue: Which, 90 percent of the time, is fantastic. 10 percent of the time can be challenging because there are unique things. I say if you don’t believe there are uniquenesses, go ask the local Ford dealership how many contributions they’ve received this month. You know what I mean? They don’t get any of those, right.
There are some unique things. There are some unique laws and regulations that either do apply specifically or specifically don’t apply. And so in some board settings, I’ve seen where for profit leaders have a hard time taking off that hat and being able to understand the nuances that are involved in a nonprofit organization, but really, it comes down to the spirit of humility and service.
[00:21:21] Vonna Laue: And one of the things that when you contacted me first, I believe that you couched it this way and said, would you be willing to be considered for board service at World Vision? And I tell people that I responded to you, I’m willing to be considered, let me pray about it. And that I said, that’s not trying to buy time or push you off. I legitimately meant that because I think that you have to be passionate about a ministry or a nonprofit board that you’re going to serve on. And if you don’t have that passion for that particular organization, then you find another one that you can be, because I think that passion is really important in the boardroom.
[00:22:07] Tommy Thomas: You and I are old enough to remember the Enron crisis and of course much has been written about it.
One writer said that certainly part of the problem was that the board didn’t dig deep enough into the financial situation at Enron. How do you ensure that your board members are asking the right questions? Of course, you’ve been a CPA, that might be an easier thing than another board chair, but I think that is critical.
[00:22:35] Vonna Laue: It is, and there are so many things that we have to balance in board member selection. We want to balance Equity and Diversity. We want to balance, within that age. I just encouraged us earlier to consider younger board members and what they can contribute. One of the considerations is what is the expertise that they bring to the board and what skill sets do we need on the board?
And the reason for that is to ask those right questions. If I’ve got an audit committee and I don’t have anyone that understands audit and finance, that’s problematic. And there may be some that just said, of course I can tell you I have presented to a number of audit and finance committees in my career.
[00:23:27] Vonna Laue: That they didn’t have an auditor finance expert in that entire committee. In this day and age, we’re looking at who has digital experience, who has cybersecurity, or IT experience, and it changes over time. The needs of the board today are different from the needs of the board 10 or 20 years ago.
So that’s a challenge to us individually as board members to continue growing and learning. But it’s also a challenge to us to make sure that we’re recruiting the right board members. So, to your point, you’ve got people in there that can ask the questions of, is this a good investment? Is there a legal liability associated with this?
[00:24:10] Vonna Laue: Have we got the right protections in place? What’s the end result of this potentially going to be? We don’t make a short-sighted decision that we’re looking at the long-term impact. What are the reputational impacts of these? We have two roles on the World Vision U. S. board that are assigned at every board meeting.
And one of those is the keeper of the core documents. So that person is responsible throughout the discussions to be considering how that discussion or that particular agenda item is tied to our core documents, if there’s any implications, and one of them is the responsible skeptic, and that is a formal role that person is assigned in those board meetings, and as we’re having discussion, we want somebody to be identified that will challenge and say, wait a minute, back up.
[00:25:01] Vonna Laue: Let’s not get into group think here. What about, and that they know that they’re not just putting their opinion in their hat that they’ve got this particular role. So, I think those two roles have been really helpful in our setting for our board.
[00:25:15] Tommy Thomas: I spoke to Dr. Linda Livingstone at Baylor. I was asking her about this. I didn’t use the word responsible skeptic. I guess I had another phrase, but she said, they usually show up. You don’t have to appoint them.
[00:25:28] Vonna Laue: I heard that. I heard it when she said that. And I laughed and I thought, that’s a healthy board actually, for the most part, because Proverbs talks about iron sharpens iron, and that is really helpful if people are willing to speak up. Oftentimes, we’re Christian nice and we don’t want to challenge each other and we need to be able to speak up and make sure that all of the facts, all of the considerations are on the table.
[00:25:58] Tommy Thomas: I sense that probably the role or the function of risk management has increased for a board over the last decade or two. Am I making a good observation or not?
[00:26:13] Vonna Laue: The only thing I would say is that might be the understatement of the year, potentially. Absolutely. The risks that we face and maybe I’m going to oversimplify this, but I think, they used to be known, right?
You’ve got trip hazards. That’s a physical risk. You’ve got the risk of fraud. You put controls in place. Those were known risks. What we face now, to me, are a lot of the unknown risks. What’s happening in the cyber world? What’s happening with opinions? Reputational risk has increased so significantly, and because it’s so easy, and I’ll be careful to say this is Vonna’s opinion, so please don’t ascribe this to any organization that I represent, but, because it’s so easy on social media and other media, avenues to state an opinion, and it becomes a perceived fact.
[00:27:12] Vonna Laue: Thank you. And for an organization to then have to battle something, that’s a reputational risk that we have to consider. And yet we can’t control, which is a difficult place to be.
[00:27:26] Tommy Thomas: Do y’all have a time in each board meeting where you talk about external threats or is that relegated to your CEO to bring those to the board? How does that work?
[00:27:38] Vonna Laue: Practically? Many of the organizations that I’m associated with have an enterprise risk management or a risk assessment process, and there are people within the organization that are specifically identified that are responsible for that. Not that they’re responsible for the risks, but they’re responsible to make sure that it’s updated.
The way that I tend to do it with some organizations is, brainstorm across the organization, pulling together leaders from the board. Leaders from different ministries or departments, people in different functional departments, IT, HR, finance, and just let them brainstorm. What are all the risks?
[00:28:23] Vonna Laue: I’ve done this a few times and it’s pretty common that you end up with 600-700 risks that are identified and then categorizing those into whatever categories are helpful for you. But things like regulatory, legal, physical, financial, reputational, operational risks. And then once you do that, you can identify what’s the likelihood this would happen.
And if it did happen, what would the impact be? So low, moderate and high. And that helps you distinguish, like, how significant are these risks? And when you’ve got them categorized like that, it stands out, like who the owner of that is, right? Those legal risks are either an in-house or an outsourced general counsel, your physical risks might be the facilities people, whoever, but having an owner for those.
High and moderate risks should be mitigated through measures such as insurance, internal controls, or policies. High risks, in particular, should be continuously monitored by leaders and the board, to ensure they are well understood and managed effectively.
[00:29:16] Vonna Laue: The high and moderate risks ought to have some mitigating measures in place, whether it’s insurance or internal controls or policies. And to me, the high risks should always be in front of the leaders and the board. Usually that’s an annual process that they would be taking a look at that to make sure that we understand these risks.
We’re aware of them because we’re responsible for them and we also are aware of the mitigating controls that management has put in place and those seem reasonable. So, I don’t necessarily feel like at every meeting, sometimes there are committees. World Vision International, I serve on the audit and risk committee.
[00:29:59] Vonna Laue: We have it as a specific component of that committee. So every one of our committee meetings, there is a risk component to that we are looking at. But definitely on an annual basis, that ought to be a discussion that boards are having regardless of the size of the organization.
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[00:30:15] Tommy Thomas: This could probably be a whole podcast, but maybe we’ll probably limit it. But I would be remiss if I didn’t ask an artificial intelligence question. I guess that could fall under risk. It could fall under opportunity. Your thoughts as you sit at 50,000 feet looking down on the nonprofit sector, what’s going to happen in the coming years that we need to be aware of?
[00:30:41] Vonna Laue: I think it’s all of the above. It’s opportunity. It’s risk. I mentioned earlier that boards are encountering different things now than they did 10 years ago, and they have to be learning individually. And as a board, this is a perfect example of that. We, as board members, have to be learning.
We have to adjust to and understand this new technology. Actually, our board had the privilege of sitting in an hour-long session this past week with an AI expert. I think we all walked out of there a little terrified and a little concerned about what this looks like. And that’s a great place to be, right?
[00:31:25] Vonna Laue: Because it means we know that we’ve got to lean in. I remember a number of years ago, I think it was about 2006, Walt Wilson, who started Global Media Outreach, he had been one of the initial executives at Apple, and I remember sitting with Walt at that time, and he said, the day will come where you just use apps for everything.
And I was like, what’s an app? And he’s like oh, you’ll just push a button. And then it’ll bring up all the information for that company. And you’ll do everything on this app. And I don’t know Walt’s age exactly, but I would say he was probably in his early seventies at that time. And I was like, that’s crazy.
[00:32:10] Vonna Laue: And then I realized, now, he was absolutely correct. And he had the foresight to see that. And I tend to believe that’s where we will be with AI. This is here. We better figure out how to harness it. We better figure out how to use it well. Organizations are just starting to formulate AI policies, what they will allow, what they won’t allow.
I fully believe that we’ll look back on those initial policies five years from now and laugh at ourselves. But we’ve got to start somewhere and the ability that it will give us and the doors that it opens. I don’t think we should be scared of it. But I think that we have a responsibility to do it.
Worry less about being supplanted by a chatbot and more about being outpaced by someone adept at using AI to drive corporate success.
[00:32:51] Tommy Thomas: I read an article recently and the guy was talking and he said people shouldn’t be worried about being replaced by a chat box or something. They should be more worried about being replaced by somebody who knows how to use artificial intelligence to the advantage of the corporation.
[00:33:09] Vonna Laue: Oh, I think that’s a great line because the functions that it will be able to take the place of you probably don’t need to worry about those, but yeah, the technology that goes along with it, make sure that you’re one that knows that.
And I’m getting articles from fellow board members on a pretty consistent basis. Some of our staff liaisons in the organizations I serve, there is a lot of information that’s out there and I would just encourage any of the board members don’t be overwhelmed by it. We all have other responsibilities, right?
[00:33:46] Vonna Laue: None of us are going to go get a PhD in AI. But as we start to gain an awareness, I think we’ll understand better what our responsibility might be as board members.
[00:33:59] Tommy Thomas: Let’s try to bring this thing to a close. I’ve taken probably more of your time than you had allocated for me today and I’m grateful. If you could get a do over in life, what would that be?
[00:34:12] Vonna Laue: I mentioned earlier, there were probably a couple of meetings, partner meetings that I wish had gone differently. Quite honestly, Tommy, that’s the only do over I might take, but I am very thankful to have lived my life without regrets. And that, to your point about failures and everything else, there’s value to be had in the experiences that we have encountered, and to lose out on those.
I’d probably just mess something else up. So, I think maybe I’ll keep the ones that I have.
[00:34:50] Tommy Thomas: Do you have an “I wish I had started this earlier moment in your life?”
[00:34:57] Vonna Laue: Oh, I would say the one that I’ve done often on, that I wish that I was more consistent about, is just memorizing scripture. So I know a lot of people that are good at that. I have gone back to that, incorporating that on a daily basis. And if that’s where the foundation of my decision making is coming from, I wish that I had a little bit more of that ingrained.
[00:35:25] Tommy Thomas: Final question. If you could give a younger version of yourself a piece of advice, what would it be?
[00:35:32] Vonna Laue: I learned this a little bit later. It wasn’t too late in life, but one of the most important leadership principles that I feel like I’ve learned over the years, I’d love to just close with for your group, for your audience. And I think it applies that I would have wanted to know this.
As soon as I could, and that is when we have a person in a position that they’re not succeeding in, we often in the Christian ministry world feel like we’re Christians, we can’t let somebody go and I believe that when God calls us to something, he doesn’t call us to be miserable or ill equipped for it.
[00:36:18] Vonna Laue: And so, when we keep somebody in a position that they are not competent or capable of, we’re doing a disservice to them. To two people in two organizations, at least we’re doing a disservice to that person because we’re keeping them where they can’t thrive. And it’s very hard to make a change. When I stepped away from the managing partner role, that was incredibly difficult.
Most of us don’t like change. And so even if we’re not happy, and fulfilled in a position, it’s still comfortable. So, we’re doing a disservice to them. We’re doing a disservice to our organization because we don’t have the right person in the job. We’re doing a disservice to whoever ought to be in that position because we haven’t opened it up for them to be there.
[00:37:03] Vonna Laue: And we’re doing a disservice to whatever organization this person is supposed to work for because we haven’t released them to go do that. And so I guess I’d come full circle with something I said earlier, and that is people are the key to what we do, throughout life, in personal matters and professional matters.
And so, stewarding the people in our life well is something that I think we all need to do. And it would have been great if I’d have learned that earlier on as well.
“The two things I need most when I’m busiest are my workout and my devotion time.” -Vonna Laue
Links and Resources
Next Gen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas
The Perfect Search – What every board needs to know about hiring their next CEO
Glad I Didn’t Know: Lessons Learned Through Life’s Challenges and Unexpected Blessings
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