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In three days I’ll board a red eye out of Newark, NJ for Poland.  A team of us will rendezvous at the Krakow airport prepped to work for a week on a Habitat for Humanity house in Giliwice.  Six will travel alone, four with a friend and there are two retired couples, one with their mid-career daughter.

Most don’t have much construction experience, we’ll do grunt work under excellent guidance of a local supervisor. We’ll eat breakfast at 7 AM, take a van to the work site at 8 AM, work all day and come back to the hotel at 4:30 to clean up and maybe have a soothing beverage before dinner.  We’ll do this for five days and then tour Auschwitz as a cross-cultural activity. A recent GV’er summed it up on her last day, “I’m tired, but oh, so inspired.”

This is how some of us do vacations. We’ve learned there’s something powerful in doing manual labor on a project. Sometimes we have to stop our task to help someone else for a few minutes. Sometimes we remind each other to take a break or drink some water.  Sometimes the homeowner brings their three year old child around and we all just dote for awhile. Sometimes we finish a tough task and pat each other’s backs. One Portuguese homeowner treated us to cheese and her homemade wine every afternoon at 4:30, the best, lousy wine I’ve ever had.  

Sharing tools, learning about the building materials and figuring out how to solve problems awakens something inside of us  I’ve seen retired dads and early career daughters reconnect and create memories they’ll both cherish forever. I’ve seen grandmothers and grandsons deepen their fondness. I’ve seen corporate work teams help each other, laugh together and deepen trust in ways that will serve them well when they’re back in the office dealing with complicated issues. I’ve seen strangers become friends and stay close touch for years after their work week.

This is how some of us do vacations.  Its my twenty something trip leading a Habitat for Humanity Global Village team and I can’t wait for the next one.

There’s a number for every CEO or Executive Director.  The number is how big the organization can be before significant control is effectively delegated to other leaders.  A good ED might manage a $500K operation with hands on control of nearly everything. A really good ED or CEO might manage minute details up to $1.5 million. At Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller with his quick wit, gracious manner and steel trap mind led Habitat to well over $100 million, hundreds of employees and global reach before the scope overwhelmed his style.  A friend began leading a small, $500K non profit two decades ago and led its growth to the current $5 million and is still growing. He keeps his finger on the pulse of important things and lets others handle the rest.

At some point, complexities of managing data systems, key relationships, financials, staff guidance, strategy, social media and adapting structures overwhelm any leader’s capacity. I’m not very good with the hands on control thing.  If I were an ED, my number would probably be $500K and then I’d need a lot of help with the daily minutiae.

It falls on the board to identify and monitor the number. And boards don’t usually figure it out until the number is exceeded, leaving budget deficits, declining staff morale, razor thin margin of errors and damaged relationships to clean up. There are plenty of warning signs if board leaders are tuned in.  But it’s a tricky area with difficult truths that boards usually try to avoid.

The path through this thicket varies with the dynamics of every organization but there is a path.

At the next table in the coffee shop two people held an energetic conversation about workplace issues.  A few tables over three people were in an intense, quiet discussion with lots of pauses.  The dialogue was obviously deep and personal.

These people were lucky.  They all had someone to talk with, give feedback and make observations on whatever predicaments clouded up their lives. They were coaching each other.

But coaching from friends is a mixed blessing.  Loyalties can limit perspective.  Friendships can prevent delivery of necessary but tough messages. Friends’ experience and expertise is often limited. Their sympathetic ear is most welcome but may not come with deep insight needed to really impact our next steps.  

Dilemmas from work, family, money and community might only be benign distractions or completely knock us off the rails. Our lives are complex and intertwined; challenges from one life area impact another.  

Coaching does many things.  Unknown doors and untapped resources can be revealed.

Rewarding opportunities often exist beyond the horizon of present problems.  Sometimes we must make internal changes to accommodate a transitioning environment. What are the wise and unwise next steps?  

Try coaching.  Workplace coaching for an org’s chief leadership is usually called “Executive Coaching.”  Guidance through life’s complexities is “Life Coaching.” But we all know, life’s normal complexities and our workplace intermingle.  Find a way forward.  It’s there.

I visited Prague a few days after a Habitat for Humanity Global Village build in Poland and snagged one of the last seats to a Czech Symphony Orchestra concert. The performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Violin and Viola was remarkable enough but after the concert I learned the conductor was a last minute substitute for the “indisposed” original conductor. The fill-in conductor performed flawlessly.

Okay. We all call in sick once in awhile. Competition for any paid music gig is fierce. Hang around a crowd of performers more than a few minutes and the rolodex (still using that?) fills up quickly with stellar, highly trained people who just need a chance to show their stuff.

Who is your backup? In our world of org leadership, especially charitable organizations where the pay isn’t high and applause isn’t loud, a rolodex full of back ups is rare. Benches are not deep.

I’m coaching an Executive Director of a charitable org who anticipates retirement in six to eight years. Although that seems far away, their strategy is to fill second tier positions with fully qualified people perceived to have significant growth potential. As they fill board positions they’ll seek a few people with deep management and leadership skills appropriate for the position.

Any CEO will eventually retire, resign or become “indisposed.” With a strategy like this, a search committee will have a few qualified names for immediate consideration and get a head start. And the show will go on.