Leaving Well: nonprofit leadership guidance for workplace exits and transitions

Naomi Hattaway
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This is Leaving Well, where we talk about the reality that People Leave™️ in nonprofits and the social impact sector. Through this podcast, you will receive expert insights on leadership exits and transitions, the benefits of interim leadership, and sustainable succession planning in nonprofits. Listen to learn transition strategies for executive director, CEO, and board of directors leadership during resignations, terminations, and unfortunate circumstances such as death.

  1. 4D AGO

    85: Althea Seloover on Detoxing from Workaholism + Finding Congruence

    Althea Seloover is a poet, a relational map-maker, a story teller, an advocate, an abolitionist, an investigator, an entrepreneur, a creative thinker, a hope holder, a griever, a dreamer, and a friend. She provides work in the realm of prisoner liberation, self-parenting & life history investigation work in the world. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her fiancé, two cats & lots of books.  Find Althea: Website Instagram For over 18 months, Althea has been passing the collection plate for a Palestinian family taking refuge in Cairo, Egypt. If you'd like to contribute to these monthly efforts, you can donate here.   Quotes: When I make the decision to do things differently, whether that's by choice or the circumstances have changed, to stay with the humbling, and at times humiliating, learning process of ‘I am out of my element, or I feel a little incompetent, or I don't know the answer right off the top of my head, or I don't know which direction to move in.’ Really honoring those moments as opportunities to do exactly what I have had the joy and opportunity to do for others is important.   Grief creates anxiety. It creates these spaces, these little sinkholes, in the relational fabric of things.   The elements that nurture safety, in my experience, are a sense of agency, a sense of self and connection, an understanding of the environment, the connections between things.   The way that we're able to shift the way that our systems work, the way that we work, the way the norms of our culture is by doing what we believe should be happening. It's making small changes. It's embodying the values. To learn more about Leaving Well, visit https://www.naomihattaway.com/ To support the production of this podcast, peruse my Leaving Well Bookshop or buy me a coffee.  This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.

    35 min

  2. OCT 7

    84: Astronomer Meets Coldplay

    A CEO steps down after a viral scandal, and within 72 hours, a new interim leader is named. While the world focused on the drama, we’re focusing on what really matters: how Astronomer’s board pulled off one of the fastest leadership transitions we’ve seen. Nonprofit leaders: this is your wake-up call. In this episode, Naomi breaks down: Why internal leadership benches matter more than dream candidate lists Why speed is more important than perfection during a crisis How to craft crisis communications that inspire confidence (not chaos) Why your mission must stay front and center, even in moments of disruption Whether you’re an Executive Director or on a nonprofit board, this is your playbook for succession readiness—before a crisis hits. Quotes: “Most nonprofit boards think that succession planning means having a dusty binder somewhere with outdated emergency contacts. But modern crises move at the speed of social media, not board meetings.” “So my question for you is: who is on your current team that could run your organization tomorrow? Not perfectly, not permanently, but competently enough to maintain operations while you figure out the long term. If your answer is nobody, then that's your first succession planning priority.” “You need to craft your messaging around leadership transition around these three points: number one, what happened? Keep it brief. Number two, what you're doing about it. Keep it concrete. And number three, how you're protecting the mission that's forward looking.” “In a world where crises moves at internet speed, your succession planning better be just as fast.”   To learn more about Leaving Well, visit https://www.naomihattaway.com/ To support the production of this podcast, peruse my Leaving Well Bookshop or buy me a coffee.  This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.

    10 min

  3. SEP 30

    83: Lauren Andraski on the Best Ways to Bring Consultants into Your Organization

    Lauren Andraski is a collaborative community builder who champions equitable communities in every area of her life - from launching a community of nonprofit consultants to starting a string quartet in her living room. As the founder of Consultants for Good, she has created a thriving network of over 1,100 nonprofit consultants across 6 continents.   Quotes: “We’ve found that capacity building usually takes at least three years to actually give organizations time to implement and start seeing evidence of that impact. Setting the clear expectation that just because we don't see it right away doesn't mean that nothing's happening, and we should stay the course on the things we’re trying to implement.”   “Consultants aren't often cheap, but they're an incredible investment if you're clear on where you actually want to start.”   “When you're hiring a consultant, one of the benefits is that the consultant is not already on your team. They're not part of the power dynamics. They are not part of the culture—in a really positive way. I think sometimes it feels like they'll never understand us. But in fact, that can be really helpful.”   Find Lauren: Consultants 4 Good  (Join the community!) C4G reports LinkedIn To learn more about Leaving Well, visit https://www.naomihattaway.com/ To support the production of this podcast, peruse my Leaving Well Bookshop or buy me a coffee.   This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.

    32 min

  4. SEP 23

    82: Elizabeth DiAlto on Getting Fully Rooted into Who You Are

    Known for her inclusive, humorous, and uniquely transformative approach to spirituality and the healing arts, Elizabeth DiAlto has been helping people tap into self love, healing, wholeness, and liberation since 2013. The Founder of the House of E, The School of Sacred Embodiment, and Wild Soul Movement™, Elizabeth’s distinctive medicine weaves together mystical + erotic intelligence, sensual + embodied movement, and integrative healing + energy work. Her methods are a potent synthesis of various trainings as well as ancestral tools + practices from the mixed/multiple lineages of her Caribbean, Indigenous, and European heritages. From 2015-2024, Elizabeth hosted the beloved Embodied Podcast, currently co-hosts the Mystical Aunties Show, and is soon launching Heat & Honey with Louiza “Weeze” Doran. Elizabeth is the proud owner of one of the most contagious laughs around (if you know, you know!). In 2018 + 2019, she did stand-up comedy for fun, performing on stages in LA and NYC. Her favorite social activities are salsa dancing and karaoke. She loves driving her Mini Cooper, is the queen of parallel parking, and most recently, she’s elated to be back in the “motherland”— NYC, where she lives in a cozy and light-filled Brooklyn studio.   Quotes: I always encourage people to think: what are you rooting into? We're much more easily swayed if we're not rooted. Someone could push you over if you're not rooted. Someone could bully you. When you're rooted in something, it's deep and there's practice and devotion to back it up.   When something might upset folks, you can acknowledge these things. One of the most inclusive practices out there is just acknowledgement.    Grief is an emotion that gets masked by other things. More socially acceptable things. Anger is often such a great mask for grief, because anger feels powerful. The reason people don't allow themselves to feel grief is because it feels weak. A lot of people associate grief or sadness or depression with weakness. It is not, it is so human. It's the most human thing.   In a world that is so inhumane and so dehumanizing, we have to ask how do we be human together? How do we honor the humanity? How do we rehumanize if we're constantly being dehumanized? Grief is one of the ways. Grief is the great tenderizer. It softens us in the places where we're hard. When you let yourself grieve, it's connective tissue to your own self, your own soul, your own ethics, morals, and values. Find Elizabeth: House of E Website Instagram YouTube   To learn more about Leaving Well, visit https://www.naomihattaway.com/ To support the production of this podcast, peruse my Leaving Well Bookshop or buy me a coffee.   This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.

    33 min

  5. SEP 16

    81: Wellesley Michael on Amplifying the Work of Vice President Harris

    Wellesley Michael has the sweetest little rescue pup Petunia, and they do everything possible together. Always looking for a new Lego set, she will forever be a theatre kid, and enjoys taking in D.C.'s vast theatre scene. Wellesley formed a passion for community organizing purely out of a search for hope, support, and community after the murder of George Floyd. She then got trapped in the world of politics by working on campaigns in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. In D.C., she has worked on digital communications in the U.S. House, Senate, and the Biden-Harris White House. Currently, Wellesley is building the first-ever Creator Program for Senate Democrats — connecting Senators with content creators and new media.   Quotes:  “It eases my anxiety a lot to know the finality of something, but that doesn't make it less difficult.”   “My job was managing the VP comms accounts and I needed to make sure that the American public saw the total breadth of everything that Kamala Harris had done as Vice President that people didn't give her credit for or know about. A lot of the things that she did were not in the media.”   “We knew the job was ending and there were different paths of what the ending would look like. No matter what happened, on January 20th, the Biden-Harris administration was over. It was just a matter of, would it be then the Harris-Walz administration moving in? But there were many waves of grief.”   “The hardest part of any sort of high impact work that's really short is your life transitions so quickly to something different. And when you're so focused on the outcomes for someone else all day, it's hard to manage your self care. And even in the most basic sense of where am I getting food?” Find Wellesley: Instagram LinkedIn   To learn more about Leaving Well, visit https://www.naomihattaway.com/ To support the production of this podcast, peruse my Leaving Well Bookshop or buy me a coffee.   This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.

    34 min

  6. APR 21

    80: Brooke Richie-Babbage on Strategic Planning

    Brooke Richie-Babbage is a nonprofit growth strategist and social impact advisor. She is the founder and CEO of Bending Arc, a social impact strategy firm that supports the launch and sustainable growth of high-impact nonprofits, and the host of Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast. Brooke has spent the past 23 years working as a lawyer, nonprofit leader, and social entrepreneur. She has founded and led multiple successful organizations and initiatives, including the Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP), where she served as founder and Executive Director for 11 years, the Sterling Network NYC and the NetLab Initiative, both initiatives of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, where she served as Director of Network Initiatives for six years, and the Social Justice Accelerator (SJA), an initiative of the Urban Justice Center, where she has served as SJA Director since 2019.   She has been a visiting lecturer and featured speaker at numerous graduate and law schools, including Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and Fordham. She has presented papers at conferences around the country on social entrepreneurship, non-profit leadership, and community lawyering, and co-produced and hosted the City Watch radio show on WBAI.  She served as Secretary and then Chair of the Social Welfare Committee of the NYC Bar Association, as well as the Co-Chair of the Policy Action Committee of the citywide Welfare Reform Network, and an appointed member of both the Governor’s statewide Child Care Policy Working Group and Mayor Bloomberg’s Adolescent Fatherhood Advisory Council. She has served as a member or officer of several non-profit boards, including as Board Chair for the Community Resource Exchange, and most recently as an officer for the boards of the Urban Justice Center and Nonprofit New York.  Brooke received both her JD and MPP from Harvard and her BA from Yale. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.   Quotes: I think that there are two versions of your strategic plan. The internal serves as a roadmap for you and your team. It serves as a foundation for work planning, annual planning, next steps, and funding. Then there’s an external version. That goes on your website. That is your vision. That is ‘where are you taking this organization in the long term?’   There is no one way to do strategic planning. Release yourself from the tyranny of what strat planning is, and start with the question, ‘what is the organizational set of goals?’ The process can be whatever you want it to be.   Strategic planning is not a pre-structured thing. It is a set of conversations that ideally help you determine where you want to go and what you want your adventure to feel like for all the interested parties. To connect with Brooke: Brooke Richie-Babbage LinkedIn   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

    42 min

  7. APR 7

    79: Shannon Curtis on Presence and Creating Joyful Community

    Shannon Curtis has been a recording artist and songwriter for the last 27 years, and has carved out a unique, community-driven DIY music career with her husband and co-conspirator, Jamie Hill, for the last 19. Her new album — 80s kids, her first-ever covers album — is due out in April 2025, and was a great excuse for her to (re)acquire an Atari 2600. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, and is in love with The Mountain, just like any good inhabitant of the Puget Sound.   “When we were forced to pause, it was an opportunity to realize that maybe we had pushed and pulled and prodded and explored every corner that we could creatively in that medium in that setting.” “I recognize that presence needs to be my goal. The idea of what is before me today to do. I don't need to take on all of the things all of the time. That's been something that I've really needed to focus on.” “One of the most powerful tools that we can use to exist and resist, is to hold onto our joy. Our joy really is a refuge and when we create experiences of joy with each other, we create a place of safety for people who are feeling threatened.” “Leaving well is being able to have the knowledge that I showed up before the leaving, that I showed up to the work, that I showed up to that part of my life with all of me in the best way that I could.”   To connect with Shannon: Website Instagram Facebook Threads Mastodon ~ Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

    38 min

  8. MAR 31

    78: Julie Fogh and Casey Erin Clark on Stepping Into and Out of a Role

    Vital Voice Training is a communication consultancy out to revolutionize the conversation about good public speaking and leadership presence — from stressing out about your “ums and uhs” to working creatively at the intersection of you and your context. Since 2014, they’ve been bringing game-changing public speaking and communication training to individuals and organizations, specializing in building public speaking confidence, navigating difficult conversations, balancing authenticity and situational adaptivity, and bringing out their clients’ own unique charisma. Co-founders Julie Fogh and Casey Erin Clark are experienced professional actors — their approach is grounded in theater and performance, neuroscience, somatics, socio-linguistics, and organizational psychology. Their clients are leaders in the finance, venture capital, law, and tech industries, world-changing entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors, as well as in-demand keynote speakers who regularly bring their ground-breaking ideas and perspectives to stages all over the world.  Casey Erin Clark is a voice, public speaking, and communication coach, performer, author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and leader in both the entertainment and business worlds. She is a fierce advocate for gender justice and spends her days speaking, teaching, and writing about the power of women’s voices, while seizing fulfilling opportunities to perform on screen and stage. In 2014, Casey and Julie Fogh co-founded Vital Voice Training, a voice and speech coaching company on a mission to change the conversation about what leaders are “supposed” to sound like and empower everyone to own the power of their full vocal instrument and presence. Casey hails from the cornfields of southern Illinois (where she grew up singing with her family Von Trapp-style) and has a BFA in musical theater from Illinois Wesleyan University. She also coaches musical theater pros of all ages, is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA, performed at the 2013 Oscars with the Les Miserables movie cast, and sings with the Grammy-nominated and Tony-honored Broadway Inspirational Voices choir. Recommending romance novels and breakfast restaurants is her love language. Will perform the Lafayette speed rap from Hamilton on demand. Julie Fogh is a voice coach, podcast host, and interpersonal communications specialist who works with speakers and  leaders helping them navigate their individual tensions and blocks, revealing the personal power and unique and captivating humanity that exists in all of us. Through Vital Voice Training, Julie and her co-founder Casey Erin Clark blend the toolbox of the professional actor with their powerful frameworks for embracing one's authentic speaking voice to businesses, schools, and organizations all over the country including Thrive Capital, Facebook, Google, NASA and The Hartford. Julie was raised in Seattle and earned her BA in Theatre and Women Studies from University of Washington. She earned an MFA in acting from Northern Illinois University, a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum that engaged with the physical body, the emotional life, imagination, use of language, character construction, non-verbal communication and the truth of the moment. She has studied with  the Moscow Art Theatre and University of Copenhagen and has studied Meisner Technique with Kathryn Gately, Michael Chekhov Technique with Deborah Robertson, and Movement and Period Style with Lloyd Williamson. She loves YA novels, introverts,  and her very vocal  rescue cat, Ashland.   Read the MM Lafleur piece   Quotes: When we walk into a room, every time we go into a meeting, we are there for a purpose. We always communicate with a purpose in mind. So we need to give ourselves the agency to ask why am I here and what am I trying to accomplish?   Our mission from the beginning of this company has been to expand our ideas of what leadership looks and sounds like. We do that in part by showing up with more of who we are, even in spaces where that is risky and where that may not always pay off. But we do it strategically, we do it bravely, and we do it consistently so that other people can also do it.   Leaving Well is the ability to really figure out for yourself and for the people that you care about how to button this chapter, how to transition, how to move forward.    To connect with Vital Voices: Website Twitter Instagram Linkedin   To connect with Casey: Twitter Instagram LinkedIn   To connect with Julie LinkedIn   ~   Take the Transition Readiness assessment To learn more about Leaving Well This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley

    46 min
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This is Leaving Well, where we talk about the reality that People Leave™️ in nonprofits and the social impact sector. Through this podcast, you will receive expert insights on leadership exits and transitions, the benefits of interim leadership, and sustainable succession planning in nonprofits. Listen to learn transition strategies for executive director, CEO, and board of directors leadership during resignations, terminations, and unfortunate circumstances such as death.

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