What a week. As I sat to write my weekly Follow Up Friday reminder to subscribers, my Twitter feed is full of reports from Minneapolis and my podcasts with updates from Louisville.

My inbox was full of fear filled emails about how to lead with all the uncertainty. And many nonprofit fundraisers are freaking out about how to plan for the coming year.

Is it right to do follow up when the world is hurting?

With all this injustice, fear, anger, and upheaval, is it insensitive to move forward on your goals?
Are you being out-of-touch by making sales?
Are you being insensitive when fundraising?
Are you being callous having a tough management conversation with a staff member?
Are you being irresponsible by planning for your future?

No. It’s not necessarily insensitive. In fact, that call, that conversation, that planning may be the thing that adds some element of order to someone’s world. Even your own.

What to follow up on if you don’t feel like to talking to anyone

If you are having a day of needing to experience the emotions you’re feeling, perhaps you can follow up on clarifying your values. Brain expert Jessica Sharp did a training for us yesterday on how to manage stress during this pandemic. One of the surprising strategies was clarifying your values. Knowing your values can help you make decisions today that you’ll still be proud of in the future.

Two tools mentioned in the training were:

• Brené Brown’s List of Values from Dare to Lead
  https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/workbook-art-pics-glossary/
• Our own Values Inventory https://concordleadershipgroup.com/values/

Whatever you choose to do, please that wrestling with these questions is good. It shows you’re the type of person committed to making this world a better place.

Thank you.