following their calling - Baylor Business Review

Ethics Of: A Billion-dollar Sports League Operating as a Nonprofit

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

By Eleanor Hunt

Mass appeal has propelled the National Football League’s popularity and economic success, enabling blockbuster ticket sales, a namesake television network, broadcast deals, beverage sponsorships, clothing and apparel sales, and other income streams.

Most football fans are unaware that the central office representing their beloved football teams functions as a not-for-profit entity. The league office is exempt from paying federal taxes by reason of its Internal Revenue Code, Section 501(c)(6) designation regarding business leagues, chambers of commerce and boards of trade. The league office promotes the football trade—the common business interest of its 32 member clubs. To earn the designation, the league office must not engage in a business for profit and no part of its net earnings must inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. According to its Form 990 for the tax year ending March 31, 2013, the National Football League (NFL) posted revenue of $8.9 billion, but the form shows the league operates at a loss. Most individual NFL teams pay taxes.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey conducted in late 2013 revealed the majority of respondents were unaware of the NFL’s tax-exempt status and generally opposed it.

“It raises a lot of eyebrows across the country that the average American does not consider the NFL a nonprofit,” says Darryl Lehnus, Baylor Marketing professor and director of the Sports Sponsorship and Sales Program. “Amazingly, I’ve been in the business all my life, and it was just about six months ago I read something about them being a nonprofit.”

As an association, the NFL supports football professional growth by writing game rules, employing referees, directing the college draft, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, and conducting health and safety research. The league spearheads youth football programs, such as NFL Punt, Pass & Kick (PP&K), which allows children ages 6 to 15 to learn football fundamentals in a non-contact environment. These activities and others appear to satisfy members’ common business interest, but do they warrant a free pass from taxes?

“We have a long history of benefiting organizations that are contributing to the common good of the nation,” says Kirk Wakefield, Edwin W. Streetman Professor of Retail Marketing and executive director for the Sports Sponsorship and Sales Program. “We’ve allowed them to operate like that for the common good. It appears to me that whatever benefit the NFL provides, we are receiving the benefit from all of those teams because the teams are taxed. If those teams didn’t have the NFL working for them, they would be less viable, less profitable, and you might see some of them closed. You can argue that we are better off having an association that facilitates the most loved sport in the nation.”

The NFL does not claim to be a public charity like the United Way or Salvation Army and does not solicit contributions. The league and its players support charitable causes on their own, partnering with the United Way and participating in National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to provide some portion of the proceeds from pink product sales for cancer programs and research. The league also supports hunger elimination programs (Taste of the NFL) and serves the public interest by offering sports entertainment on free television.

Yet, the NFL has been on the defensive lately with a pileup of perceived ethical lapses that could threaten its tax exemptions. Several U.S. lawmakers and critics have considered the league’s alleged domestic violence and child abuse problems, workplace injuries and team-name debates as reasons to halt its tax advantages. In September 2013, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Senator Angus King (I-Maine) introduced the Properly Reducing Overexemptions for Sports Act to tackle the NFL’s tax break. The bill was referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.

“The NFL headquarters claims to be a trade association, but undeniably represents one brand and 32 specific teams,” Coburn says. “The same is true of other major professional leagues, such as the PGA Tour, claiming tax-exempt status. They are getting an unfair advantage over other businesses, which have not been allowed by the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] to use the exemption (and rightly so). It’s time to level the playing field and end the tax exemption for pro sports leagues.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who reportedly earned $44.2 million during the league’s 2013 fiscal year, has garnered criticism for his handling of recent player problems. Additionally, the league has been attacked for embracing profits rather than concern for the players’ well-being, as evidenced by more than 4,500 former players filing suit against the league’s handling of player head injuries and health issues.

“There is a deep-seated feeling among the public about the ethics of the NFL,” Lehnus says. “Are they too big of a business even to be worried about what people think?”

U.S. citizens care whether nonprofits are undermining their trust. In return for the tax breaks, nonprofits are expected to operate with the utmost transparency and integrity, investigate themselves and share the results with the public.

“It signals something is wrong whenever you see a sort of knee-jerk reaction of trying to fix things all of a sudden by an organization. When individuals or groups are reactive, rather than proactive or strategic, it signifies a lack of preparation and foresight,” Wakefield says.

Persons following a calling into nonprofit work would be well served to pay attention to ethical vulnerabilities as growth surges in an organization. Meanwhile, our lawmakers could huddle together and revise the tax-exemption sections of the tax code to reflect today’s realities.

Says Richard Meyer, public policy adviser for the Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations and an attorney with 30 years’ experience with charities and statewide associations, “Times are changing, and I don’t think the law has kept up very well. A number of large nonprofit entities may have outgrown the code. It’s fair to question the very idea of profit-generating, tax-exempt organizations and to ask if profit-seeking associations and charities would dilute the public perception of those that remain totally charitable in their operations. However, when organizations have large constituencies on the ground, they won’t be moved easily.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015

From the Classroom to Prison

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

By Becca Broaddus

Barbed wire fences contain inmates, not their dreams.

Each semester since 2007, Hankamer School of Business MBA and graduate students, as well as graduate faculty and staff, are invited to offer their skills to help inmates create business plans through the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP).

The PEP is prison outreach from a business perspective. Baylor students volunteer their business knowledge to teach inmates the skills needed to run a business when released from prison. PEP follows 10 driving values: a “fresh start” outlook, servant-leader mentality, love, innovation, accountability, integrity, execution, fun, excellence and wise stewardship.

“We want [the inmates in the program] to be serious,” Gary Carini, associate dean for graduate business programs, management professor and PEP governing board member, said. “We take character into account—how consistent is his character with the 10 driving values of PEP? We get to see God work with these men.”

Baylor Business students help inmates at the Cleveland Correctional Center in Cleveland, Texas, and, most recently, the Sanders Estes Unit in Venus, Texas.

The program lasts 10 weeks. For about one hour of each of those weeks the inmates work on a business plan with the assistance of MBA candidates.
The employment rate among PEP graduates exceeds 93 percent and the recidivism rate is less than 5 percent. Both students and inmates emerge from this experience changed.

“My nervousness and initial hesitation to shake the hands of these men gave away something in me that I hadn’t expected,” Lauren Moser, PEP volunteer and MBA/MDiv candidate, said. “These are good men who deserve to be looked in the eye and told that each and every one of them is valuable. I experienced a paradigm shift the day I went to prison. I came in feeling that I had something to offer these men when it was truly the men at Cleveland Correctional that had something much more valuable to offer me.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015

Tell me, Show me, Involve me

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

By Barbara Elmore

Business school educators emphasize the following points to students who arrive at Baylor’s doorstep with a desire to save the world:

Success derives from the same professional operations used by the for-profit business next door.
Understanding your target market and branding are vital to making marketing work.

Although a passion to make a difference is important to nonprofits’ success, no one need add passion to the list. The desire to do for others often walks in the door. Recognizing it is easy for professors who are in the classroom for some of the same reasons as their students.

Professor Charles Fifield employs a Confucius passage to describe how he teaches students in his Concert Promotions and Event Planning class:
“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

This formula has resulted in successful campus performances by such groups as the Nashville-based duo Hymns for Hunger and Christian rock group Switchfoot.

Promoting events and concerts is mostly accomplished through legwork and youthful energy, a heart for helping, heavy use of social media—and no budget to speak of. And yet sellouts or near-sellouts of concerts are the result.

The secrets to successful nonprofit promotion are not all that secret. The event or brand students are promoting must be someone or something people will pay to see or do, and the promoters have to fulfill well-defined duties, which they accomplish using a team approach.

Fifield’s class is the concert promotion arm of Uproar Records, a record, entertainment and promotion company run by students in the Hankamer School of Business. Most of the students who run Uproar are business majors. Fifield, an adviser of the group and a senior lecturer at Baylor since 2001, teaches by giving the students experience.

The first step of the Confucius saying, the “telling” part, occurs in class. The next step, “showing,” includes taking them into meetings with sponsors and customers. “I say, ‘Just watch. I will tell you what I am going to do, and then you are going to do it.’ Then the next meeting, they do it. Tell me, show me, involve me.”

This formula puts the students in the role of carrying out a marketing plan, giving them a sound background no matter where they land after graduation.

Students who want to pursue social entrepreneurship—using their entrepreneurship skills to accomplish social change—must take courses in the basics of business, said Kendall Artz, director of the Baylor Entrepreneurship Program and chairman of the Department of Entrepreneurship. They must know how to understand finance and cash flow. “A course is specifically designed for students to write a business plan for a venture they could undertake in another country,” Artz said.

Hankamer’s Entrepreneurship Program has grown explosively in the last decade, Artz said, and students who want to use their business background in unconventional ways are often the drivers. That was the case with the seven-year-old Social Entrepreneurship in Africa program.

“What they wanted to do was use their business training to go to developing countries and see what positive social change they could make,” Artz said. “The program is primarily focused on helping students understand how they can take their business background to develop the economy in Rwanda.”

The concept of using entrepreneurial skills applies to both for-profits and nonprofits, Artz said. “You can argue that it applies even more to a nonprofit that is resource-constrained.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015

Research in Action: Bringing Faith to Work

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

By Julie Carlson

Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, two closely-held family companies, recently found themselves in the news when values associated with their founders’ faith came in conflict with some more secular views espoused by various politically active groups.

Organizations such as these have clearly stated spiritual values; however, numerous organizations might not be as explicit but are still trying to live out faith while in the workplace.

Mitchell Neubert, professor and Chavanne Chair of Christian Ethics in Business, has spent years researching the direct applications of how faith might impact work.

“The goal of my research is to explain that faith is relevant and encourage people to have appropriate expressions of their faith in the workplace. Living out their faith can benefit organizations because integrating faith into the workplace is associated with employees being ethical, hardworking and committed to their organizations,” he said.

In 2009, Neubert received a grant from the National Science Foundation to examine “Entrepreneurial Behavior, Regulatory Focus, and Religion.” For the multi-part study, he teamed up with Baylor sociology professors Jerry Park and Kevin Dougherty.

Part of that larger study was published last year in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Using data from the Baylor Religion Survey, the Baylor scholars found American entrepreneurs pray more frequently, tend to see God as more personal and are more likely to attend a place of worship that encourages business activity. On other measures—church affiliation, belief in God and service attendance—entrepreneurs seem to be as religious as everyone else: They attend church monthly, on average, and two-thirds say they have no doubt God exists.

“We speculate that entrepreneurs are more aware of the risks associated with business,” Neubert said. “Since a high percentage of entrepreneur ventures fail, maybe these people are more sensitive to the need for guidance and support. People with stable jobs might not feel the need to pray about the job every day. That doesn’t mean other people don’t pray; it just means entrepreneurs pray a little bit more.”

Another study Neubert conducted with Associate Professor Steve Bradley looked at the faith maturity or “spiritual capital” of people in Indonesia and Kenya who receive microfinancing. They found the entrepreneurs who have a high level of faith maturity are more innovative and have higher levels of sales.

“We don’t have a complete explanation for the effects. We need to do follow-up research to discover why these people are more innovative and successful than those with lower faith maturity,” Neubert said.

Conversely, a preliminary study of people who adhere to a “prosperity gospel” or belief that God promises prosperity to believers finds this does not translate into action and, in fact, they seem to be a little more passive in the workplace.

“We are still exploring this issue, but right now, we are finding that believing the prosperity gospel does not predict entrepreneurial behavior at work. This belief might be associated with positive attitudes, but those attitudes don’t translate into action. This is an issue because a large number of people outside the U.S., especially in developing countries, strongly adhere to the prosperity gospel and its hope for a better life,” Neubert said.

Other studies have delved into similar questions. In “Called to Commitment: An Examination of Relationships Between Spiritual Calling, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment” (Journal of Business Ethics), Neubert and graduate student Katie Halbesleben looked at how one’s feeling of spiritual calling or believing one’s work is a mission from God can influence attitudes about work.

“We weren’t looking at the secular definition of ‘calling’ that means passion or fit, but rather a calling from God. We found that people who believe they have a spiritual calling to work are more satisfied with their work and more committed to their organizations. What this tells me is that for some people, faith is a source of motivation and meaning in their work. Those people find spiritual value in what they are doing. That is a good thing for organizations,” Neubert said.

Also, churches have an impact on faith in the workplace. The study on entrepreneurs found they are more likely to worship in churches that are perceived as “pro-business.” But how are churches “pro-business,” and what are the best practices of those that are?

“Are there particular messages in the sermons, special programs (such as affinity groups) for business people or other ways that certain churches validate business?” Neubert asked. “Pastors usually aren’t trained to talk about work, but that is where we spend the majority of our days. They typically don’t know how to help their members integrate faith with work. We want to help churches realize they do have an impact on the workplace and to be thoughtful and wise about what they are teaching.”

While some workplaces have been trying to detach faith from the workplace because of political issues or concerns, in doing so, they might be limiting the potential positive benefits of employees bringing their whole self to work, Neubert said.

“Any business leader or entrepreneur must be wise in how they talk about faith in the workplace. We are such a diverse culture with diverse workplaces, and one can’t assume that everybody has the same belief. So businesses have to be careful about encouraging and allowing expressions of faith that don’t infringe on other people’s rights,” he said.

Neubert often discusses the results of his research findings with his principled leadership classes.

“Talking about ethics is a big part of that class,” he said. “One of the great things about Baylor is we can talk about where our ethics and values come from. Some institutions want to discuss ethics but not the source of those ethics.”

Neubert’s students often interview business leaders for their class assignments. Often they learn how these leaders’ faith shapes their ethics and how they treat their employees and customers.

Neubert also brings in leaders to his class. “I can ask, ‘What are your spiritual values, and as a leader, how could you put those into practice in a way that doesn’t alienate people and benefits the organization?’” he said. “Although many people don’t live an integrated life; these successful leaders often do.

Through my writing and teaching, I am trying to encourage people to bridge the gap between Sunday and Monday. If they do it wisely, they can experience an integrated life, which benefits themselves and their organizations and others. They won’t need to have one life on Sunday and another life on Monday.”

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015

Making A Mark

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

The top-ranked programs at the Hankamer School of Business combine rigorous classroom learning, hands-on experience in the real world, a solid foundation in ethical values and a global outlook.

These four dimensions are represented in the Hankamer School of Business logo, and it’s reflected in the four floors of the new Foster Campus. In the next few pages, the focus is on how the pursuit of its mission has led the School to the construction of the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation. From sharing donor stories to live-tweeted student tours of the new campus, the School’s four dimensions have impacted all those touched by the Hankamer School of Business. Likewise, each student, alumna, alumnus, faculty member, staff member and donor has left a mark on the School.

In fall 2014, some of those people had the opportunity to make their mark on the new FOSTER CAMPUS by adding their signatures to eight beams to be used in the campus construction. Even if your signature isn’t on the yellow c-channels pictured inside, you can still make a digital mark on the Foster Campus.

We’ve a page with a blank beam you can sign and share with us online. Sign it and take a selfie with your signed beam. A selection of the best photos may be shared on the Baylor Business social media accounts. Click here for your very own beam to sign!

Our Mission

Our MISSION is to cultivate principled leaders and serve the global marketplace through transformational learning and impactful scholarship in a culture of innovation guided by Christian values.

Our SHARED VALUES are the principles that guide all of our work. They are:

INTEGRITY
SERVICE
LEARNING
LEADERSHIP
EXCELLENCE
TRANSFORMATION
TEAMWORK
IMPACT
INNOVATION
EXPLORATION

Strategic Focus

Our strategic areas of focus include FOUR KEY AREAS:

CALLING / We are a community committed to excellence and service to others, and we believe our potential is God-given and our life path follows a calling. The Hankamer School helps students meet their callings by providing relevant, transformational educational programs and professional immersion characterized by a culture of innovation, excellence, Christian values and a global perspective.
CHARACTER / All members of the Hankamer community provide principled leadership and service guided by Christian commitment. This is the character we instill in our students, and the commitment that guides our faculty and staff in their work. A central feature of this effort involves the selection and development of individuals whose values and character are consistent with the school and university missions.
CLIMATE / The school’s culture of innovation is shaped by our faculty, who produce research that illuminates transformative solutions to significant business and societal problems. Our culture also supports students, faculty and staff through efficient internal processes dedicated to excellence, effective stewardship and nimble service. This climate is the foundation for our work, and the means through which we provide the Baylor experience.
CONNECTIONS / Communication amongst and between our stakeholders is vital to our success and the fulfillment of our mission. Our faith-based heritage and commitment to integrity provides the foundation for collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with our stakeholders.

Donor Stories

PAUL L. FOSTER CAMPUS FOR BUSINESS AND INNOVATION
Paul Foster overcame challenges in building his business and became one of Baylor’s most generous alumni of his day. IMPACT

RILEY FAMILY PLAZA
Harold Riley’s journey to Baylor was only possible because someone else provided a scholarship. TEAMWORK

HANKAMER ATRIUM
The Hankamer family have a long and continuing association with Baylor and the business school providing the naming endowment and funds to help build the School’s first home in 1960. IMPACT

JACK HARPER DEPARTMENT SUITE FOR ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, INSURANCE, AND REAL ESTATE
Jack Harper graduated with a degree in Finance and has spent his entire career in the oil and gas business—most recently serving as executive vice president at Concho Resources, Inc. Jack believes in serving his community and serves on the board of a number of nonprofit organizations. COMMITMENT

PAUL AND JANE MEYER CONFERENCE CENTER
Paul and Jane Meyer established a global presence from their company’s headquarters in Waco, built on a strong foundation of integrity, leadership and a giving heart. LEARNING

STEVE AND PENNY CARLILE PLAZA
Steve and Penny Carlile’s family lives and breathes the entrepreneurial spirit, and they give back in many significant ways to a variety of community needs. INNOVATION

BAYLOR SCOTT & WHITE HEALTH DEAN’S SUITE
There has been a long relationship with Baylor Scott & White, and currently, the chief executive officer, the chief operating officer of the organization, and the chairman of the board are all Baylor graduates. TEAMWORK

ED AND DENISE CRENSHAW STUDENT COMMONS
Ed Crenshaw’s family started Publix Supermarket chain, which has grown to be one of the premier grocery businesses in the Southeast. LEADERSHIP

MAYS FOUNDATION UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS SUITE
Randy and Stacy (daughter of Troy Mays) Sharp received their undergraduate business degrees from Baylor and have given back since, to a wide range of Baylor recipients, such as Baylor Athletics, Student Foundation, Missions and scholarships. EXCELLENCE

BOB BEAUCHAMP SUITE FOR MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
Bob Beauchamp is chair and chief executive officer of BMC Software, and his two sons are Hankamer graduates. Bob and Laura have embraced Baylor in a multitude of ways, though neither are Baylor alums. SERVICE

JIM AND JULIE TURNER PREFUNCTION MEZZANINE
Jim saw an opportunity to take a small local bottling plant and build a national beverage entity, at significant personal risk. TRANSFORMATION

MCCLINTON AUDITORUM
Paul McClinton sold snacks in Penland and Martin Halls and acquired the nickname “Crunch,” and kept that entrepreneurial spirit. Paul and Carol were one of our earliest commitments. DEDICATION

THE BOB R. SIMPSON GRADUATE SUITE
Bob Simpson created a $41 billion enterprise from scratch and sold it to ExxonMobil. He uses his resources for many philanthropic causes. SERVICE

THE ROBBINS INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH POLICY AND LEADERSHIP
Bill and Mary Jo Robbins have been ardent supporters of the business school’s program in healthcare administration. INTEGRITY

BILL AND PAT CARLTON BOARD ROOM
Bill and Pat Carlton grew a small, family-owned industrial electronics distributor to a national scale and used their resources for many philanthropic activities. COMMITMENT

DAN HORD ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUITE
Following graduation, Dan Hord began his career in the family acetylene business and after many years of growth, sold it and now invests in the oil and gas industry. Dan has a number of philanthropic interests. EXCELLENCE

JAY AND JENNY ALLISON CAREER MANAGEMENT SUITE
Jay created a successful public oil and gas company, and founded a Christian-based private school. The couple was recently named Baylor Parents of the Year. SERVICE

THANK YOU to all of the donors, those listed and those not, who made the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation possible. Opportunities to support the FOSTER CAMPUS are still available. Honor a loved one or leave your legacy for future Bears through available classrooms, offices and study areas. To raise the bar within the Hankamer School of Business, endowments must be raised to establish and grow departments, as well as hire and retain the most sought-after faculty. Endowed dean positions, departments, professorships and programs are available. For more information, please contact Dusty Bedwell at Dusty_Bedwell@baylor.edu or call (254) 710-8234.

Student Media Tour

In November 2014, three students went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the FOSTER CAMPUS construction site and live-tweeted the experience. See their reactions by searching #FosterCampus on Twitter, or download the Baylor Business Review iPad app. Watch the @Baylor_Business Twitter account for additional live-tweeted tours by students.

#fostercampus Tweets

Students Featured Include:

@TerranceGanaway
Terrance Ganaway
MBA candidate
DeKalb, Texas

@taylermberman
Tayler Berman
Freshman Pre-business major
Redondo Beach, Calif.

@JonnieC_1914
Jonathan Cole-Mckay
MBA/MSIS candidate
Oklahoma City, Okla.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015

Leadership Perspective: Rejecting the Word ‘Cannot’

Spring 2015: Following Their Calling

Andrea L. Salinas
Director of Operations
Heart of Texas
Goodwill Industries

My first nonprofit job occurred by happy accident, and the work illustrated how fortunate I am and put me on the path to what I am becoming.

In my 20s, with a brand-new degree in human resources management, I saw a position advertised with San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind. My knowledge of the organization was limited. I knew the role would give me an opportunity to help change lives. Instead of making a difference in the lives of other people, the other people I worked with changed my life. This was my introduction to how much I took for granted.

When you go to a restaurant, how many times do you review the menu? I bet you never thought about it. Imagine having it read to you and trying to remember the details. I must have asked my sighted guide to read it to me four or five times. Finally I chose something to end my frustration.

We ate the entire meal blindfolded. When I removed my blindfold later, I saw that I had smeared mashed potatoes on my black pants.
I didn’t realize that my napkin had fallen onto the floor during the meal.

This experience gave me insight into the struggles those with disabilities face. It made me stop feeling sorry for myself, start appreciating what I was able to accomplish, and demonstrated how much one can achieve with innovation and thinking differently. It shaped my attitudes about who I was, the basic resources I possessed, and what I needed to do with the rest of my life.

I joined Goodwill Central Texas in Austin in 1996 as a human resources generalist and have continued working for nonprofits to this day. Currently, I work for Heart of Texas Goodwill in Waco.

One of the best parts of my job is figuring out how to accomplish everything I can with the resources at hand. Making limited resources go as far as possible encourages creativity and innovation. Not only do I help to expand the opportunities of people with disabilities and disadvantages, I see and hear about the successes of the people we serve. What more can I ask than helping to change the lives of others?

My leadership journey with Goodwill started when I created a new job description for my position, a supervisory role. In addition to changing my job description, I modified my supervisor’s job description by removing tasks I knew she did not enjoy.

Shortly afterwards, I presented her with both job descriptions and explained my vision. Fortunately, my boss did not take this as an opportunity to relieve me of my duties, as I basically had eliminated my current position and possibly overstepped my authority. It worked out: I was moved into the position of human resources manager. This taught me the importance of innovation and how innovation assumes different forms.

My current responsibilities at Goodwill include oversight of 14 retail stores producing $12 million in annual revenue. We work in 20 counties, and the major operations are in McLennan, Bell, Coryell and Brazos counties. I am responsible for sales, production, transportation, quality and process improvement, and inventory. I attend board meetings and assist with board relations and strategic planning, helping shape the direction of our Goodwill and the people we serve.

Work continues to be a day-to-day learning experience. Here are some of the lessons my nonprofit journey has imparted:

Don’t accept the word “cannot.” Instead ask, “Why can’t you?” Then turn the question around and ask “How can you?” For me, this lesson began in middle school when a teacher encouraged me to run for student council president.
My rejection of that idea started with “cannot,” as in “I cannot get elected because I am not popular enough, strong enough, good enough.” My teacher eventually convinced me to give it a try. I won the election, but then I had to be the president. My first task was to speak in front of new sixth graders and their parents to welcome them to the school. For me, that “why can’t you?” moment turned into a cycle of gaining enough confidence to run, to speak, to trust myself to do other things, to attain even higher levels of confidence. From there, I got into pep squad, became pep squad captain, and joined the dance team. My leadership journey was beginning.

Be a lifelong student. Leaders are always learning, and the more they learn, the more they realize what they don’t know. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, re-entering the classroom was not my vision. Even when a supervisor encouraged me to do so, I stubbornly refused. I feared school after spending so many years away from it. My supervisor persisted. My fear of walking in place for the rest of my life gained the upper hand. I took my supervisor’s advice and returned to school.
I loved the experience of being a formal student once again. My executive MBA at Baylor helped me develop critical thinking skills, the ability to see things differently, gain confidence and expand my vision.
Classroom training and formal degrees are not the only ways to be a student. Those who want to learn new things can find ways to continue their education both on and off the job.

Be honest with yourself about who you are. As an undergraduate student, I quit a job after two days. My duties included making outgoing calls, and employees were rated on how many calls they made in how many minutes, as well as the outcome of each call. We had a script to read, and we could not go off-script to have a conversation.
I didn’t mind the goals or being held accountable, but disliked the lack of face-to-face contact. That job helped me realize I needed to be doing something else and showed me what I did not want to do.

Stay true to yourself. Recently, I realized I was becoming someone different from who I am. I knew I needed to change, as I did not like the person I was becoming.
Take a step back and look at who you are and what you are becoming. If you do not like what you see, make a change.

Thoughtful leadership takes time. In today’s world, leaders tend to rush without stopping. We make decisions quickly and sometimes the results suffer, as well as the people we lead. Leading thoughtfully takes time, whether you are trying to understand new things or people. I am learning to take the time to listen to those around me.
Also, leaders never stand on their own. Surround yourself with those who have integrity, drive, respect and desire for excellence.

Working with a nonprofit offers the best of both the nonprofit and the for-profit realms: all of the challenges of leading an organization while making a difference in my community. Helping others succeed spoils you for any other kind of work. Goodwill is the place for me.

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2015