Ask Nicole Archives - Page 6 of 16 - Nicole Clark Consulting

5 Jan, 2022

Ask Nicole: Improving Capacity vs. Scaling Up

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-01-19T10:32:25-05:00January 5th, 2022|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building|0 Comments

Have a question you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

First off: Happy New Year!

Now, let’s get into the topic of improving capacity versus scaling up.

This is inspired by a comment from a colleague, who has been frustrated with their organization’s focus on scaling quickly, with little regard to making what they’re already doing, better.

I think it’s a complex issue. As an organization, you want to remain relevant and responsive to emerging issues, yet this can be at the expense of improving current programs and services while being being overworked, understaffed, and under resourced.

We see this with businesses that sell tangible products. There’s one company I purchase items from whose business scaled rapidly to meet the demands of new customers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their business exploded during this time because they sell body products (and we all need body products to stay clean). They’re also Black-owned, and many Black owned businesses have benefited during this time.

The downside was that the supply (and staff capacity) wasn’t able to meet the demand, leading to shipping delays and frustrated customers.

I’ve seen it in the nonprofit sector. Organizations (particularly smaller ones) have a tendency to make themselves appear bigger than what their capacity allows. This can lead to more funding, more collaborations, more supporters, more press, and more opportunities. I’ve stopped being surprised by organizations that are implementing large scale initiatives —whether alone or in partnership—with a staff of maybe 5 people.

I also saw this back in my micro/clinical social work days. In my department, the focus was on getting as many clients in the door as possible, with little regard to 1) staff capacity to do the tasks required of us by leadership and 2) whether the programs and services we promoted to clients were of quality.

We experienced high staff turnover. In response, the department began hosting job fairs to bring in more staff with the promise of lowering caseloads. Which never happened.

This experience shaped my approach to how I work with clients and partners, and I feel in many ways, I’m shifting away from helping organizations raise the voices of women and girls of color (their program participants) to helping raise the voices (and concerns) of staff. You can’t have a program without participants, however:

Programs and services are only successful when staff feel supported and have the capacity to do their jobs well.

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3 Nov, 2021

Ask Nicole: Using Social Work Skills as a Consultant

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-11-03T12:27:51-04:00November 3rd, 2021|Categories: Public Health & Social Work|Tags: Ask Nicole, consulting, Social Work|0 Comments

A few months ago, I mentioned that I’ll be limiting the content I create around starting and running a consulting practice.

But I had a conversation with social work colleague recently that I couldn’t want to share! So, this month’s Ask Nicole is about consulting, but from the context of social work.

My colleague asked how I’ve used my social work skills as a consultant. In hindsight, my transition from full time direct services social work to full time consulting was pretty seamless, due in part to how my time was structured.

There’s more than one way to be a social worker. This is important, particularly if you’re either social work student, a social worker new to the field, or a seasoned professional looking for something different.

Likewise, most social workers start out at the micro level, working directly with individuals, children, and families. An opportunity can arise where you can serve in a supervisory or leadership role, moving from micro social work into mezzo and macro social work, but the clinical social work skills you learned in school will always be applicable regardless of your role as a social worker.

Here’s how my old process for engaging direct services clients influences how I currently engage with consulting clients.

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13 Oct, 2021

Ask Nicole: Prepping for Your Consultant/Partner Discovery Call

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-11-03T09:19:47-04:00October 13th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, clients, consulting, Partnership, Project Planning|0 Comments

After searching the internet, asking your networks for referrals, and scouring social media, you’ve finally found someone or a team that you can see your organization working with.

Checking out their website, social media presence, and testimonials is the first step.

The next step is scheduling a “discovery call”.

A discovery call is an initial conversation you have to determine whether you will be a good fit. It’s an opportunity to do a deep dive into your project/event, and get a sense of what it would be like to work together.

I normally don’t go in completely unaware. For my process, prospective partners and clients fill out my questionnaire form. After I scan to make sure their project falls into my focus areas and what they’re looking for is something I can help with, and they pass my “do I actually want to work with them?” scan, I set up a discovery call, specifying this as a preliminary call to determine if we will be a good fit.

Of course, you won’t know what it’ll be like until you actually start working together, but you can look for red flags as well as see if they understand your vision. Here are some tips for prepping for your discovery call:

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1 Sep, 2021

Ask Nicole: How Do I Avoid Mission Creep?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-09-01T10:05:29-04:00September 1st, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, consulting, Mission Creep|0 Comments

I recently took a week off from client and partner consulting work to catch up on some administrative tasks that have been piling up.

One of my tasks was revamping my website, focusing on easier navigation (in some cases, redesigning web pages) and clarifying my overall messaging.

I had a aha moment while redesigning the Blog Archives page. I noticed where I’ve been spending most of my time blogging about, and I’ve decided moving forward to limit the amount of content I create around starting and running a consulting business.

I’m at a place now where I prefer sharing successes and lessons learned in my adventures with clients and partners both in real time and in reflection of past projects. Plus, it makes sense to showcase what I’ve done, from a marketing perspective. Unless something major happens that impacts how I run my business, I prefer to take this approach for now.

So consider this Ask Nicole post to be the last business related content I write publicly for a while. However, I will continue sharing more about my journey in my newsletter.

Another reason for limiting this type of content is the amount of inquiries I’ve gotten regarding helping people with set up their consulting businesses.

Many of these inquiries are from social workers and public health professionals. This is great, and I appreciate the well wishes I’ve gotten for being transparent about my professional journey. And raising your voice for women and girls of color* may look like leaving your day job and doing your own thing so that you can do that.

But coaching people through this process takes me out of my mission. Which brings me to the point of this post.

When a new idea emerges, evaluate whether it keeps you in alignment with your mission or takes you out of it.

The services I currently provide are in alignment with each other. Essentially, they work together to help organizations focus on sustainability, being data driven in their decision making, and ensuring that decision making is culturally and equitable responsive to important stakeholders.

This is how I raise my voice for women and girls of color*, and this is my preference. Fortunately, I have colleagues I’ve admired and followed for a while that I can refer these inquiries to such as Eva Forde, Kyshira Moffett, and Rosetta Thurman, as they focus specifically on building a business and brand and I’ve learned a lot from them.

Ask yourself:

Does this new idea make sense for my mission?

Even if it sounds like profitable, even if many are asking for it, even if it sounds like something you may enjoy doing, still ask yourself this question. Avoid mission creep.

The last thing I would want is having an abundance of opportunities for business coaching that overshadow the work I feel more aligned to do. Without this reflection, creating a new service because people ask you for it can make you feel resentful. Especially if that idea takes off.

Always evaluate a new idea against your mission. If it makes sense, go for it. If it doesn’t, refer out. Reject the notion of taking on people’s ideas of what you should be doing.

And isn’t that the point of moving on and doing your own thing?

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** PS: * “Women and girls of color” refers to gender-expansive adults and youth, including cisgender, transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender queer and any girl-identified person)

Raise Your Voice: How do you avoid mission creep? Share below in the comments section.

4 Aug, 2021

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:12:50-04:00August 4th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building, consulting|0 Comments

I had a discovery call with a prospective client recently, who wants to build an evaluation framework for their staff to implement. The executive director wanted an evaluation framework that was general enough to cover each program but could be tailored to each program’s specifics.

This organization has the budget to hire a consultant, but once the consultant’s job is over, the organization will have to pick up where the consultant left off. That often includes understanding their capacity to implement evaluation activities.

It’s no surprise that many organizations doing amazing work tend to have a small staff. And just like the larger organizations, they focus on the bigger picture and how to measure their impact. (I’ll touch on how grassroots organizations can be more data driven in next week’s blog post.)

They’re getting funding (via their supporters or from foundations) to help build out their infrastructure and capacity to do this data driven work while also being deep within the communities they serve.

“Who will implement this framework and all of its activities?“, I asked the executive director. In order to build an appropriate evaluation framework, I have to understand staff capacity.

It’s not a waste of time or money to hire someone to help. It is a waste of time if the end product isn’t conducive to where your staff’s capacity currently is, which could lead into finding the money to bring in another consultant to help with implementation.

Should you hire a consultant or should you do it yourself?

As a consultant, while my business thrives on being hired to do stuff, the answer isn’t that simple.

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Ask Nicole: Improving Capacity vs. Scaling Up

Ask Nicole: Using Social Work Skills as a Consultant

Ask Nicole: Prepping for Your Consultant/Partner Discovery Call

Ask Nicole: How Do I Avoid Mission Creep?

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

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