Happy Wednesday, nonprofit communications leaders.

How many of you feel like you're "stuck" between the Translator and Strategist stages of your career?

I know a LOT of you have emailed me to say this is exactly where you are... so I thought, why not ask the ENTIRE list of 2,800 nonprofit comms leaders?

So why am I leading off with that question?

Because I think a lot of people get stuck right between the Translator stage, the one I wrote about last week, and the stage we're talking about today: the Strategist.

Let's be real, folks.

It feels good to FINALLY be treated like you know what you're talking about. To get asked for your take on something "outside of comms" (ha... we both know IT'S ALL COMMS) before the project takes off down the tracks and a pile of comms requests lands on your desk.

When a coworker stops by your office or Slack DMs and asks if you've got a minute to help them think through an idea they want your input on, that means something. It means people can see your strategic skills and they know you can help them be successful.

If that sounds like you, you're at the Strategist career stage.

And that feels good. For a while...

Being seen as the Strategist changes how people treat you. At this stage, some of you have the title to match the thinking. You might be the Director of Communications. Some of you are a VP of Comms. You're now thinking about the whole organization, not just your piece of it. You know where the org is trying to go, and you have real opinions about how it should get there.

But this is where the Strategist stage starts to grate.

I keep hearing that a lot of you ARE in the meetings where the big decisions happen. But being in the room isn't the same as being asked to lead in it. You're at the table, and you're still only asked to speak into "comms." Not the whole direction of your nonprofit or the strategy, just comms.

And some of you aren't in those rooms at all yet, even though your thinking has clearly outgrown your seat.

Either way, the frustration is the same. You're thinking about the entire organization... and you're being treated like you only handle one part of it. To be clear, you are only responsible for what's officially in your job description, but someone who thinks like a CCO is always thinking about the bigger picture. But thinking about the bigger picture and owning the bigger picture are 2 different roles (and pay grades).

So this is the tension of the Strategist. You think like a leader. You're just not being treated like one yet.

Here's how to know if you're in it:

• You think about where the whole org is headed, not just your comms to-do list
• You can see problems coming before leadership does, and sometimes you watch them happen anyway
• You might not be in the room yet where the big calls get made. Or you ARE in the room, but you're only asked to speak into comms, never the whole org
• You've got a Director or even VP title, and your thinking has still outgrown it
• You're getting tired of being called strategic without being treated like it

The trap at this stage isn't comfort, the way it was for the Translator. It's waiting.

Waiting to be invited into the bigger conversation, waiting on a title, or a level of trust, that keeps not quite showing up.

So let me save you some time. Nobody hands you the seat, and nobody hands you the bigger conversation either. You have to go make it happen if you really care that much.

Here's what this looked like for me. Before I was ever THE comms leader at my organization, I was a Director of External Engagement, and a Director of Marketing before that. I had comms leadership roles, I just wasn't the one leading the whole function yet. And I knew I was ready for it.

So I let it be known to the person who could make it happen. I made it clear to the executive leader I worked alongside that I wanted to help with whatever he was working on, and that I was interested in the top comms role when the time came. We were in an interim season as an organization, so a lot was in flux. Instead of waiting to see how it all shook out, I treated it as my chance to put my name out there. And when the org chose new comms leadership, the role came to me.

My title landed as Director of Communications. (Leadership had removed all the VP titles, so those of us who would have been VPs became Directors, but we still sat on the senior leadership team.) And in that seat, I wasn't only speaking into comms. I was speaking into finances, event strategy, and the direction of the whole organization. I LOVED it.

But here's the irony... when I later moved into an actual C-suite role, at another org, with the CCO title to match, I landed on a team that didn't fully get what comms brought to the table. I still spoke into org-wide strategy, but I was treated more like a director. And back when my title said director, I was treated more like a CCO.

That's why I always say your title doesn't matter. Your thinking does.

Notice what actually got me there. I didn't wait to be handed the top role, I told people I wanted it. Yes, with discretion, and yes, without a sense of entitlement. I'd also been there for several years and had built up a ton of rapport and trust with leadership and coworkers. Those "soft skills" and EQ matter a lot in your career.

If you keep waiting to be invited, you can wait a really long time. Meanwhile someone with less range than you, but more visibility, ends up shaping the direction you could have shaped.

So what do you do if this is you?

Start bringing a point of view into the rooms you're already in.​
Show up with a position, not a status update. Not "here's what comms did this month" but "here's where I think we should be headed, and here's why." That's what separates the person reporting on the work from the person shaping it.

Put your strategic thinking in writing, where decision-makers can see it.​
Hallway or Slack insight disappears the second the conversation ends. Sending a short email reply with some deeper thoughts you had after a meeting shows leadership you're thinking big picture.

Manage sideways, not just up.​
Become a genuine partner to the other departments, not just the person people call when something needs to sound good. When development or programs starts pulling you in early, leadership notices. That trust is very often what gets you invited into the bigger conversation.

You already think like a leader. The next step is getting the org to see it and give you the room to lead.

Next week we wrap the series with the final stage: The CCO-Minded Leader.

Happy communicating,

Former nonprofit CCO and founder of the Nonprofit Comms Club

P.S. This is week 3 of a 4-part series on the career stages of a nonprofit comms leader but if you want a question answered in a future issue you can drop it here.​

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