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Leaving Well in the Workplace

Candid thoughts on nonprofit progress (or not)

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

The Independent Sector National Summit — one of the largest gatherings in the nonprofit sector — finally put succession planning on their 2026 agenda. After years of watching this topic get sidelined by conference after conference, I was genuinely thrilled.

It's progress! It's beyond time that we bring the reality that People Leave to stages where our decision makers and funders gather.

Then I read the speaker terms.

No honorarium. No travel. No hotel. A 50% discount off registration for non-members.

They want practitioners to fly in, book their own rooms, and effectively pay to work.

​I wrote about it—the high level pitch I would have submitted, the credentials I've spent years building, and the ask I'm making of every conference organizer in the nonprofit sector.

For speakers who are building and running consulting practices, speaking is work. Exposure doesn't pay subcontractors. Exposure doesn't cover my flight from Atlanta, and it doesn't pay for my lodging.

As it turns out, the same weekend ISNS is happening, I'll be in Charlotte at the Contagious Culture Conference ... as a paid speaker ... talking about Leaving Well and succession planning. Same topic on the stage, entirely different values from conference organizers.

Progress doesn't mean free.

If you're a conference organizer, a foundation program officer, or someone who wants to bring this work to your community or ecosystem — I'd love to talk.

With candor and a {paid for} round-trip ticket to Charlotte,

Naomi

Gravel Road, Chattahoochee Hills, GA 30213
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Leaving Well in the Workplace

Naomi Hattaway, Founder and President

Your Leaving Well guide to navigating workplace transitions 🧡 I normalize workplace transitions one organization + person at a time. Leaving Well is the art + practice of leaving in the workplace, with intention + joy.

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Dream with me a bit ... your sabbatical is coming. Maybe it's in 8 weeks, maybe 8 months. You've started planning: ✓ Identified interim leadership✓ Created coverage plans✓ Communicated with your board✓ Blocked your calendar Here's what you probably haven't planned: Your return. I see this constantly in my work providing interim leadership for nonprofits—thoughtful (and in rare cases, meticulous) departure planning, with a hellacious and chaotic re-entry. Leaders return on their first Monday...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read

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about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Netflix's Queer Eye just did something most nonprofits aren't so great at: they ended well. Their final season features five episodes—each concluding with a different cast member reflecting on their decade-long journey. They announced the ending six months in advance, which allowed them to leave from a position of strength instead of crisis response. Most nonprofits treat leadership departures as emergencies to manage, but the Queer Eye crew treated their ending as part of their legacy to...

2 months ago • 1 min read