Sheila Moore's 'My Encore Moment' Story
From Corporate Trainer to Nonprofit Director
Ooltewah, Tennessee
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Sheila Moore discovered her corporate training expertise was an ideal fit for helping nonprofits navigate management and growth.
I stood in front of the 20 or so managers in the workshop I facilitated for my corporate client, reminding them of the client's stated corporate mission "to increase income for shareholders," and somehow my enthusiasm for my job at that moment fell flat. How do you engage a group behind a mission like that? Let's work really, really hard so we can put more money in the big guy's pocket?
Not much later, I had the opportunity to do a "free" workshop for a small center for nonprofit management, whose mission was to build capacity of nonprofit organizations. The topic, "leading meetings," was a simple one, yet the group received the information enthusiastically.
They wanted to be there at that workshop, wanted to discover new ways of looking at meetings and wanted to find ways to be more effective. Why? Because the more effective they were, the more time, effort and resources could be devoted to achieving their mission. And their missions mattered deeply to them. Regardless of whether they were social service, the arts, faith based or civic, they shared a passion for what they, and their organization, existed to accomplish.
I realized midway through the class that I had found something to get excited about. The skills and experiences I had spent years gaining for the for-profit world could be applied and appreciated in the nonprofit world. And I realized I cared about those organizations and the people who also cared so deeply.
Over time I found myself working with the nonprofit sector more and more, and I have found that I have a flair for applying and communicating business concepts to that sector.
I am currently serving as interim executive director of that same small nonprofit management center I once volunteered for, and am working on completing my first book on the topic of nonprofit "customer service." Most importantly, I'm excited about what I do. At age 52, I think I may just have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up!
