Leadership insights and community resources for those building capacity in themselves and others. Published by Daniel Riemenschneider. (Not for you? Unsubscribe link at the bottom.)

Everyone has blind spots. The hardest part of leading is seeing what we cannot see on our own. That takes curiosity, listening, and a willingness to update what we came in believing. I keep watching this unfold across the peer cohorts I facilitate, and the leaders in those rooms are showing me what it looks like.

It starts with curiosity. The leaders I see doing this well show up willing to be wrong about their situation. They treat their first read of the problem as a hypothesis, not a conclusion. Curiosity is what lets the real issue surface.

Then there is listening. Not the kind that waits for a turn to speak, but the kind that takes in what a peer is describing. Often the most useful moment is not advice but hearing another leader name something you have been carrying without language for it.

And it asks for a willingness to update what you came in with. The leaders I see hold their original question loosely. They come in wanting one outcome and leave needing another. That shift is usually what moves their challenge forward.

There is an old proverb: "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17). That is what I watch happen when leaders come together.

I am learning alongside the leaders in these rooms. Across Cook and DuPage County, I facilitate five peer cohorts. Three are Nonprofit Leaders Forum cohorts in Bloomingdale, Hanover, and Schaumburg Townships, where mid-level leaders from 32 nonprofits work through real challenges and build a trusted network. Two are part of the Agency Capacity Builder, which I designed for the Milton Township Community Mental Health Board: 18 agencies in two cohorts, one focused on how to recruit, develop, and keep great people, the other on how to make data work for the programs they deliver. The conversations are honest. The commitments spur on growth. And the work gets better because of it.

Cohort 5 is assembling. Nonprofit leaders from across Schaumburg Township are invited to join a peer learning community this spring.

Cohort Launch: May 8, 2026 - 9:00 a.m. (Schaumburg Public Library)
Session 4: June 12, 2026 - 9:00 a.m.
Session 5: July 10, 2026 - 9:00 a.m.

The forum brings together mid-level leaders from 10-12 nonprofits for structured peer learning. Groups work through real challenges, build relationships across sectors, and return to their organizations stronger and more connected.

Interested? Reply to this email or visit the Nonprofit Leaders Forum page for more details.

The work I do centers on presence. Not presence as in "showing up on time," though that matters. I mean the kind of presence that comes from being fully engaged in the moment. Showing up willing to hear what another person actually needs, not what you came in planning to deliver.

Leaders who practice this change the room around them. Their teams feel heard. They make better decisions because they actually know what the real problem is. And the trust goes both directions.

Read the full article on the Building Capacity archive.