One Level Deep

Issue #43
4-minute read

Hi Reader,

A CFW reader inspired me with the idea for today's newsletter after we met recently. She said it’s something CDOs wrestle with but rarely talk about.

You can be available to everyone. You cannot develop everyone. Those are two different jobs. Confusing them will exhaust you and quietly undermine the people who report to you.

Here's the framework I use.

Open door. Full stop.

My entire team of 16 knows they can come to me. Any time. That's not a management philosophy.

It's a culture decision.

When people feel that the Chief Fundraiser is behind a closed door, things calcify. Ideas die before they're spoken.

So I stay accessible.

But accessible is not the same as accountable for everyone's professional growth. Those are different things.

Where I stop and why it's intentional

My mentorship goes one level deep with my direct reports. Period.

That’s not coldness. That’s structure.

If I’m developing everyone on my team personally, I’m doing my directors’ jobs for them. And I’m stealing something from them in the process — the chance to flex their leadership muscle.

The way I reach everyone? I hold my directs accountable for the question I ask them: How are you developing your team?

That question is the multiplier. It travels through the department in ways I never could.

What this looks like in practice

A few months ago, a coordinator came to me with a great idea for a thank-you project for new recurring donors. I loved it immediately.

And then I sent her back out.

The idea required her to cross team lines, find the right person, and make her case. She had to negotiate. Advocate. Convince someone who had no reason to say yes.

I could have carried that idea in ten minutes. Not the point.

She needed to move an idea through the organization. You don't learn that watching someone else do it.

Here's what I didn't do after I redirected her: I didn't follow up. Didn't check in. Didn't nudge anyone on her behalf.

I trusted the system. The moment I start managing the outcome, I've taken the whole thing back. The growth, the negotiation, the risk — all of it goes back to me.

And she gets nothing.

Two traps. One alternative.

The first: full lockdown. Chain of command only, nothing gets through. The team feels like you're behind glass. Culture suffers.

The second: full absorption. You're mentoring everyone, fielding every career question, and developing every staff member personally. You burn out. Your directors can't grow.

The third way is open culture, intentional development, multiplied through your directs. It's harder to hold. But it's the one that scales.

What's at stake

This isn’t about protecting time. It’s about what kind of organization you’re building.

When staff see that their managers are genuinely developing them, it builds trust in the whole leadership layer. Retention improves.

The goal is to build a department where great employee development happens at every level because you built managers who know how to do it.

On My Radar

Influence by Robert Cialdini, PhD. When I sent the coordinator across team lines to make her case, I was asking her to persuade someone who had no obligation to say yes. That’s influence without authority, and it’s exactly what Cialdini maps.

Coming Next Week

What do you do when a direct report isn't developing their team? That conversation is coming.

Your Turn

Pick one direct report and ask them in your next one-on-one: How are you developing your team?

Not as a performance review question. Just as a real conversation.

Then reply and tell me what happened. I read every message and enjoy connecting with readers.

Until next week,
​Christine​

PS — If the conversation you're dreading isn't with a direct report — but with a board member who hasn't moved a prospect in months — System Nine is for that. The Board Engagement Playbook is live now.

$27.00 Chief Fundraiser OS: System 9 You have a relationship map full of prospects no one has touched in months. This is the system that moves them. One... Read more Get it now!

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I’m Christine Bork, Chief Development Officer at the American Academy of Pediatrics. I write Chief Fundraiser Weekly to share what I’m learning as I lead a growing team and try to do the work in a way that’s sustainable and thoughtful.