Jenny Lawson

I attribute my success to the people around me that I've been able to get to know and surround myself with, both those who have taught me how to be better in the nonprofit sector. But the people I've learned the most from professionally have been the leaders that I've lost - the families going through cancer treatment. I think the key is not letting it all be about me, but about the people around me, and learning from them and growing from them. It's about watching, listening, and taking a little bit from each person and each experience to build my own leadership style.

The best career advice I've ever received is to listen and to look for what works in leadership styles by watching what others are doing. You take a little bit from each thing - watching and seeing what you like and what you don't like. I've applied this to my parenting and my leadership. Somebody told me as I was starting really into leadership: watch and listen. That simple advice has shaped how I approach everything, because you're not expected to know everything, but you can learn by observing others and being willing to ask questions.

My advice to young women entering the nonprofit sector is that they need to listen and watch, and be willing to be bold when necessary. Whether that's asking questions - because they're not expected to know everything - or asking for help, they should watch and see what attributes they want to emulate in their own leadership. It's about observing what they like and what resonates with them, then building their own style from those observations. Don't be afraid to ask questions even as you're learning, because that boldness in seeking knowledge and help is what will help you grow.

The biggest challenges in my field right now are funding and the emotional toll of the work. Funding is always a big challenge because there are over 50,000 nonprofits in the North Texas area alone, so we're all competing for dollars in some way. You have to find unique ways to help your organization stand out, whether through how you lead, your mission, or how you communicate it. Personally, because compassion is such a big thing for me, I get very emotional when I work with these families. I'm still running a business, but I have to find ways to protect my own heart. I can't get close to every single family emotionally, even though I want to, because getting to know the families is what inspires me and makes me better at this job. But that also means I attend funerals of children I've gotten very close to. I just attended a funeral in April for a 17-year-old girl who died of a brain tumor, and it broke me for a little bit of time. I had to take 2 days of just giving myself emotional space to process that, because even though my daughter died almost 22 years ago, I'm still a grieving mom and I'll be a grieving mom until the day I die. Losing those kids is so emotionally challenging and difficult, so I have to watch myself and go to my own therapy to make sure I am emotionally taken care of too.

Compassion is my core value - it's the value that we hold strongest in our organization. I believe we're all going through something, both personally and professionally, and compassion starts at your core with how you treat others. Whether it's the clients that you serve or everyone else in your life, compassion is the top core value of our organization and guides everything I do. It shapes how I approach the families we serve, how I lead my team, and how I navigate the difficult emotional terrain of working with grieving families facing childhood cancer.