GUEST: Brent Toellner. Brent is the Senior Director of National Programs for Best Friends Animal Society. Prior to joining Best Friends, Brent, his wife, Michelle, and a few others co-founded the Kansas City Pet Project to run the municipal shelter in Kansas City, Missouri.  

MAIN QUESTION: There's a lot of pressure in animal welfare and people can feel alone in their work — what tips and ideas might help?

TAKEAWAYS:

• In animal welfare, we’re pushed to do more with limited resources. People often feel they just need to work harder and do more programs, but that doesn’t work in the long-term. It’s better to reach out for help.
• Someone on the outside can often provide needed perspective. By being a sounding board, they can give you a sense of confidence and make you feel less isolated. You can find this help by creating or developing relationships with your peers at similar organizations. In addition to making connections within the field, people working at similar types of agencies within your own community can also be helpful.  Consultants and representatives of national organizations with outreach teams can also be valuable.
• One sign you need help is if you're feeling stressed that you can never get on top of what’s needed or if you know things need to change but you don’t know how to do it with your existing resources.
• Consider an organizational assessment that looks at what’s going well and that you should keep doing and what is not the best use of resources now.

LINKS:

• Best Friends Network 
• Leadership recommendation: “5 Things an Executive Director Can Do to Build a Strong Leadership Team” by Joan Garry