Julia Mercier and Jessie Reibman founded The Space for Good in October 2020 to help train and develop nonprofit organizations to live up to their potential and create more impact for their communities, from the perspective of a nonprofit organization. The group provides training and coaching programs that takes full advantages of an organization’s strengths to boost their output and community impact.
As Julia Mercier says, “We want nonprofits to benefit from the training and coaching programs we know help individuals and teams work better and smarter.” In the private sector, Mercier and Jessie Reibman apply “their passion for and experience in training and development skills,” which they have gained and honed through their experience in the business world. The Space For Good has already reached a worldwide scope, having worked with The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund—a partnership between the United Nations and civil society—earlier in the year.
Julia Mercier is the president of The Space For Good. After practicing as a litigation attorney for six years, she decided to help others live out successful and fulfilling careers. She began designing and delivering training programs that help people be more productive professionally and personally.
Meanwhile, Jessie Reibman is The Space For Good’s executive director. She began working in the hospitality and event planning industry before joining Winston & Strawn LLP in 2016. While at the firm, she applied her project management skills by “creating unique training programs and events.” When Julia approached her with the plans to start The Space For Good, Jessie jumped on the idea, and the rest is history.
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Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company (nonprofit organization) stand out? Can you share a story?
Jessie Reibman: We are unique in that we are a nonprofit serving other nonprofits. So, I would say that makes our organization stand out because we’re in it to help other nonprofits who might not otherwise focus on training and coaching because they are focused on serving others. Second, we’re really proud of the level of success we’ve had with our training. As an example, we’re working with the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, which is focused on supporting the efforts of women working on the frontlines of the world’s most intractable conflicts, so they’re doing some of the most important work we can think of. Our signature program, Leveraging Your Team for Good led to some key breakthroughs related to communication and collaboration. They have told us that they learned practical skills they could put to use immediately. Hearing their feedback and knowing that we’ve made a difference not just for them but also, ultimately, for the women they serve, is beyond rewarding.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Jessie Reibman:
- Take breaks! Schedule breaks throughout the day in your calendar. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 20 minutes, it’s important to step away from the screen and do something for yourself. This can be as simple as a midday stretch, a walk around the block or Facetiming with a friend.
- Ask for help and delegate when appropriate. When we take on too much responsibility, we can become overwhelmed and stressed which often leads to burn out. Ask a team member to help with a task or give the task to someone else entirely. It is ok not to have boundaries. Our mental health matters.
- Communicate! In this environment especially, it’s easy to feel isolated and comfortable in your bubble. Our emotions and feelings can start to take over and get the best of us. By not communicating, we are unable to achieve the best version of ourselves. Expressing how you feel either on a weekly or daily basis with your supervisor and/or team can help build confidence and reassurance that you aren’t alone. We know from experience that you’ll feel refreshed and energized to take on the weeks ahead without feeling “burnt out”.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Jessie Reibman: We have a handful of people to thank for our success thus far, but I think our graphic designer, Amy Kaye at Minneapolitan Design Studio, deserves the most kudos. Amy brought our vision to life. She created our logo, our color scheme, our website and helped us build our brand most importantly. Amy was extremely communicative and responsive throughout our design process. We spent weeks with her going back and forth making sure every font was how we wanted it down to the icons representing each program. Amy made this experience easy and fun. To this day, she is always available to us when we need her, and we are so grateful we found her.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Delegating effectively is a challenge for many leaders. Let’s put first things first. Can you help articulate to our readers a few reasons why delegating is such an important skill for a leader or a business owner to develop?
Julia Mercier: Simply put, no one person can do it all. As a leader, your role is to determine which tasks and projects are best done by you, and which are best done with the help of others. In addition to helping create efficiencies and better processes, delegation helps other members of your team learn more about the organization and their role within it. Delegation is a great professional development tool — it helps others learn by doing. Your team can’t become great at something if they aren’t given a chance to learn.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you help articulate a few of the reasons why delegating is such a challenge for so many people?
Julia Mercier: As a business owner, delegation can be challenging because you most likely started your business alone or with a partner you trusted. You’re used to making sure everything is done right and the stakes are high because it is your business. Some leaders in corporate and nonprofit organizations also hesitate to delegate because their reputation with important stakeholders is on the line. They want to control the work product and the outcomes, and they might hesitate to trust someone else with important tasks. All of those reasons are understandable but can be overcome.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your opinion, what pivots need to be made, either in perspective or in work habits, to help alleviate some of the challenges you mentioned?
Julia Mercier: This is a great question and it gets to the heart of our training and coaching programs. To be effective, leaders should think about their priorities and goals for the organization, the team and for themselves. They should think about everyone on their team and their strengths and areas for development. It helps to think about how projects and tasks can be broken down and tackled most efficiently. And, they should ask their colleagues about their interests and professional goals to help them decide how to use delegation as a development opportunity. Delegation takes time but it is an investment that pays off in the long run.
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Julia Mercier and Jessie Reibman: Wow. That’s the type of question we find really motivating. It’s actually why we started our nonprofit. We wanted to start a movement to bring the training and coaching programs we know really work to nonprofits who, by definition, are focused on doing good for others. By training nonprofit leaders and teams, we help them work better and smarter, which means they can do more to benefit their communities. Our movement is about amplifying the impact of people who are already doing so much good in the world. We can’t think of a better way to spend our time!
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Julia Mercier and Jessie Reibman: Thank you so much for the opportunity to chat with you about this important topic. Readers can visit our website www.thespaceforgood.org to learn about our programs and how they might benefit their organization. We are also on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
