Meet Robert Cradle

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert Cradle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Robert, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic primarily came from my father. Riley R. Cradle, my dad, was raised on a farm in the swampland near the coast of North Carolina. He awoke daily to fulfill the duties necessary to maintain the family farmland, so there was always work to be done. When he moved to Baltimore City in his mid-twenties, he carried that same ethic, waking up each day and searching for the next duty that needed completion. Eventually, my dad became a chef, managing kitchens at a private club and several chain or privately owned restaurants. Again, he never called out for any reason. How do I know all this? Because he took me with him to work at every place of employment. As far back as I can remember, I’ve only seen him miss two workdays, and those occurred due to work accidents that required him to go to the hospital for job-related injuries.

Nowadays, people may not view never missing a day of work as something positive, often seeing it as workaholism or misplaced priorities. But it was far from that. What I witnessed was a man on a mission for his family. Even at a young age, I could sense that his work ethic was driven by love, commitment, and duty. It made me feel special that someone would sacrifice their life to ensure their family had support. Again, that may not sound like a given and may not seem very noteworthy to some, but it felt extremely special to me (for some reason). His steadfastness regarding his employment, including odd weekend jobs, always made me feel valued. Someone was fighting every day for me. I felt loved. Those actions throughout my life shaped how I saw work and its purpose. Work was not something to be avoided. It showed people that you love and care enough for them to trade your time, energy, skills, and labor to ensure they are cared for.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a licensed master barber with nearly forty years of experience who decided 25 years ago to merge my profession into the non-profit sector. It has been a wonderful experience. I now operate projects that make hair care accessible to target populations lacking regular grooming services. To date, the organization I established for this purpose has operated 54 projects, providing 33,000 no-charge grooming services to 18,000 individuals needing consistent grooming. What makes our approach unique is how we make these grooming services available. We install full-service barber and beauty salons on-site at homeless shelters, public schools, and universities. We also run case-managed projects and pop-up shops for targeted groups. The most exciting aspect of this experience is learning how data is utilized in the philanthropic community. I’m discovering that making a measurable impact is essential to sustainability and success. We continuously gather information on the grooming-related needs of the populations around us. When we address these needs, we love measuring our personal and professional impact on them. Indicators such as whether they can now attend job interviews or gain employment and education are all part of validating how much we have reduced the problem for that group. This is why I love my work!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three essential qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that significantly impacted my journey were developing a logic model for maximum effectiveness, resource development, and honesty. I quickly realized that poor social science leads to poor results. Therefore, having a theory of change that includes root cause analysis, gathering inputs, mapping activities, collecting outputs, identifying appropriate indicators, and measuring outcomes is key to success. Additionally, I now understand that fundraising constitutes ninety percent of your work, so your resource development skills must be at a professional level. Furthermore, if you are tempted to stretch the truth to appear impactful or secure funding, philanthropy may not be for you. I am keenly aware that the philanthropic sector is built on trust; it is your primary currency as a practitioner. If you are early in your journey, strive to be authentic! Also, pursue as much experience in non-profit work and resource development as possible. You can never have too much education and training.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach (United Way, 1996) played the most important role in my development. One of the most valuable nuggets of wisdom was the program outcome model. It helped me see that focusing on measurable outcomes is the key to proper project design, service delivery, and raising the proper funding. It is available free as an online PDF. It is a must-read for any non-profit manager!

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