Skip to main content

Volunteers

I've heard many in leadership lamenting about the lack of volunteers.  If you lead a church or other non-profit, or are in direct sales, you lead an army of volunteers.  Sometimes, your volunteers will not hit you over the head with their willingness to serve.  Sometimes, they will.  Are you ready to mentor them in their volunteer position so that they will be successful?  Do you follow through with them while enthusiasm is high?  I think we all believe we do.
About two years ago, I volunteered with a non-profit in the Quad Cities area.  It took several weeks just to be able to get through to the correct person to volunteer my services with.  I was invited to attend an open meeting, where I spoke of the service that I was willing to provide.  Although there was much agreement that my service would be a great addition to the service they were providing, and several follow up calls on my part, I never was given the opportunity to volunteer.
After I moved to the Des Moines area, I volunteered with my church outreach program.  I was turned over to the director of the program who e-mailed that she would love to meet with me to talk about where I could help.  After I have initiated many attempts to schedule this meeting, my services are still not being used (several months later).
What poor leadership this is!  I was practically begging to get involved with these organizations, and I was met with little more than apathy.  Here's what happens to your volunteer pool - they either volunteer somewhere else, or they stop volunteering.  Ouch!
Sometimes we have volunteers that we forget to train properly so that they can succeed, or we don't help them along when they need it, or we don't show how much we appreciate everything that they do.  If these volunteers are not self-motivated, we lose them, too.  Are you treating the volunteers around you with the respect that you would like in return?  Or are they "tired" and ready to take some time off of volunteering?  Do you have people volunteering, but you're just not recognizing them?  Look around - are you missing an opportunity?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Coconut bras & grass skirts

A few years ago, I found myself in front of a 100 or so scrapbookers wearing a coconut bra and a grass skirt.  The "tiki" theme that we had chosen dictated the need for my costume.  The fun part was that everyone in the room knew that when I hit the stage in my crazy outfit, someone was going to win a prize! Shouldn't a leader be above dressing silly at a big event?  Never!  Would it help if I mentioned that I did have a t-shirt on under the coconut bra?  And that we all wore Hawaiian shirts the rest of the time?  Or that I've worn a Santa hat, light up necklace, blue hair, pink bowling shirt with matching glow-in-the-dark bowling shoes for other events? So why did I go the extra mile?  Did I have to wear a coconut bra and a grass skirt to give away prizes? No. But did it add to the excitement and the atmosphere? Yes.  It brought a sense of fun to the event and unity among the team.  A large event is a huge undertaking.  Havi...

People test

"If you do not pass the people test, nothing else matters. Promotion without connectivity is destructive. I often share with church leaders that most of the churches in the United States should not promote themselves. Why? Simple. If your current membership is not actively inviting people or visitors are not staying, there are reasons why. If you do an advertising campaign, you are asking people to come in your doors only to realize why no one wants to invite anyone to your church. They never come back and leave to tell all their friends what they did not like about your church. This is not good marketing. The heart of marketing is people. Don’t start with mailers. Start with people. Ask yourself, “What am I doing this week to learn how to reach people more effectively? It's time to evaluate. Are we creating an atmosphere that fosters growth or are we ministering unto ourselves?" http://www.beyondrelevance.com/index.cfm/PageID/913/blog_year/2010/blog_month/2/index.html...

Integrity

Integrity - adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. Sometimes when people are in the spotlight, the details are difficult to see. Like stage actors, their costumes may appear to be beautifully tailored, but in reality, may be hot-glued together. Like a politician holding up family values, while taking care of a pregnant mistress. Like a leader, recruiting for company B while dishonestly collecting a leadership check from company A. We put people on pedestals and sing their praises, but do we really know who they are? Do their actions really go with the hype? If you are a leader, ask yourself, "Are my actions moral, ethical and honest?"