Cliff Notes version of the original post, below: So I'm pretty active in a number of volunteer organizations, playing a leadership role in each of them. The challenge I'm running into is balancing getting things done with the outside time commitments of myself and the other volunteers. It's also difficult to motivate people. You can't affect their pay. You can "fire" them, but that isn't a particularly strong motivator: "You don't want me to devote hours of my own time and money to doing stuff for you? You're breaking my heart here." The other challenge is that it is very hard to get everyone together to talk something over, since everyone works at different offices and have different schedules. Does anyone else have experience that relates to these issues?
Hey there, Captains of Industry. I'm hoping for some feedback on leading people; specifically leading people that aren't being paid. I have leadership roles in three volunteer organizations right now. This means I probably work 25 hours a week on stuff that doesn't earn me a dime. And I could easily do 30-40. One group I'm in purely to share a personal hobby. Another I'm in primarily for growth and personal/professional development. The last group is largely for networking, with some professional development too. Each brings unique challenges. For the hobby group the challenge is balancing a need for shared standards and principles with the fact that people are there for fun. Somehow it doesn't seem right to tell people how they can and can't have fun. The personal growth group, the challenge is that it is a fairly old group that, in some ways, is sick. They've got some bad habits that I need to retrain the "Old Guard" on, but it needs to be done tactfully and without stepping on toes. See the problem is that the Old Guard is invaluable because they can always be counted on to get the job done if there isn't anyone else that steps up to the plate. But the other side of the coin is that they have a hard time letting other people do their own jobs. For example, tonight our Treasurer managed to do the jobs of the Secretary, the VP (me), and one of the speakers. So I've got a position where I need to move people to where I need them to be but I have nothing but my own scintillating personality to do it with. Hell, not only do I not have pay as a potential sanction, I can't even control the amount of work a person does or doesn't do. Heck, people PAY the organization to be allowed to show up, so it is going to be tough to move things to where I need them to be without alienating anyone. Finally, comes the group that brought this post. I coordinate volunteer activities for this organization. It's a huge chore, made moreso because no one is getting paid for their time. We had some foul weather today and a lot of my volunteers were cancelling on me for an event. The event itself was ultimately cancelled, but before that happened, it occurred to me that I really didn't know how to deal with the situation. Should I try and coerce people into honoring their commitments? Should I try and line up replacements at the last minute? Should I just let them off the hook gracefully and remember for later who could and couldn't be relied on? In the military things were pretty easy. There were a whole lot of standards defined for everyone in advance. And the policies that I wanted to make, I had quite a bit of power to make them happen--if I wanted something (and it was legal and my boss bought into it) I could enforce it with the people who worked for me. I didn't do that a lot, but I certainly had the option--and used it once or twice when I NEEDED to. The other thing is, with volunteer organizations, you only see people at the meetings. If you have a question, you can't just walk down the hall and talk to someone. You can't get a couple people together for an impromptu meeting at lunch. If you're lucky, you may be able to call or e-mail people. And if you're REALLY lucky, they may actually reply. So what do you all think? Does any of you know of a place that involves a lot of work, where the workers aren't paid, and where they are geographically seperated, making it difficult to coordinate things? I'm trying to think of a place like that. If Elwood or one of the staff can think of such an organization (or any WF posters), feel free to add your thoughts. If you have time.
I think that's the ideal order of events (if necessary), with a somewhat weaker word in place of "coerce".
You mean like...here?? You are part of a group of people, utilize them. Since these people volunteer they must care about where they are helping out. You have to be less timid about offending people by pointing out things need to change, be restructured or reorganized. Have a discussion with them, outline the issues you see and ask for a discussion. Don't be married to your notions, either. Listening is just as important as taking the initiative. You may find more than one of them have noticed similar problems but didn't think they should or didn't have the courage to speak up. With any luck a whole pool of new ideas could be on the table and the very act of discussing the issue could do the firing up you are looking for.
