Where do we share ideas on Leadership?

I have a longing for a dialogue on leadership within our sector. Go through my blog postings and you will see this emerge. I guess I will keep coming back to it. Of course we will have to have a debate about the word “Leadership” first.:-)

Where is the Leadership Lounge in Volunteer Management? Where do you turn to for leadership ideas? Where do you turn to for a little inspiration? Leadership and inspiration are different things yes but I see them as intertwined on so many occasions.

Don’t leaders inspire?

When I see dialogue in volunteer management I still come across much of the same old dialogue Ive seen come up intermittingly over the last 14 years.

An example is some recent discussion I’ve come across on some forums. What should we call volunteers? What should we call volunteer managers? Or should that be managers of volunteers.

We seem to be addicted to questions of semantics and terminology. Meanwhile the great issues for our sector remain largely unspoken of or commented on. Yet we will get plenty of folk engaging on the semantic topics. Are basics like “what we should call each other” the Everest of our intellectual conquests in volunteer management?

Where can we form our leadership lounge? Where can we find the space to share thoughts on leadership?

Lessons in leadership can be found in many places.

One place I often go to for ideas and inspiration is the Ted Talks. Here’s the wikipedia definition of TED

“TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."

TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California. TED's early emphasis was largely technology and design, consistent with a Silicon Valley center of gravity. The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners. TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

From 2005 to 2009, three $100,000 TED Prizes were awarded annually to help its winners realize a chosen wish to change the world. From 2010, in a changed selection process, a single winner is chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts in achieving the winner's wish. Each winner unveils their wish at the main annual conference.
Since June 2006,the talks have been offered for free viewing online, under a Creative Commons license, through TED.com. As of August 2011, over 900 talks are available free online. By January 2009 they had been viewed 50 million times. In June 2011, the viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, reflecting a still growing global audience.

TED's mission statement begins:
We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”

TED can be found at www.ted.com

The title of this blog links to a fun TED talk on leadership!

Susan Ellis on Tour - and a snapshot by VOLQLD TV

Thanks to the efforts of Volunteering Queensland, OZVPM and People First Total Solutions we had the honour of having Susan Ellis touring Australia recently. I had the privilege of seeing Susan at workshop in Brisbane Australia.

Volunteering Qld have developed A TV Channel which I believe to be an innovative step for any volunteer agency in the globe
It features a regular mix of best practice features on organisations leading volunteering, evocative stories detailing interesting, meaningful volunteer experiences and news on volunteering trends, issues and happenings.

I have talked about this agency taking a leading global position on leadership in matters volunteering before and here is a perfect example
They have great people doing great things in my opinion.

And I am lucky to be a witness to that as I reside in Queensland.

The volunteers they have working on VolunteeringQLDTV are most impressive.
By clicking on the title of this posting you get to see their production and report of Susan Ellis, "It takes a whole organisation."

It is already the top rated clip on Volunteering Qld TV after only being up for 4 days and is the 4th highest viewed clip. Given that it’s only been online for 4 days I am thinking that its resonating with people already.

And why wouldn’t it?

In a few minutes you get to see some great pearls of wisdom from Susan!

Volunteer Management: Perhaps our greatest weakness is not realising our own power.

Power. – “The ability, strength, and capacity to do something - control and influence over other people and their actions” – The Encarta Dictionary.

Lord Acton wrote that power corrupts and I bet you never viewed Volunteer Management as a position of power. Power and Volunteer Management don’t seem to belong in the same sentence – don’t seem to be a natural fit. And good grief why would I be pitting them together when after all other word combinations seems to sit uncomfortably in our profession.

Such as:

Career aspiration and Volunteer Management

Education pathway and Volunteer Management

Financial security and Volunteer Management

Consultancy and Volunteer Management

The above 4 are surely a blog for another day. If you have doubts on what I am saying or difficulty understanding just look at the combinations again and change Volunteer Management into Human Resource Management.

So basically there are positions or philosophical places or contemplations where Volunteer Management is a no go area in my view or an uncomfortable and unwelcome guest because some of us have tried to bring a few of these ideals together.

Take power and Volunteer Management. What power do you wield as a Volunteer Manager or Coordinator within your agency, your community and world?

Have you ever even contemplated this question?

If we follow assumed constraints this may seem like a silly question. Ken Blanchard author of the One Minute Manager wrote that “An assumed constraint is a belief you have , based on past experience, that limits your current and future experience.”

Looking at this statement - I believe that as a sector we don’t believe we have any power at all.

None.

Zilch.


We are not consulted as a profession on a national or international level; if you think so – where I ask you? Please point out and I will publish here. There may be some positive things happening globally but nothing groundbreaking – Again, if you think so – where I ask you? Please point out and I will publish here.

When was the last time you ever saw an association for Volunteer Management exhibit or exercise power? Where? Anywhere in the globe?

Where is the evidence of our ability to act and speak with strength, our capacity to do something and control and influence other people?

Where are the voices then who challenge our consumed constraints? I hear individuals but not a collective organised voice.

Anywhere.

I’ve always believed that in order to have a successful Volunteer Management sector we need to have a critical mass of successful Volunteer Managers driving the sector forward.

If the majority of us feel we don’t get what we deserve, or we are under recognized and under resourced or that nothing ever changes within our own organisations then how can we expect any advancement for our sector?

If we, as Volunteer Managers and Coordinators feel powerless at our workplaces then how can we expect our sector to influence anybody or anything?

Power?

Effective Volunteer Managers bring to organizations:

Knowledge of an amazing movement that Susan J Ellis calls People Raising (As opposed to Fundraising)

An enormous array of talent and skill given freely

A diversity of background, age, nationality, thought, belief, skills, and motivation

Priceless, yes Price less community buy in

And you, yes, you reading this, manage or coordinate this.

You cultivate the most amazing experiences and influence the lives of so many. Volunteers look to you if you are an effective leader. Other look to you for volunteering solutions. The community seeks you out for gateways to involvement. Society relies on your efforts for building.

You don’t acknowledge your power. It is time you did. And when you do…Lead others to the same belief. And lead some real collective action.

“The only way in which anyone can lead you is to restore to you the belief in your own guidance” – Henry Miller

A belief , a theory and an action in Volunteer Management

THE BELIEF

Robert Oxton Bolton once said that “A belief is not merely an idea that the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind.” You know how when some quotes just bounce off you without effect and some deeply resonate within your very being? The latter are rare occurrences but seem to be becoming more active in my life. Bolton’s quote truly resonates with me.

Here are my beliefs:

Volunteerism is an inspirational and powerful global movement

Leaders of volunteers have powerful and inspirational roles in society

As a sector we do not sell this message or worse – we do not believe it to be true.

THE THEORY

My belief has led me to develop a theory and it is this:

The level of support and recognition given to volunteer management is directly proportional to the level of support and recognition given to volunteers.


This can apply on many levels – Organisations, Community, Government and can even be applied to the volunteerism sector itself. To be sure, having to include the latter is indicative of where volunteer management sits as well as the current relationship between key players within volunteerism – clearly we should all be singing from the same page but we are not!

I believe that this theory has the power to challenge. I have seen volunteering itself receive so much lip service over the years in so many quarters.

“Volunteers are so important to us”

“We would not survive without volunteers”

“Where would we be without you”

And we hear these sentiments every now and then especially at times like a national week of volunteering or in the aftermath of an event that involved spontaneous volunteering on a grand scale or as part of a government initiative to increase volunteering dramatically.

My theory simply says – if you are serious about volunteering – you are serious about volunteer management and serious about supporting both. Because they are extensively linked.

THE ACTION

"Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not 'making friends and influencing people'--that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." So said Peter F Drucker.

As an individual Volunteer manager this is what I do in relation to the sector I work within:

• Challenge the status quo
• Engage in critical thinking
• Challenge inertia and complacency
• Encourage debate and dialogue
• Encourage the emergence of leadership

I describe all of the above to demonstrate what I do as an individual. What I do as a volunteer manager is immensely rewarding. I love my job.
I believe I have had my successes.I hope to have more!

But I also believe that our sector is in dire need of a thought process that says “how do we go from success to significance”? I did a recent blog on the amazing speaker John Wood who spoke on such matters.

I am hoping that people who are successful in their roles of volunteer manager can step forward and be leaders in our sector.

Because we need leadership.

Your beliefs and theory’s are what we need at this time.

We need your actions.

Don’t be afraid to step up.

One day soon in Volunteer Management

One day Volunteer Management will be a sought after role.

One day most organisations will have a full time Volunteer manager. One day all corporates will have volunteer managers facilitating employee volunteering programs not just as part of their social responsibility but because it will be the norm to do so.

One day the leaders in volunteerism will be mostly drawn from volunteer management profession because they are the people at the coal face.

One day the management of volunteers will not be given to people who have another role in that organisation – one day it will be realised that “looking after the vollies” is not a simple process.

One day Government will realise that they cannot talk about increasing volunteering without funding greater volunteer management resources.

One day Government will consult with the volunteer management sector when we become relevant.

One day we will make ourselves so.

One day there will be an educational pathway into volunteer management.

One day Volunteer management will be a career option for people and will have a stand at career expos.

One day peak bodies for volunteering will strengthen their mission and value by developing crucial and close links with volunteer managers.

One day there will be a national conference on volunteer management and an international one too.

One day corporates will see the value in supporting scholarships and awards in Volunteer Management.

One day a leadership narrative will emerge in our profession. One day people will engage in dialogue in our future en masse and not the same “old few”


One day, those who hold us back will let go for various reasons.

One day we will gather the courage and conviction to grow. change and emerge as the amazing profession of difference makers.

One day we will be the leaders and an example to other professions in leadership and management.

We already do so.

We already make that difference.

We already lead and inspire.

One day we will realise and recognise this.

“Bold Goals attract Bold People”

“Bold Goals attract Bold People”

I was honoured to be invited by Volunteering Queensland (VQ) to attend a presentation yesterday by John Wood , best-selling author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and Founder and Executive Chair of Room to Read, the fastest growing non-profit in history.

At age 35, John Wood left an international executive career track at Microsoft out of deep concern that nearly one billion people lack basic literacy and that over 200 million children in the developing world are not enrolled at school.

Room to Read has sponsored the opening of 1129 schools and established 10 000 multi-lingual libraries across the developing world. The event was organised by Volunteering Qld's Business Roundtable and Macquarie.

Opening the event VQs CEO Jelenko Dragisic spoke of the Business Roundtable as an opportunity for NFPs and Corporates to interact and work more efficiently together. I was very interested to hear of this roundtable. Here is a summary from VQs website:

“By bringing together a group of influential corporate and business players, we create an organic nucleus of thinkers and collaborators interested in creating innovative pathways to community involvement.
The Business Roundtable facilitates the emergence of corporate leaders who are willing and able to enter into partnerships based on passion and shared values. Corporate patrons can use their networks, influence and expertise to benefit community organisations – a valuable voluntary role.”

I found John Wood to be an inspirational speaker with an extraordinary story to tell. With the help of many volunteers around the globe his organization has had a huge impact on the lives of Millions.

His story of leadership also inspired me – “Our world is in need of leadership – our leadership!”

I learnt that Room to Read has opened 1, 442 schools

John asked “How do you go from success to significance?”

I learnt that Room to Read has opened 11,000 libraries.

John stated that “Bold goals attract bold people”

I learnt that because of this organisation, its leaders, volunteers and staff that 5 million kids now have access to libraries and schools!

There are good news stories in the world. We don’t hear enough about them.

We work in a sector where inspiring stories happen every day. We need to hear more of them and we need to ensure we are attracting more dynamic and inspiring leaders.

Room to read is linked by clicking on the title of this article.

The year of doing things differently

“The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.” ~Eric Hoffer

2011. Good grief. I don’t know about you but for me as a child growing up that seemed like a year of science fiction. I think as a 4 year old child in 1990 I would have had dreams of a world where……ok…there are some of you shouting…”hang on…this dude is older than 21. Alright! Alright! Allow me my fantasy.

Ok, as a child of the seventies I dreamt of space travel and meeting aliens by 2011. And here I am in the Volunteer Management sector so most dreams have been achieved.

Ok…lighten up. It’s been a heavy few weeks.

I think my blog will take a little lighter tone this year. By that I don’t mean funnier. I think the real me needs to come out in my writing. What does that mean? I think, in this stage of my evolution in my writing, there has been a little bit of worrying what some might think. There might have even been a bit of trying to please a certain audience. Or writing to appease or please. Though you wouldn’t think so if you were new to reading this blog.

I am hoping for something different this year.

Conferences, Retreats, dialogue, debates, blogs, newsgroups, advisory groups, networks, training, specialists , consultants, experts etc. can go on ad infinitum.

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”
~Sandra Carey

And they will, as they have done, with minor modifications as long as people are happy with minor modifications. Conferences, Retreats, dialogue, debates, blogs, newsgroups, advisory groups, networks, training, specialists , consultants, experts etc will continue to deliver what they think meets the mindset of their audiences.

Same old same old has a certain comfort in worrying and uncertain times.
I hope that we see some different things this year as far as our sector is concerned. I hope we see boundaries pushed. I hope we see innovation. I hope we see confidence. And I hope we hear new voices. I hope we hear your voice.


“A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless … someone’s got to make a wake up call.” ~Warren Bennis

If those of us who already write or blog or train or manage or coordinate plan on doing the same old thing, albeit with some minor modifications or flowery language to dress up the same old menu, then we will be failing to lead into the future. Then we will be letting the future be written by others.

We can only reclaim the future by doing something different this year. How about we lead for a start? How about we gently get off any fences we sit upon and how about we act on being bolder about the profession we love?

“To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.”
~Harry Truman

Question your “experts” question your Peak body. Question your association. Question me!

Don’t sit at your next conference and think “well this is it”. Don’t just join an association and think you’ve done your bit for the sector. For every event you pay to attend ask yourself” what are the tangible results here that advance me in my professional development?”

And look for something different. Look for leadership.

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
~Rosalynn Carter

Leadership in Volunteer Management

“One of the signs of a great leader is the ability to describe, in detail, the unique talents of each of their people – what drives each one, how each one thinks, how each one builds relationships. I deliberately look for something to like about each of my people. Not spending most of the time talking about peoples few areas of non-talent and how to eradicate them. No matter how well intended, relationships preoccupied with weaknesses never end well” – Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

The above quote really resonated with me in terms of looking at leadership styles that sit well in Volunteer Management. I am sure that we all have our own unique type of styles but I question if some sit better with managing volunteers.

Let’s break the above quote down and analyze how we might apply the theory.

How do you describe, in detail, the unique talents of each of your people what drives each one, how each one thinks, how each one builds relationships?

Do we currently do this and if so how? If not how do we begin to achieve this? Is there a narrative on their achievements? The question I often ask is whether or not organisations management and staff know about the talents and achievements of their volunteers. Are we educating up enough? I don’t believe it is enough for Volunteer Management just to know this about their own teams. When was the last time you did a presentation to staff or management on the unique talents of your people? When have you last taken this narrative to your community and utilized it as both a recognition and recruitment tool? I believe we should also be talking more on what motivates our people to volunteer. The reasons for this are many and some include our ability to match volunteers to the right task, our planning for the future and again creating a narrative on the culture of volunteering at our organizations. Furthermore I often argue that Volunteer management becomes aware of emerging trends before peak bodies do through surveys especially if we are networking effectively with other leaders of volunteers. This is one of the reasons I continually get frustrated at the exclusion of Volunteer Management at the table when it comes to discussions on the future of volunteerism. Volunteers are relationship builders, within their own teams, with staff, with clients and the general community. Do we focus on this aspect when selling our program, or looking for extra resources for our programs? Do we miss some key selling points like this?

Do we deliberately look for something to like about each of our people? Not spending most of the time talking about peoples few areas of non-talent and how to eradicate them?

How can this apply to volunteers some may ask? Don’t we like all of our volunteers? Very often we don’t exist in a Utopian Volunteering world. We may be challenged by some volunteers at times. I often see workshops on “How to deal with difficult volunteers”. I still hear in Volunteer Management circles “Can you sack a volunteer”? The above quote points us in another direction. It goes to how we deal with these situations. It reminds us how we can be truly professional in our dealings with volunteers. When I first commenced in Volunteer Management I was startled by how some groups that got together spent a lot of time “bagging” some of their volunteer team. And while I understand the need for letting off steam in confidential and safe spaces I do believe how we talk about our people says a lot about our professionalism. I’ve cringed at some of the titles of workshops on the topic of dealing with difficult volunteers and while our issues and challenges must be addressed we must find a more positive narrative in doing so. Deliberately looking for something to like in someone you have difficulty with can apply anywhere in our lives, whether it be through various relationships, with staff, management or colleagues. It is another way of demonstrating leadership. It can loosen steadfast and hard views on people and shine a little light where there might be perceived darkness.

Buckingham’s and Coffman’s quote can guide us to lead in certain situations rather than manage. What do you think?