Delegation

Building collaborative relationships with highly-skilled volunteers can gain huge dividends for your organization and for the volunteers who participate. Based on her research for the upcoming book, The Art and Science of Engaging Baby Boomer Volunteers, Jill Friedman Fixler shares how creating work assignments that engage highly-skilled volunteers effectively provides a win/win situation for you and the volunteer.

Using five case studies of real organization experiences, this article explores what “highly-skilled” means and why such volunteers are increasing, what makes working with highly-skilled volunteers special or different from working with other types of volunteers, and where to find highly-skilled volunteers.

 

Interviewing is a lot like archery. The athletes who participate in that sport have their mind on one thing: hitting the bull’s-eye. Their strategy is to develop the skills to hit the bull’s-eye portion of the target every time. Your target when you interview is the kind of volunteer you want to place. And you need to develop the skills to hit that target as often as possible. Group interviewing, which is showcased in this article, will enable you to hit the bull’s-eye every time.

Traditionally, most volunteer interviews take place in a one-on-one situation between the candidate and a member of the volunteer program staff...The group interviewing process recommended here involves interviewing five volunteers simultaneously with two trained volunteer placement counselors conducting the interview. The philosophy of group interviewing, designing the group interview process, selecting and training volunteer placement counselors, the logistics of this system, and evaluation of interview efficacy are each be explored in this article.

The refrain is heard time and time again in the groups and organizations of modern society. Schools have been crying out for ages about the shortage of math and science teachers. Corporations have been wailing about the lack of skilled workers. Community issues go un-addressed for lack of passionate people. There is a leadership crisis; a volunteer crisis, a "can't find the person I need when I need them" crisis. Why such a shortage of people?

Yet people increasingly ask us, "Why aren't there more leaders?" Why are people reluctant to answer the cry for leadership? ... We believe this cautiousness results not from a lack of courage or competence but from outdated notions about leadership. (Kouzes, Posner. The Leadership Challenge)