Supervision

Leaders are people who inspire others to follow.  They do this largely through their communication.  That influence partly comes from what leaders talk about, such as a vision of the future, organizational values, and other topics which have been well-described in many books and articles on the subject.  But the influence also comes from the way leaders phrase things.

Rick Lynch has based this article on some of his recent research into what kinds of communication inspire commitment and what kinds inspire resistance.  He identifies seven skills which will make you a more influential leader if you master them.

Should there be a significant difference in leadership ability between the head of the organization and the head of the volunteer program?  While there may be differences in authority, leadership is not restricted to the executive director or chair of the board, nor should it be for the sustainability of the organization.   Leadership happens at all levels within an organization.  Everyone, including volunteer managers, has the capacity of becoming a leader. We all have skills which can be enhanced and abilities which can be cultivated. 

 

Some volunteer program managers may not yet perceive themselves as leaders in their organization, but they can be.   In this article, Bailey and Petro provide some self-assessment considerations and tools.

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.

 

Think about the communications methods you – and others at your organization – use with volunteers right now. Is your organization getting the information it needs about volunteers and their activities via these methods? Information such as:

• Their accomplishments as volunteers
• Their feedback on assignments, relations with staff, other volunteers, and clients
• The number of hours they are contributing
• Tools/resources they are finding particularly useful
• Obstacles they are encountering
• Their suggestions or criticisms

What information are you getting via the communications methods you are using now, and what information are you lacking? In addition to volunteers sharing this information with you directly, is everyone who is working with volunteers sharing information with each other?

A lot of questions! But in thinking about these, you can already begin to see where your communications with volunteers is working, where it is lacking, and how you might make improvements.

Jayne Cravens gives us all practical tips on using Internet communication to engage volunteers successfully.

You don’t need to be a drama queen (or king), or the star of your 1971 high school production of Bye Bye Birdie, or even a Shakespearian scholar to tap into the rich tool kit of theatre techniques available to any trainer.

While a few very successful trainers go out of their way to avoid exercises that resemble theatre games in any way, the reality is that most of us need a creative way to share information, enliven our presentations, and reach out to a diverse group of adult learners who tend to have short attention spans and their own, unique learning styles. Using drama, a catchphrase that includes a variety of theatrical techniques, is the perfect way to make a good presentation more effective and memorable.

A word of caution : Drama can make a good presentation great, but it won’t make a bad presentation good. As in the use of any training technique, before you begin to think about what drama exercises to add, start with a solid strategy and make sure that your curriculum is well thought out to meet the stated objectives of the course.

This article is adapted from the very popular workshop the authors first taught together at the International Conference on Volunteer Administration in Phoenix in 2000. Like the workshop, this article is divided into two sections and explores the continuum of theatre techniques, from creative drama to fully scripted skits, and looks at how they can be adapted to virtually any training.

The first part of the article looks at Creative Drama and includes examples of how these techniques can energize an ice breaker, help participants explore a complex concept though individual role playing, and work through tough issues with fully improvised group scenes. The second part of the article explores the use of scripted scenes in training, and how to bring out your own Tennessee Williams in the process.

There are some wonderful pointers here for any trainer, along with an an icebreaker and several skits (with and without scripts).  

Keyboard Roundtable participants from Australia, Canada, Rumania, the United Kingdom, and the United States discuss what an "entrepreneurial volunteer" really is (a pioneer or someone who doesn't like rules?  a blessing or a nightmare?) and how a volunteer program manager can welcome and support out-of-the-box participants.  Here's an excerpt from one of Abby Dyson's (UK) comments:

One area of discussion that I'm particularly interested in exploring, and finding solutions where there are obstacles, relates to that first group of volunteers that Rob identified which is, in my opinion, very similar to the final group that Linda refers to.

These are people who, for various reasons, are put off by the rules and bureaucracies that exist. One set of reasons may relate to a lack of understanding, time and/or willingness to navigate existing systems. Alternatively, perhaps as in the case of Linda's expected experience as well as Ioana's volunteer, there are people with a clear understanding of what they have to offer and/or want to achieve (often they don't have both) and an expectation that the organisations they work with will be able to accommodate them.

The first set of reasons will, I think, happily be tackled by Volunteering Managers seeking to, as Adaire says, "institute good volunteer management principles and practices" which will strip away the bad rules that may have developed over time as well as effectively communicate the need for good and necessary rules.

The second set of challenges are, I think, less likely to be embraced as the solutions are less clear, more challenging and time-consuming.