Marathon versus Sprint

Today is the final day of my Action Canada Fellowship. Unbelievably, it's been about 10 months since the program actively started, but closer to a year and a half since the idea and work to be nominated and screened began. In the beginning, I felt as is the world was about to slowly unfold before me. I now look back and feel that I just lived through a 30 second speed clip of my life.

The orientation for my Masters program contained the following advice: this is a marathon, not a sprint. They encouraged us to learn from the turtle, rather than the hare. In that situation, slow and steady won the race. Truly, at the end of that program, I felt like a marathoner. In contrast, today I feel like a sprinter. While 10 months is an awfully long sprint, it's more in the intensity and pace of the past 10 months that makes it feel so.

One of the most beautiful things about marathons and sprints are that they demonstrate strengths in very tangible ways. Enduring a marathon is an example of persistence, focus of mind and sheer determination that are wonderful gifts to learn about yourself. However sprints also reveal important traits- over the past 10 months, I have not only run faster than I ever believed I could, but each Action Canada conference or other milestone allowed me to push myself even faster than before and attain consecutive new personal bests.

Both marathons and sprints reveal pieces of who you are- and more importantly, who you can become. Such has been the learning I've been reflecting on the past few days as this Fellowship comes to an end. This experience was not one many volunteer engagement professionals have the chance to participate in- and rarely to the level of keeping up with the calibre of peers I've enjoyed through Action Canada.

I encourage every person committed to volunteer engagement to challenge themselves to such new experiences of personal and professional discovery, especially in the company of the highest talent in other professions as you can. Doing so can only advance the profession by developing a corps of professionals who know no bounds and achieve the seemingly impossible.

What are you waiting for?

Experience Does Not Equal Skill

Humans love the idea of linear progress. Straight lines, technological advancements, economic development- it's all based on the idea that the further you go, the better things get. That what's new is better than what was. Examples abound with graphic demonstration that this simply isn't true; our worsening environmental reality, the daily news and global economic meltdowns. Sometimes progress does mean an improvement in things, like the telephone and cancer treatments. But we also thought trans fats and artificial sweeteners were good for us too- illustrations that we don't always know wisdom from errors.

Those of us in Volunteer Management see a similar phenomenon, both in our coworkers and in our own profession. How many of you have coworkers in areas like fundraising or HR who were introduced as having years of experience working with volunteers, only to have you witness first-hand that their idea of volunteer management was yelling orders or giving out menial work. Or the peer who has been in the profession for years, but hasn't seemed to benefit in thought or capacity from their experience and still make rookie mistakes. In short, experience in working with volunteers, however loosely defined, does not equal skill in working with volunteers.

We'd like to believe that everyone in the profession is on the same page. We expect that peers with years of experience, or those held in great esteem by others (professional groups, funders, the public, etc) have the skill or ingenuity to match the admiration. But too often, this isn't the case. There are far too many people espousing themselves as experts in volunteer management (or worse volunteer engagement) without having the skill or critical thinking to back up the claim. By not challenging these false idols, we all suffer because it reinforces the idea that there isn't a highly developed skill-set or knowledge base connected with the true engagement of volunteers. And as the faithful readers of this blog know, I am particularly particular about volunteer engagement.

There's something else at work here in this situation, and I won't be popular for stating it (notice I'm not stopping). Perhaps another reason why so many are so quick to listen to the snake-oil salespeople in our midst is because by and large, this profession has had very few high profile leaders who are more than a mash of clever use of buzzwords mixed in with a small measure of creativity and lots of confidence. Over the last few years, I have had interactions with some of the "best and brightest" in our field, and while some truly are wonderful, such as Susan Ellis and Andy Fryar, others, left unnamed, have underwhelmed once you wade through the supposed years of experience, hype or past and present glories. Despite their fame and/or experience, there's a lack of depth of critical thought, breadth of understanding or originality in them.

I say these things not out of spite, not with a wish to harm, but simply as a call to action to all volunteer management professionals to demand more- more from ourselves and from each other! It's impossible to believe that people who day in and out keep our organizations, communities and ultimately countries' running don't have it in them to expect more from the profession and those in it.

Let's stop lying around thinking of England when someone is full of crap. We're doing ourselves and others no service in not speaking up. My new year's resolution for 2011 is to put any sacred cows I come across out to pasture. For once, I feel quite optimistic about sticking with my resolution! :)

What's yours?

looking for leaders in all the wrong places

Leadership. Who is not looking for more leadership in their organizations, and especially within volunteers? I've yet to speak with a VE colleague who isn't struggling to identify, recruit and retain what is generically titled "leadership volunteers".

I have several problems with this- both the terminology, but also the paradigm. Indulge me while I unpack the term "leadership volunteer". Let me start with the word volunteer; not an unfamiliar word to most people. Yet sometimes the things that are most well known are the least known well. I absolutely believe this is the case with 'volunteer' and its related terms. Volunteer is a pay scale, as Susan Ellis once said. Nothing more. The word volunteer adds no detail, depth or clarity to an individual's motivations, skill sets or future plans. You only know they aren't getting paid to do something.

Leadership is even more ubiquitous than volunteer, and no less likely to be used incorrectly in my opinion. Were you to ask someone to quantify what gets lumped into the "leadership volunteer" category, you'd see roles where an individual is leading a group or is in a decision-making position. All very traditional and accepted views of what leaders do and who leaders are.

So it could be understood from this deciphering that "leadership volunteers" are people who don't get paid to be responsible for others and make hard decisions. Gee, I can't imagine why there's a shortage of people wanting to step up and take on that volunteer opportunity!

Let's turn now to dismantling the inferred beliefs within the term "leadership volunteer". First, there's a presumption that leaders fill certain roles and take on certain responsibilities. Second, there's a belief that leadership is related only to those specific roles and responsibilities. Lastly, too often, leadership is seen as isolated- there is only one leader of the group for all things and at all times.

What would happen if instead of appointing a singular leader to a group, a conversation was had with each volunteer involved about their leadership opportunities and responsibilities within their role? What if, instead of having a small cadre of "leadership volunteers", every volunteer within your organization understood their ability and accountability to step up when and where they could? Why don't we empower every volunteer who is involved with our organizations to see themselves as leaders of our missions and key to our success?

By continuing to associate leadership with one-person shows, we will never have full buy-in by the majority of those who are most able to collectively have an impact within our organization, our volunteers. I encourage all volunteer engagement professionals to shift their paradigm thinking from one of scarcity to abundance and see what unfolds. You may just discover that there is no need to recruit more "leadership volunteers" but that in fact, you are already surrounded by them.

space and time continuums....

I've been absent from this blog for a while- life has graciously been throwing lots of wonderful things my way (thank you Universe). To be honest, as I was thinking about needing to come up with something brilliant, for the sake of posting consistently and my own modesty, I drew a blank. Then inspiration struck and I thought instead I'd look at the situation as though I was a volunteer, and this blog was my responsibility.

I really enjoy the time I spend writing these little notes and sending them out into cyberspace. I enjoy it even more when I get little tidbits back and realize I was able to connect with someone over a shared thought or perspective. I have no desire to stop writing this blog...and yet, here I am, more than a month or two, with no postings. I'm capable, committed and interested in continuing, so why am I not behaving like the volunteer-of-the-year I could be?

A couple of possibilities jump to mind; I could be going through an unusually busy time at work or in my personal life, perhaps I'm still eager, but less inspired. Or I could be trying to convince myself that I really am still interested in the role and giving you the same lines as well. Here's something further to consider: it doesn't matter why. One of the things I've learned both in life and in leadership is that you will never really figure out someone's full motivations/situations/thought process and its futile to attempt it (it also gives you grey hair!).

The reality is that at some point, this will happen to at least 95% of volunteers, even your best ones. So where does that leave those of us with the task of leading, encouraging and sustaining these sporadic bloggers? I would suggest two answers: one, have a deep look at whether or not you are co-opting my bad performance out of fear of addressing the issue head-on with me and two, have a back up plan! It could be an action track to get me revved up again like a topic brainstorming session, guest author or new format. It might be a suggestion of quarterly switches, where I become the editor instead of the writer, letting me keep my head and hand in the game, without leaving the whole thing at my doorstep. As a profession, we excel at the initial screening and placing of volunteers, but too often fall short of having staying power when things start to get tough. However you do it, the best leaders of volunteers have humour, flexibility and an equal concern for the value of the work being done and the importance of the person doing it and don't sacrifice one for the other.

Good luck to all!

the importance of passion

Here's a quandry I'm hoping you can help me with; it came up as I reflected on a conversation I had with a friend. He told me he admired my passion- a lovely compliment to give to someone and coming from him meant a lot to me. But as I began thinking about that statement, I wondered why we would even remark on someone's passion as being something special or singularly important enough to comment on.

I've been thinking about this for several days now, and I don't think the issue is that passion is special. I've come to believe that what makes people who are passionate special is that it seems very few ever tap into whatever drives them and gets them excited about things. So many live in a fog that those who live with vim and vigour stand out. How sad is that?

No doubt, one of the most magical things about meeting and partnering with volunteers is that the majority of them have tapped into that inner passion. They've been able to pinpoint what is important enough to them that they want to commit their most precious resources to it- their time, their minds and their hearts. It's remarkable even though it should be the norm. In my mind, facilitating the discovery of someone's passion is the noblest part of every volunteer engager's role. How successful have you been?

defining ourselves- an idea

I've spoken on several occassions in this blog about defining the profession, about expanding on our sense of selves as a profession and gaining a more authentic, unique voice. I would like to propose a simple analogy we can use to begin clarifying for people-either colleagues, organizational leadership or lay people we meet about what volunteer management really is and who does is.

Here's my proposal- it centers on a very simple question you can ask whenever you'd like to help the profession out and deepen someone's understanding of who we are and what we do. Should an opportunity present itself where a statement is made that frames the work of a staff person whose work involves liaising with volunteers as volunteer management, consider asking the speaker whether they work with employees in their job. Then ask them if they consider themselves an HR professional. If they answer no, have a conversation about why they think that working with volunteers automatically confers professional volunteer management status on someone. What's next? Anyone who sits beside a volunteer on a bus is considered a volunteer management professional? Shake the hand of a volunteer and suddenly be certified? (p.s. the trick of course, is to not ask this of actual HR professionals, otherwise the punch line looses it's kick!)

Working alongside volunteers does not make you a volunteer management professional. There's no shame in that, and it's not meant in a derogatory manner. Many of our colleagues have excellent people skills and perform in many respects on par with the best practices of the volunteer management profession. However there are too many fundraisers, administrators and program delivery staff (at a number that seems to grow everyday) who are spoken of or treated like they have volunteer management experience, when it's simply not the case.

There is another example we can use to clarify our profession: the difference between working at a bank and running a bank. To me, both are important roles to the overall functioning of the bank, but require different skill sets, experience and perhaps even schooling credentials and most importantly, focus on different areas and levels of the operation. Professional volunteer management is much of the same. While some of us work directly with volunteers, the activities and competencies involved in managing a volunteer program is a whole other skill set altogether and needs to be recognized as such.

I may just be getting grumpy in my old age, but I do believe that by not clarifying these little things, it rolls up into bigger things that eventually lead to a lessening of the value of investing in professionals who have the skills, talent, passion and knowledge to effectively steward an organization's most valuable, and in many cases most prevalent resource, volunteers.

Do you agree? Most importantly, tell me if you tried this and it worked! :)

duelling duality

I did something this evening I usually try to avoid; I watched fascinating documentaries and became better informed. As is my nature, I cried and swore and felt compelled to take action against the injustices portrayed on the screen. I also felt a little disheartened, which has always been a part of my nature too. Perhaps it's by virtue of my having worked front-line in so many small, grassroots organizations over my career and seen time and again needless suffering, pointless wastes of potential and general crapiness in life that I feel the despondency more because I've seen it's consequences. I also wonder if my career in volunteer management has been a counter point to that malaise, embracing the other, just as powerful side to my nature, which is to have irrational hope in people, their kindness and goodness.

I wonder how many of my peers feel this duelling duality? The daily tug of war or emotional roller coaster of highs and lows. The euphoria of meeting a community member who is excited about partnering with your organization and could do incredible things, to the low of knowing the colleague that works in that area has a terrible track record with volunteers or that the culture of your organization won't allow them to meet the full range of their potential. Maybe this is why over a quarter of peers who start in the field leave not long after. How could they not? The emotional fortitude it takes to see the means of making a difference within your community and towards your mission (the volunteer) slip away and know you're powerless to stop it is soul crushing at best. Disengaging at least.

And yet we carry on. Well, most of us anyway. With thicker skin and wiser minds, but always, always, with hope in our hearts.

How are your hearts feeling?