The Volunteer Hat Challenges

How much or how little do you volunteer?   Do you volunteer in career-related organizations or for charity or both?

There are a number of volunteer hats I wear with a balance of career-related and charity groups.   Each organization and group of people you work with provide a great opportunity to make connections and to help you grow as a person.

Several things happened this week to inspire this Blog.   One was a lunch meeting with a colleague reaching out for business advice regarding his own business partnership.  It was an honour for someone to be so vulnerable and seek advice.   The reason he gave was observing what we have done as a company and what we have volunteered in providing an overall good balance to creating our brand.  He mentioned the business community recognizes this and why he trusted our discussion would be worthwhile.

We had a meeting for over two hours this week with one of the organizations I volunteer on.   Not our typical meeting and we had to hammer out a number of items.   The biggest challenge was everyone knew the right thing to do and it was very difficult to have all of us agree on a plan of action.   It was interesting to hear both sides of the story and to see the group agree to a two-step process instead of a one-step plan to execute immediately.

When you look around at the amount of time all these professionals are investing, it makes you wonder sometimes is it worth it?  Some of us felt like it was time to throw in the towel.  Once you set your emotions back in check, you realize quitting is the easy way out.   The group was very supportive of each other and we are all moving forward together.

Being involved in a smaller group of five, it is easy to have a bit of a power struggle on leadership.   The leader of this group sent out a very "frustrated" e-mail last night not being happy about how we are handling things and how we are doing our own thing.   I took this very personal having just come out of the other group' marathon meeting probably did not help my reaction.

Since it was family time it was best to let my response wait.  Read the message again, sent a reply stating sorry the leader feels we let him down and asked what I could do to help?  His reply was the message was aimed at one specific person and had to send it to all of us.   Yes I get that strategy and maybe another time/place may have fully grasped who it was meant for.   Sent another response to support the leader and focus on our task at hand.

Focusing on the different personalities seems to be the biggest challenges wearing the volunteer hat.   When we are working well together things run smooth, we contribute in a positive way and the organizations we support benefit and appreciate the volunteers.

What I have experienced to deal with the volunteer hat challenges:  remember why we are volunteering and have to speak our peace openly and honestly.  We also have to keep in mind it is not about anyone's agenda.   It is OK to not always agree, however, once the discussion is over and a decision is made we all need to support it.

Enjoying being a leader and a supporter on various organizations to make a difference in our community.   Thanks to all the volunteers who donate their personal time and may not always be appreciated.