The skills required for leading volunteers are not much different than those needs to lead paid employees. The application of leaderships skills is the real key, and applying them with volunteers is far different than with employees.

Management tones stress communication as one of the major keys to success in any organization. Managers communicate their assignments and expectations differently to employees than a leader might to volunteers. Volunteers need to have two way communication that establishes the value of the task to the group, and to the volunteer. An employee may do a "stupid" task. A volunteer will not.

Not for profits could not exist if people did not generously offer their time, energy and skills to the cause. Volunteers need leadership to be at their most effective.

Leading volunteers asks the manager to be clear with direction, to explain task value and to involve the volunteer in that task both intellectually and emotionally. Volunteers require more communication. Volunteers have to be convinced and invested in their work.

Volunteers can disappear at the drop of a hat. It is their choice to work with the group. One very difficult skill to master is being able to convince a volunteer that they are more useful in a certain task or position than in the task or position that they want. Listening to the volunteer is always important. If the manager is not listening, the volunteer may stop communicating or may stop everything.

Some volunteers bring a skill or a connection to a group that it is impossible to lose. Many other volunteers feel they belong in that category, but only a very small number are critical for success. Working with the critical volunteer involves recognizing his importance, and negotiating when the volunteer and the group have differing needs. Working with the self-important volunteer requires a similar negotiation that does not demean but also maintains the goals and requirements of the group.

Indeed, negotiating may be the second most important leadership skill after listening. A manager might have to negotiate to obtain just a little more of a volunteer's time. A negotiation might involve arrangements that solve a personal issue between two volunteers. In a not for profit, negotiation always involves the necessity to get just that tiny bit more from the volunteers.

By volunteering, people get the right to ask questions, to offer opinions and to feel more in control of their own work and their own choices. Some of the freedom that an employee surrenders for a paycheck remains with a volunteer. Patience is a "must have" skill for leading volunteers. They will need far more interaction before taking a task on as their own. They will want the manager to see them as equals, with value and valuable opinions. Patience allows people to work with each other instead of for each other.

Listening, negotiation, communication and patience are skills that are required to lead employees in the workforce. They are also skills required to lead volunteers, with a unique application of each needed for the unique people who volunteer.

Learn more about this author, Charles Simmins.
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