LEADING VOLUNTEERS SUCCESSFULLY

In today's global economy, there are a variety of different roles and responsibilities for managers. One of the fastest growing areas of management is volunteer management resulting from the need for organizations to utilize volunteers and the influx of volunteer talent from the aging baby-boomer generation.

General management experience in a corporate environment provides some of the most basic skills needed for volunteer management. But there are a variety of additional skills needed to succeed in the volunteer environment. Typically, volunteers are looking for intrinsic rewards, flexibility, and an opportunity to add value to the community. They come from varied backgrounds all the way from executive level management to front-line staff and may have served in management and leadership capacities themselves during their careers.

Leading and developing volunteers includes some of the components of typical management training and skills. It also relies heavily on strong leadership and interpersonal skills and the ability to recognize the potential of a varied pool of talent from different backgrounds and walks of life. The volunteer manager must be able to optimize the value and fulfillment of volunteering for the individual while identifying ways to recognize and reward volunteer efforts.

The best volunteer managers are leaders who possess the following skills:

1. Proven organizational and management skills. Volunteers have a strong desire to add value and see results. Organizational skills will contribute to the manager's success in gaining confidence and trust.

2. Strong communication and interpersonal skills. Volunteers are typically seeking openness and interpersonal relationships in their work and expect reciprocal behavior from their manager.

3. Ability to create clearly defined goals and objectives for the volunteers. Having a set of goals and expectations will help both the manager and the volunteer to stay focused and optimize the available resources.

4. Project management skills are a must. Deploying volunteers is only part of the work. Overseeing the ongoing work to ensure expectations are met is critical and a project plan and timeline will enable the manager to succeed in overseeing the multiple projects performed by volunteers.

5. Flexibility in deploying and allocating resources volunteers are not paid employees and cannot be treated the same way. They need to be allowed more flexibility

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