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Unquestionably, a significant part of effective management is a manager's individual leadership skills. While managers are often in charge of large groups of paid employees, the same resourceful leadership is required of individuals who lead volunteer groups. Successful volunteer group leaders should have a mastery of basic leadership skills to perform to the best of their abilities on the job.

REPRESENTATIONAL SKILLS

One of the problems with leading volunteers is the fact that many times, a volunteer-group leader is unsure of the group member's motives. In many volunteer projects, individuals will volunteer for various reasons including (but certainly not limited to) collecting community-service hours or as a form of legal punishment. Because volunteers are unpaid, it is difficult for volunteer-group leaders to direct because some volunteers feel that they do not need to follow instruction, particularly if there is no "incentive." In these cases, it is crucial for volunteer group leaders to fully represent their organization by embodying the organization's principles for the members of their group. Leaders are required to set an example that their volunteers can aspire to by providing the best service that they can while completing their assigned duties. In other words, they should demonstrate administrative excellence by having profound, functional job knowledge, and practice their skills to serve as a model for their volunteer group members.

MOTIVATIONAL SKILLS

Motivation and performance management is an essential component to volunteer group leader's ultimate success or failure. Leaders should know how to motivate individuals on their teams by understanding their strengths and weaknesses and helping them to improve on areas where they are lacking. Volunteer group leaders will often be required to provide motivation for personal growth within the team. Because sometimes setting an example is simply not enough to motivate their group members, leaders must possess motivational skills that will allow them to encourage team members to provide service to the best of their abilities.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS

While team-building activities are a common practice in team management, conflict is also inevitable during the life cycle of most, if not all, volunteer projects. For this reason, volunteer group leaders must have a conflict management plan in place to prevent and handle any conflicts which arise. However, it is important to note that even some conflict is unavoidable.

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