To Lead Is To Serve: The Challenge of Volunteer Leadership, Part II

February 10, 2015

In last week's blog, I wrote about Shar McBee’s influential work on volunteer leadership, To Lead is to Serve — How to Attract Volunteers & Keep Them, in which the author offers some unique, simple ideas for growing an organization’s leadership. In her book, McBee skillfully differentiates between management and leadership. Truly, to lead is to serve. This book tells how a real bonus is that many of the ideas can be implemented immediately and individually.

Let’s pick up where we left off.

Rule 5 — Hold Inspiring and Informative Meetings

Most important, try to keep meetings short and uncluttered. If people expect their meetings to last forever without much being accomplished, they’ll dread attending and begin to naturally dislike the meeting’s chairman. As McBee stresses in her book, “Use meetings to inspire and evaluate current projects, follow-through, inform. Do not use them to bore, blame or discourage.” Have a plan or an agenda and stick to it! One device I’ve heard of, but have never tried, is to hold meetings in a room without chairs. Folks will be brief if they have nowhere to sit!

For longer meetings that cannot be avoided, try using a facilitator who can help you conduct meetings where the results matter. That way, you can participate, rather than spend your time managing the meeting. A good facilitator will know group decision-making processes that move your meeting toward results everyone supports.

Rule 6 — Be Attractive

Clear out the clutter of any past negative vibes. Make the meeting space welcoming and be positive. Think of a board chair whose organization has fallen on lean times, mostly due to the economic recession. He sought out a consultant for some advice on what to do to begin fixing the problem. He figured the advice would come in the form of how to cut expenses and increase revenues. Instead he was somewhat stunned when the consultant told him to treat his fellow board members like his own siblings, the thinking being that he could not turn around the association externally until he got it together internally. So, he began focusing on the board’s morale rather than just the bottom line. In turn, he attracted the loyalty and commitment of his fellow board members and soon enough, things turned around for the association. Think about how this advice translates to the boardroom for your organization.

Rule 7 — Change Your Mind

Think of your mind as an empty glass. As we experience different things, our lives become those things and the glass that is our minds begins to fill up. If you believe in this truism, McBee argues that we should, in essence, think happy, productive thoughts. In other words, change your mind no matter what the situation, and reflect a positive attitude. This will inspire people. For your association, this will attract new leaders, the critical lifeblood of any organization. As a leader, remember that the organization you lead reflects how you think, your attitude and the way you carry yourself. In order to be a great leader, you must inspire others to see things that you see, be enthusiastic about what you do.

Rules 8 and 9 — Have Fun Every Day and Be Creative

These are my favorite rules of all, for if we don’t enjoy what we do, why do it? The creative part is a bit harder. We are often so focused on the job at hand, it’s difficult to be creative, especially if we’re not hard-wired to think in terms of our creativity. But think of it this way — try to come up with a new idea every day, no matter how simple.

Encourage your fellow board members to do the same. Reward people for the most creative ideas, especially those that make your organization more profitable or make a particular job that nobody wants to tackle a little bit easier. This process will lead to a stronger team atmosphere in the board room.

And building a better, happier, more creative team can go a long way toward making you a more successful leader.

These concepts have always been with us, but McBee articulates these ancient, well-proven philosophies that exist in all human relationships and applies them to leadership. Whatever your position in a for-profit or a nonprofit, I enthusiastically recommend that you read this book and then apply its life- and organization-changing principles and ideas.

Photo credit:Ben Terrett / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Photo credit: Be-Younger.com / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)