LEARN HOW TO LEAD THROUGH VOLUNTERING

Volunteering or the BIG V can be a fantastic tool to promote “good” leadership.

We think of leadership as an exercise of power, isn’t?

You know what I am talking about.

The usual stuff: leaders on one hand and fellows on the other.

Can we instead dare to think differently?

Can perhaps a focus on civic participation, expressed through one of its purest forms, volunteerism, come to help on this regard?

But let’s start from scratch.

Inherent to leadership, especially a conception of leadership that takes into account the personal process of self-empowerment is the idea of being in action, in motion.

With self-empowerment I am referring to an holistic process of personal development, not to be intended as just acquisition of new experiences and skills but much more than.

It is something that allows a person to blossom, find her self-confidence, her belief in herself.

It something that gives a person respect and dignity, all elements that are also instrumental to the process of personal development that is conducive to the exercise of “good” leadership.

When we talk about leadership, it is about something that is developed rather than the traditional conception of leadership as an “authority” that is exercised.

Now comes the role that volunteerism or the BIG V as I call it, can play in developing such form of leadership.

Because the Big V is really a tool that allows you to get into motion; it is a way to develop yourself and therefore it is paramount to enhancing personal development, a key process that if enacted in the right way, can truly define your quest for leadership.

Particularly we should focus on two dimensions of the BIG V.

What I call, borrowing an expression from the basketball’s jargon, the “double dunk”.

Actually I do not think this terminology even exists but it does not matter, I think it really fits well the idea I am trying to express.

First Dunk: The community development

Second Dunk: Personal development

And here we should think of the BIG V as an enhancer, an amplifier.

Let’s not forget that when we talk about the BIG V, we talk about a 2 ways road

The Giving side

The Taking side

Normally there is a lot of attention, focus on the first dimension, the “giving” and much less instead is dedicated on the 2nd one, the “taking”.

The latter is related to the personal development’s “dunk”.

One key disclaimer is really important to make here.

This “taking” dimension” implies a little bit of self-focus or perhaps, if we want to put it in other and blunter terms, we are highlighting the “utilitarian” aspect of the BIG V that basically it is apparently selfish.

This disclaimer is paramount because it’s really about the transformational power of the BIG V that, consequentially, is also central to the idea of volunteerism as a tool to promote self-leadership or the leadership that starts from the self.

Not only this, my argument is that such understanding of volunteerism is also instrumental to attract those who have never volunteered before and we need them so badly.

Let me share what the BIG V can bring, how it can transform a person, especially a youth.

To make my case as practical as possible, I am going to share several elements that can help develop a person, tangible “stuffs” that the BIG V enables: values, strengths, tools and skills that can be expanded and developed by undertaking a BIG V action.

As we just explained above, we are referring to factors that will “also” help a person to continue her process of personal development and move ahead on her professional pathway.

1st: Satisfaction

Volunteering brings inner satisfaction.

Being satisfied is one of the most important determinants of well being, we all know about this.

The BIG V can tremendously offer us meaning and with it, satisfaction. Living a satisfied life is paramount to the overall happiness of a person.

2nd Accountability

If you volunteer, it is inevitable that you have to deal with it and you need to become good at it.

What does it mean “accountability” in practice?

It means “walking the talk”

It means say sometimes NO rather than a “weak” YES to which you will not stick by

It also implies making choices: in order to find time to volunteer, you might have to say NO to something else. In a way you learn how to prioritize and maximize your time

3rd Empathy and with this social connections

In an era of increasing massive AI and robotization, social skills are key and we are going to need them more and more.

Empathy is the queen of all social skills for me.

Through the BIG V you not only can win over your shyness but you can learn about team work and effective relation building.

All this requires active listening, an indispensable quality you can enhance while undertaking a volunteering action, thanks to which you can foster your empathy.

Empathy can also be an enabler of kindness, because in order to be kind towards others, you need to be attentive of their needs and of their lives ‘circumstances.

Let me add something here.

Let’s, once for all, stop call all these skills as “soft skills” because calling them as such, it really seems they are less important than others while instead they do the heavy lifting though we do not realize it.

4th First strengths, then skills and the so called Know-How

We are talking here about the practical elements we can develop through the BIG V.

I see the BIG V as a big skill lab. It is actually much more than that, it is a “strengths lab”.

There is a lot of focus on skills but we tend to overlook that we all have, strengths, the “stuff” that we enjoy doing, “stuff” we can learn doing quickly, stuff we are simply good at it or we can become easily good at.

Surely with the BIG V, you can learn a lot of acquirable skills and knowledge but also you can build on your strengths.

This aspect is fundamental to the entire idea of volunteerism being a tool to development of personal leadership.

Depending on the program or activity you are involved, you have to become good at what you volunteering at because, let’s not forget, it is all about impact at the end of the day.

Volunteering without having any positive impact, even the smallest, does not make any sense and actually it is really counterproductive. Let’s not do this, let’s not waste your energies.

5th Take it easy, failing it is all right

Failing is so demonized. We are making a big deal out of it and in the wrong way

Failing is, instead, part of a person’s success.

That’s why writing a “failure resume” is so important as, from each mistake, we can learn.

It is not that with volunteerism, you have a “carte blanche” at making mistakes because “well, it does not a matter, I am just a volunteer”.

Let’s remember what we just shared about accountability and let’s not forget that the BIG V requires always an effort.

We should not forget this element. It is not really about “taking it easy’ because “It does not matter, I am just volunteering”.

The effort, the dedication you are going to put into a BIG V effort is equal if not superior to any other undertaking in any professional settings.

Now we know that volunteering does not come easy but still, like anything else, when we do it, we can make mistakes and we can learn tremendously from them.

Why then not writing a failure resume’ not only related to your volunteering experiences but also more general?

6th Liberty to experiment

This one is linked to the previous. Trying new things. Understand what you like. Sometimes it can really be confusing and this confusion is absolutely ok.

Of course there are some folks who have everything clear, they know what they want and what to do since day 1 but for the most of the people this is not the case.

Experimentation is important. While you always have to stick to a commitment, not only in the case of volunteering but also in any other situations, the BIG V allows you to better understand what you enjoy, what are your strengths and you can discover a lot of new insights by joining a volunteering effort.

Volunteering can be like a coffee on the go, you grab, you go, you drink it and that’s it

But we know that, of course, it can also be something different and this is our ambition, to make it something you stick around permanently as it becomes part of your life.

You can start small and then build on it, step by step.

7th A platform for civic engagement

This element brings me to a broader analysis. To overcome existing challenges, from climate change to mounting inequalities, we need a collective commitment. Each of us needs to do her bit.

Volunteering is an important step-stone to civic participation. Civic participation or civic engagement is really going to be essential.

In short we need less and less people disengaged and detached and more and more people involved, active, engaged in the society. It is really about rethinking how the relationships between Governments and civil society work.

That’s why when the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres talks about the “New Social Contract”, we should all pay attention because even though it looks like an abstract concept, it is going to make a difference in our future.

8th enjoyment

Volunteering should bring joy.

Perhaps you can’t have fun especially when you are engaged in a complex situation where a lots of suffering is surrounding you on but for sure, we need to enjoy the experience.

We cannot really force anyone on it. I know, we are getting into a bigger and complex debate on mandatory or not volunteering but what I am trying to say, in its essence, is that, even when you have to volunteer, the magic effects I am talking about in this piece, will only materialize if we enjoy the experience. This won’t happen if you do not embrace volunteerism

Let’s enjoy the process, rather than the just an attention on the results

Conclusion

The leadership approach to volunteering can be a way to involve those who never volunteered before.

Those who have been never part of the “equation”.

We need to expand the circle of those interested on volunteerism, reaching out those who have been so far distant and apathetic towards it.

This leadership approach to the BIG V can be seen as a bit selfish way to look at volunteering.

But if we really want to make volunteering the coolest and importantly, the most relevant thing able to help solving complex issues faced by humanity, we might need to pursue this approach.

Perhaps, thinking well over it, it is not a selfish approach.

Dolly Chugh, an award-winning psychologist and associate professor of management and organizations at the Stern School of Business at New York University, would call it “goodish”.

Yes thinking about what you can get out of the BIG V should not be your overwhelming aim or concern when you volunteering.

Yet a less strict, “goodish” approach focused on the transformations brought by the BIG V that can change a person for better is really now due and indispensable if we want to solve our biggest crises.