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Build Circles Of Support The
Old-Fashioned Way
By Heather
Burton
According to Merriam-Webster,
“credibility” is the quality or power of inspiring
belief. The next part is to ask what inspires belief more than
anything else? The answer is trust.
Trust is built
from shared experiences and honest conversations, in good and
bad times. It is fostered by doing what you say you’ll do,
when you say you’ll do it. Trust is strengthened by coming
to the aid of others when needed. But, what does trust have to
do with building circles of support?
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Volunteer Management
...
4 traits of effective
volunteering
Who
volunteers? A nonprofit volunteer coordinator might answer,
“Not enough people.” A sociologists might say
“everyone” because volunteers come from many
backgrounds.
There definitely isn't one-size-fits-all way of
describing volunteers, but Marc A. Musick and John Wilson offer
an in-depth look at volunteers and volunteering in their book
Volunteers: A Social Profile.
Musick and Wilson discuss four personality traits and how
they factor into volunteering.
-
Extroversion. People who are comfortable, even take
pleasure in, interacting with a wide range of people are
probably more likely to find volunteer work more
attractive.
-
Empathy. Psychologists agree
that empathy must be accompanied by a feeling of responsibility
for the welfare of others to motivate volunteer
work.
-
Trust. Ironically, the precise
meaning of trust is contented, but it is generally accepted that
being a trusting person makes it easier to volunteer. Further,
one intriguing possibility is that trusting people are more
likely to volunteer for those types of activities that involve
providing services to others in need but less likely to
volunteer for activities involving confrontation with
authorities or working to change the
system.
-
Self-efficacy. Definitions of
this can vary, but these people are unlikely to waste their time
or undertake any project if they have little confidence it will
bear fruit.
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Management ...
5 needs of strategic
planning
Strategic planning is another
of those concepts that can give warm and fuzzy feelings. It is
also one that is extremely important, but can be undermined
badly if not done properly.
In their book The
Charismatic Organization, Shirley Sagawa and Deborah Jospin
offer advice about the strategic planning process.
Such a process should involve
a broad cross-section of stakeholders and bring a strong mix of
information and expertise to the process. In addition, any
strategic-planning process should:
-
Be clear from the beginning
about what the process will accomplish and how it will get
there.
-
Be led by a small team,
selected from among board members and their staff for their
leadership, expertise, creativity, listening skills and
strategic sense, who have the respect of the ultimate decision
makers.
-
Allow substantial input that
will help the team understand the environment in which the
organization works; its strengths and weaknesses, views of
staff, board members, volunteers, donors and other stakeholders;
potential future scenarios and other data that will help answer
key strategic questions facing the
organization.
-
Allow more than one draft,
including the opportunity for staff and stakeholders to comment
at various points in the process, which allows any problems to
surface in time for them to be addressed.
-
Be consistent with the
culture of the organization. |
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Human Resources ...
Dealing with low
potential employees
Imagine a happy organization
where everybody is motivated, talented, doing a great job. For
many nonprofit managers, such a scenario exists only in the
imagination.
Personnel management can be
difficult even in good circumstances, but when employees fail to
do their jobs adequately, or at all, the headaches just increase
and magnify.
In his book You’ve
Gotta Have Heart, Cass Wheeler, former CEO of the American
Heart Association, offers suggestions about understanding just
where the problem lies with what he calls a Low Potential
Employee. He poses a series of questions aimed at helping gain
that knowledge:
-
Does this person know how to
do the job or task required? Many supervisors think this problem
can be solved just with more training. Some problems can be
fixed, but Wheeler contends that most cannot.
-
Does this person clearly
understand the results needed to achieve and how to make that
happen? Results can be nullified if a trail of arguments, wasted
money or angry volunteers accompanies them.
-
Does this person have a plan
with interim benchmarks to get from Point A to Point B? Have you
provided the tools and resources necessary to accomplish the job
you asked this person to do?
-
Is this person receiving
time and coaching from you as a manager? Sometimes, the problem
lies with the way the person is being
managed. |
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