Hot
Topic Archive
November
2007
New
Leadership?
By
OzVPM Director Andy
Fryar
As
I write this hot topic, Australia is in the grip of
an impending Federal election. As always, it is interesting
to watch politicians suddenly become everyone’s best
friends during the course of a political campaign.
The federal opposition party has come up with a simple
and telling catchphrase to summarise its election
platform - ‘New Leadership’. It’s an interesting slogan
because while it doesn’t (of itself) say that the
current government is bad, it does strongly imply
it is time the Australian public acknowledges that
it is time for a change.
In
terms of volunteer management I also believe it may
well be time for some new leadership – or more precisely,
as the political spin doctors suggest, I believe it
is time we acknowledged that change is now both timely
and necessary.
A
change of what I hear you ask? Well firstly let me
say that I am not suggesting that we make ourselves
redundant and vote for others to take our place! What
I am talking about here is my belief that the time
has come to begin a re-think on our fundamental function
as volunteer program managers.
It
is no surprise that volunteers have changed, and they
will continue to morph as we move into the future.
Today, volunteers have a range of different motivations
than they did in the past for providing community
service, their roles have often become more episodic
and the expectations they have of the agency in which
they contribute their time has evolved. I well remember
the handover I received when I got my first job as
a volunteer program manager many years ago. It primarily
included a broad run down on some very basic training
regimes, a quick overview of the minimal administrative
processes that were in place and most importantly,
knowing which volunteers I needed to have coffee with
each week in order to keep them happy and motivated!
I
believe we can see evidence that the nature of volunteering
has changed if we look at many Volunteer Centres around
the world. As the CEO and Director positions of Centres
have become vacant over recent years, boards have
made clear strategic decisions to replace outgoing
staff (who had been employed years earlier largely
due to their people skills) with new Directors whose
skills are more heavily weighed towards strong experiences
working with government and a good sense of business
acumen. Again, that is not to say their predecessors
were also not highly skilled, their employment was
critical in the growth of those Centres at that time.
Rather, these new appointments are being made in response
to the changing needs of the voluntary sector.
With
the emergence of both the Baby Boomer and Generation
X volunteer came a corresponding demand that our programs
became far more ‘professional’. Administrative processes
became more pronounced, red tape continued to grow
to saturation point and we made a fundamental shift
from seeing ourselves as ‘coordinators’ to ‘program
managers / administrators’. This is evident by the
number of volunteer management professional Associations
that have grown around the world in the past decade.
We
worked hard to move to this point, and it is pleasing
to see our profession starting to be taken a little
more seriously, but sometimes I think we need to be
careful what we wish for. In many ways I believe we
have now painted our profession into a corner. We
are at risk of being defined too narrowly as a pseudo
HR function and not for the dynamic and life changing
juggernauts we really are.
For
those of us working at the ‘coal face’ of volunteerism,
I feel we are at risk of missing the boat if we don’t
begin to acknowledge that change is both necessary
and imminent. In the same way that the Baby Boomers
and Generation X volunteers have dictated a move to
operating more professional services, the influx of
Generation Y volunteers will bring with it an expectation
that the placement we have to offer will reward Generation
Y with personal growth opportunities and qualities
to enhance their work / life balance.
Generation
Y will expect good quality and ongoing training. They
will expect their skills to be fully utilised. They
will expect opportunities to learn and stretch themselves.
They will demand leadership.
It
is in this that I believe fundamental change must
take place. We need to begin moving from being ‘managers
of programs’ to ‘leaders of people’. Now that’s not
to say we all suddenly have a need to put on our leadership
hat and play a different role, as not everyone is
a natural leader. In fact, if you have been employed
in the last few years, there is a very good chance
you’ve actually been employed for your managerial
strengths and not your leadership abilities.
I
believe there are three things we need to be doing
to create stronger leadership opportunities in our
programs:
• Firstly
and most importantly, we need to acknowledge the need
for strong leadership as an emerging quality within
our programs. Each and every one of us ought to start
reading leadership books right away, to learn about
the different qualities between good leadership and
good management. The two are not exclusive and it
is important we understand how they interact and intersect.
• If
we are not natural leaders ourselves, we should acknowledge
this and begin to find ways of building up those natural
leaders that exist within our teams - to act as guides
and mentors and shining lights. There should be no
shame in this, it is about acknowledging our strengths
and weaknesses and empowering others to fill the voids
where we are not so strong
• If
we are natural leaders, we need to develop this attribute
even further. This may well involve shifting and delegating
some managerial responsibilities to allow more time
to lead.
Make no mistake,
Generation Y are coming …in fact they are already
here and volunteering in their droves. I do not exaggerate
when I say the future of our programs depends on the
way we lead our programs into the future. That’s a
big call and a big responsibility, but one I am happy
to charge you all with at this very moment!
Let’s hear
your thoughts on this important topic
• Do
you agree or disagree with my sentiments?
• Do you have examples where this shift has already
taken place?
• Any
case studies you would like to share?
It's
not too late to...
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