Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Perfectionism is the enemy of accomplishment. I have seen a group of moms agonize over what I consider to be the most trivial of details- color of paper for flyers, length of tables, color of napkins, and other things that don’t, in the long run, make or break an event.

If you are going to be involved with volunteers, empower people to just make a decision and get on with it. You want to respect people’s feelings and opinions, but just tell them you need a decision and move on- to debate something endlessly wastes time, frustrates and turns off many, and gets you fewer volunteers for next time. Only so many people are willing to be on the curtain committee and debate the merit and shortcoming of every fabric selection in the book- sooner or later, you need to make a decision and get on to the next task as hand.

Here is the second set of my guidelines for making volunteering a great experience for everyone:

Principle 6: Be sensitive to spreading out the work and maintaining engagement and ownership and commitment

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Volunteers take it seriously, but need to feel the love

It’s never good for one person to be overloaded with work. Some people will always be raising their hand to take on more, but if you are in charge, you need to be able to spread out the work, and simply assign things if need be to make sure they are done.

This being said- be liberal with your praise and support. Treat volunteers as competent business people, and respect them. Give them what they need to do their jobs; answer questions, and always say thanks. Sometimes even something as simple as bringing donuts by on the morning of an event tells people you are thinking of them and are trying to take care of them- and this goes a long way towards making sure they do what’s best for you and your group.

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Principle 7: Work with the organization, not against it.

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If you’ve gotten yourself into a volunteer organization, and find out they are not doing things “your way”- it may not be your place to change the organization, but find someplace where you have a better fit.

I have a friend that gave gobs of time to a group, but then spent a good portion of her time criticizing the way they did things. This seemed pretty counter-productive to me, and led to lots of hurt feelings on both sides. The people in charge felt this woman gave a lot of time and they valued her contributions and man power, but they wished she would just stop whining about how things would improve so much more if only she were in charge. Her negative attitude made her pretty unpopular, and people just stopped listening to her after a while, even if her ideas and suggestions were sound. And who can blame them? No one likes negativity, and the ideas would have been much more readily adopted had she suggested things in a more positive fashion.

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Principle 8: Let go.

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No, they aren’t always going to do it your way. That’s fine. Compromise is extremely important, and we all learn from our mistakes as well as our successes. There is never only one way to do something, so if the group decides to do one thing, just let it be and let it happen. Getting frustrated only hurts you, no one else.

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Principle 9: Maintain a sense of humor.

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Look, volunteering should be fun. You might learn something new. You’ll meet new people. You need to be serious when necessary, but you need to be silly and light hearted as well. If a kid barfs on the bake sale, it’s a shame, and it can be tragic on some levels, but this will be a funny story to tell in the future, as well as a way to learn to keep the little ones away from too many sweets. Maybe that wrapping paper fund raiser was a good idea after all…….

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Principle 10: A little dose of appreciation goes a long way.

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Token awards sometimes seem stupid, but for moms especially, we get little praise or appreciation for the things we do. A lunch for volunteers, a special t-shirt, a thank you note or other ways of showing that someone participated and made a valuable contribution goes a long way.

Our school posts the names of volunteers on a segment of a long catepillar that winds its way throughout the school. After each event, each volunteer’s name gets put on a circle and attached to the caterpillar. This is a badge of honor in the school, and kids love seeing their names, those of parents and friends as they go between classrooms.

The podcamp I just helped organize gave t-shirts to volunteers and button down shirts to lead organizers- this made the people involved feel engaged (not bribed) and part of the team. This is important, not only to help identify the Go-To people in case of problems, but to make everyone feel like their contributions were recognized and appreciated. It was a cheap investment for the time and energy spent.

In sum, if you are going to volunteer, do it from your heart. If you commit to something, make it happen and follow through. If someone is not holding up their end of the bargain, don’t “confront” them, but ask if there is some way you could help, or perhaps, “You seem so busy- is there some way we can get you some help or support, because we were looking to have this done by…”

Appreciate the people you work with, and spread sincere thanks and encouragement.

We need to treat volunteers and volunteer organizations professionally, even if they aren’t “businesses” or “jobs”. We need to treat each other with respect, with deference, and with appreciation, even if the outcome can be less than Fortune 500 perfect. But then again, whatever any volunteer effort lacks in perfection, it should more than make up for in the love and caring that went into the enterprise. And no one should say “I’ll NEVER do that again” at the end.

[tags]volunteering, perfectionism, commitment, love, dedication, fun, podcamp[/tags]

Photo graciously provided by -bartimaeus-, under a Creative Commons license