How To Recruit Leaders In Your Volunteer Organization

To attract volunteer leaders, invest in connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment.

You’ve seen it happen. The same dedicated people carry the load year after year while your most qualified potential leaders hide in the back, politely declining. Or you’ve got some enthusiastic volunteers who step up—but then burn out and walk away. Sound familiar? When attracting busy, talented people to lead, the secret is to start with connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment. Whether you’re leading a volunteer group, a non-profit, or a community team, these four dimensions will help you attract and retain leaders who can keep your mission thriving.

How to Recruit Volunteer LeadersStart with storySet a rhythm of whyCommunicate opportunitiesFacilitate relationshipsCreate bite-size rolesLimit termsIdentify habits for successInventory talent and skillsInclude young people and give them powerEmpower possibilityAllow for failure and learningSchedule the finishPractice accountabilityCelebrate success

Leadership is leadership—whether you work in a volunteer organization or a for-profit corporation. Same with teamwork and collaboration. And no matter where you lead, the first conversation is with yourself. If you have a poverty mentality (“I have to beg people to do this”), you can’t attract the talent you need.

Instead, you can use the four dimensions of collaboration to create a culture people want to join. With these four dimensions, you’ll attract, keep, and grow leaders in your volunteer organization.

Connection

Connection to a purpose and people is the heart of volunteer service. To attract leaders, connect people to the mission and each other.

1. Start with Story

What’s at the heart of your work? That core “why” should pulse through everything you do. Condense your organization’s work to one sentence that captures what it’s all about. That inspires people to say, “Sign me up.”

Once you have that straightforward “why” spelled out, find ways to tell the story. Think of the people you serve. Tell their story. Better yet, have them tell their story.

Through story, you connect potential volunteer leaders to your values and mission. You want their heart before their time or money.

2. Set a Rhythm of Why

One of the best volunteer leaders I (David) ever worked with started every single gathering with that one-sentence statement of purpose. “We are here to…” It didn’t matter if it was a Board meeting, a happy-hour, or a recognition celebration. He started with WHY. And every member of the organization internalized that why. It drove everything we did and attracted volunteers.

Consistently connect back your WHY to help attract potential leaders to what matters most.

3. Communicate Opportunities

Too often, committees ask, “Who should lead this?” and limit their answers to their established connections. They overlook many qualified people because they don’t know them. Communicate opportunities to cast a broader net and connect your members to the chance to serve and lead.

4. Facilitate Relationships

One of the most valuable benefits of volunteer leadership are the people you meet. You can help your volunteers realize this benefit by investing in relationships. Take time for “connection before content” to help your volunteers get to know one another, understand one another’s expertise, and individual stories.

With limited time, you don’t need to invest hours—even a few minutes at the beginning of meetings for a compassionate conversation starter or SynergyStack habit discussion will help.

Clarity

Clarity about roles, timeframes, and how to succeed is vital for successful volunteers. Invest in clarity to make leadership accessible, help potential leaders say “yes” and succeed in their work.

5. Create Bite-Size Roles

Warning: this will annoy the guy who did the whole job for the last 20 years. You’ll need to politely tell him to chill. He needs relief, and it’s a new day.

Consider breaking the bigger jobs down into something a strong leader with an already booked life could imagine herself doing. As they grow into a bigger role, they may take on more responsibility.

But make that first “yes” as manageable as possible.

6. Limit Terms

It’s easy to rely on the same people to do the same thing year after year. The shoes become too big to fill, and the unintended side effect is intimidation … not to mention stagnation. Plus, knowing there’s an exit strategy is attractive. Everyone saw how the last guy got stuck.

And, the person may want to continue their service. There will still be a place for them.

7. Identify Habits for Success

There are two questions every volunteer (heck every employee, leader…every team member) needs to be able to answer: 1) What does success in this role accomplish?  2) How do I succeed?

Help your volunteer leaders with a clear picture of what a successful outcome achieves for the organization and the specific, observable habits that will help them have that success.

Curiosity

Curiosity helps you tap into the vast set of hidden talents, abilities and experiences your people bring with them. Invest in curiosity to find new people, new approaches, and help people grow in their roles.

8. Inventory Talents and Skills

You need to know what people are eager to give. Some will be too humble to tell you. I (Karin) was directing a children’s musical at our church and was thinking I’d have to bother the usual suspects to paint the set. One of the newer members came to me with his portfolio of AMAZING art, as if he were applying for a job. I had to resist the urge to kiss this man I didn’t know. He spent countless hours creating amazing scenery.

Bottom line, we didn’t know and we never would have asked.

9. Include Young People & Give Them Power

Kids have enormous leadership potential. If you have young people in your organization, scaffold them gently and take some risks. Our teenagers would get so annoyed when adults try to micro-manage their leadership efforts. They’ve got it. Give kids room and watch the magic. Then you can gently coach and help them grow as they run into challenges.

See also: Developing Leadership Skills in Children: 11 Ways to Grow Your Kids

10. Empower Possibility

Some volunteer organizations have a habit of asking someone to “lead” and then tell them exactly how it should be done. That will turn off your most creative volunteer leaders. Be willing to accept radically novel approaches and new ideas. (See Clarity above—if you define what a successful outcome does for the organization, ask them how they might get there.)

11. Allow for Failure and Learning

No one grows without taking risks and stumbling along the way. But criticism and gossip will turn away your best leaders FOREVER. They’ve got enough of that crap in their day job. Encourage, develop, and make it okay to experiment and fail forward.

Commitment

Commitment and accountability tell your volunteers that their work matters. Invest in commitment and accountability to help your volunteers feel a real sense of accomplishment as they fulfill the purpose of their work.

12. Schedule the Finish

One of the most frustrating volunteer experiences is when you work hard to meet a deadline, only to find out that no one else took the work seriously. “Why bother” sets in—and soon you’ll lose those dedicated leaders.

Promote accountability by scheduling the finish and ensuring that everyone has straightforward tasks and a specific time for the team to review progress. Discuss competing priorities to ensure the timelines are achievable.

When you schedule the finish, you bake accountability into the team’s work from the start.

13. Practice Accountability

Many volunteer leaders struggle with accountability. They worry that accountability will drive away their precious volunteers. But it actually does the opposite. When you follow up to ensure everyone follows through, you’re telling your volunteer leaders that you value their work and their time.

Their work matters and they can trust on one another to get it done. Human-centered accountability builds trust and morale as your volunteer team sees the results of their work.

(If you need tools to help you have a human-centered accountability conversation, check out our INSPIRE Method.)

14. Celebrate Success

Your volunteer leaders have contributed their time, creativity, and energy. It’s time to celebrate! Acknowledge what they and their teams have done. Celebrate the progress and achievements. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage, but less of what you criticize and ignore. So if you want more leaders, celebrate them. You will lay the groundwork to attract the next generation of volunteer leaders.

Your Turn

The four dimensions of connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment will help you attract and grow volunteer leaders—and help your volunteer teams collaborate.

And if you could use a tool to help you build effective teams built on these four dimensions, check out the SynergyStack System. It’s got everything you need to help you accelerate performance, build collaboration, and reduce stress.

Now it’s your turn. We would love to hear from you. What is one of your most effective ways to attract volunteer leaders?

Note: This article was originally written in 2014. With the need for effective volunteer leaders as great as ever, we’ve revised and republished the article—so you will see comments from the original.

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