How to Have a Lousy, Miserable, Failed Tenure as a Volunteer Board Member

How to Have a Lousy, Miserable, Failed Tenure as a Volunteer Board Member
Does that sound like a crazy headline coming from a
management consultant? Well, after a long vacation, I'm in
the mood for a little silliness.

Nearly all leaders extend their leadership beyond the
workplace to head volunteer organizations throughout their
lives, often as board members.

It doesn't take long in your first volunteer leadership job
to realize things are different from your paid leadership
job, the most obvious being that you can't use compensation
as a motivator and absolutely nobody has to do their job
for fundamental reasons like paying the mortgage.

The following tips are gleaned from years of experience,
and the pain of trial and error. Don't make the same
mistakes other leaders, including this one, have made.

There are seven root causes of poor volunteer organization
leadership. It's not complicated and anyone can identify,
understand, and prevent them. I've phrased them as tips
just for the fun of it:

1. Don't plan ahead. That way, you can't involve many
people because so few of them will be available on short
notice. Then you can enjoy the pleasure of being a martyr
who's always overworked and moans about how no one helps
out.

2. Don't define the specific roles and responsibilities of
each volunteer position. That way, few people will
volunteer, since they will be leery that they'll get
everything dumped on them.

3. Don't get to know one another personally. Make it all
business, so that when conflict erupts and there's no
personal financial motivation, people have even fewer
incentives to stick around and work things out.

4. Talk with only your fellow board members at meetings,
since you don't have much time together and it feels so
good to catch up with the people you know instead of
risking rejection by talking to people you don't know. By
not talking to strangers, you can keep the volunteer
pipeline empty, so not only will you have no volunteers to
help you out this year, you'll have no one to take over
your position next year.

5. Once you do get a volunteer, it's enough to just think
about how much you appreciate their help. No need to
actually tell them, but if you do, certainly don't tell
them very often. When you do communicate, make sure it's to
correct all of their mistakes. It's their fault, after all.
Throw in a little annoyance for the complete leadership
package.

6. Miss most of the Board conference calls and especially
any face-to-face Board retreats, so that you can always
work as an individual instead of with the full support of a
strong team.

7. Make sure that you think of recruiting your successor
as the unpleasant task you'll get to during the last month
of your tenure. By all means, never assume you should
invest time now in identifying suitable successors, slowly
building relationships with them, recruiting them to test
out their interest by volunteering on your team, and then
asking one of them to step into your role in a well-planned
transition.

That was fun. I love doing backward lists.

Now, please, get out there and do the opposite and have a
wonderful, satisfying, successful tenure as a volunteer
board member!

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Jennifer Selby Long, Founder and Principal of Selby Group,
provides executive coaching and organizational development
services. Jennifer's knack is helping clients navigate the
leadership and organizational challenges triggered by
change and growth. She knows firsthand that great plans
often fail because companies don't take into account the
human factors that come into play when implementing them.
Visit Jennifer at: http://selbygroup.com