Volunteering in recession can be professional development
Do you want to improve the engagement of your teams and employees? Do you want to develop communication skills, leadership, and cooperation for co-workers and for yourself? Then you might consider supporting and pro-actively encouraging volunteerism in the workplace and in the outside world. In fact, the best way to promote volunteerism is to lead the way by volunteering yourself and involving your co-workers and employees. You will improve your own productivity and resume in the process.
The April ‘09 issue of Talent Management professional magazine reports that Jeff Myers, a key Bank of America executive, is a volunteer officer leader for StreetWise Partners, where he matches business professional mentors with low-income individuals. Myers reports that he has improved his public speaking abilities, his workplace communication skills, his ability to deal with external clients effectively, and his networking skills through his volunteerism. He says, “Through volunteering, I have gained invaluable networking skills that have become increasingly important due to the current economic environment.” His professional and personal development highlights the free benefits of training without cost through the process of active volunteering.
In my recently released book, Opportunity Unstuck!, I present several keys to unlocking your right time, right place and right opportunity. Two of the keys are complementary idea of volunteerism: become a recognized expert and actively help others. These two keys, implemented in the act of volunteerism, have proven results for you and your company.
The first key is to become a recognized expert. You gain recognition for your professional expertise when you volunteer your expert skills in some way. You might showcase your management skills to help a non-profit organization develop and implement a business or marketing plan. You could offer to share how you became an expert in your field with an organization that mentors and develops young leaders who want to enter your profession. In the process, you gain that sought-after respect for your professional knowledge as well as the benefit of knowing you have impacted others in a positive way.
My wife has a professional friend, Yolanda Davis, who exemplifies the essence of volunteering her time and knowledge as a recognized expert. Yolanda is the founder and leader of the Net Xchange Mentoring Group, which has a mission to “to empower teenagers through appropriate training and resources to become trailblazers of change.”
Yolanda is a project management expert with a major insurance company in her professional life. She learned to use her professional management skills to develop the leaders of tomorrow. She engages volunteer professionals from all fields to lend their expertise to the programÂ’s highly-motivated teenagers, who enter without the knowledge and skills needed to reach their leadership goals but leave the program armed with the resources and skills to attain their dreams.
Students who have moved through the Net XChange program are now doctors, attorneys, and skilled business leaders all over the country. Yolanda is truly making a positive impact on young lives. In addition, she has widened her own network of professional contacts, improved her professional speaking and leadership skills, and has gained recognition as an expert as a result of her efforts in volunteering.
Volunteer efforts are abundant in local cities. A great opportunity is the North Texas Volunteer Challenge, sponsored in part by The Fort Worth Business Press. The Volunteer Web site says, “The North Texas Volunteer Challenge is a four-hour day of service held once a year that mobilizes individual volunteers, employees, individuals, families, students, and civic groups to partner with the Volunteer Center and ‘lend a helping hand’ to many nonprofit organizations and service projects throughout North Texas.”
You can’t beat the free training that you and other professionals in your company can gain while making a positive impact on individuals and communities. Dr. Randal Pinkett states, “Success reflects what you do for you. Greatness reflects what you do for others.” In a struggling economy, your efforts will double the benefits for everyone involved.
Tom Sheives is an author, coach and consultant with True Solutions
