Tag: management

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Engagement

Volunteers: When Passion for the Mission Isn’t Enough

Like nonprofit employees, volunteers can also exit when they get frustrated and fed up. The reasons for disengagement are similar, and while it might seem easier for volunteers to leave a nonprofit since they’re not held to an employment contract, that doesn’t mean it’s any less painful when they’re passionate about the mission. As Sally Helgesen described, “Volunteers … work not for money but because they want to give back, make a difference, change the world. They work because they want to matter. Volunteers can, and will, quit the moment they feel undervalued.”

This would be a great place to work if it weren’t for the [expletive] volunteers!

Example #1. A nonprofit board member described frustration with an executive director’s lack of respect for volunteers. “It makes me feel that my personal contributions of time and talent are not valued, even though I am a top donor. The executive is stuck in a rut, verbally… [focusing] on perceived staff board shortfalls. Why have I stayed?… I am passionate about the organization’s mission and continue to hope that eventually… with the staff changeover, we’ll be able to use the enthusiasm and ideas [to make a difference] that the Board has proposed.”

Example #2. In response to increasing volunteer disengagement, a member-based organization set up a volunteer engagement task force comprised of volunteers and senior staff. Under the task force’s direction, a survey was conducted of current and past volunteer leaders to gain better understanding of volunteer perceptions and expectations. Resulting recommendations called for more intentional volunteer management and oversight. Staff responded by developing a volunteer philosophy and creating a volunteer leader advocacy position to implement a volunteer engagement and recognition plan – all done without volunteer input!

Volunteer Talent or Disposable Commodity?

The difference in how your volunteers are treated depends on the tone set by the person in charge. People have to matter as much as the mission.

“Eliciting superior performance from people requires making them feel as if they matter, as if they’re contributing, as if they’re making a difference. …Only an inspiring, trustworthy, respectful, and inclusive leader can attract and retain volunteers over the long run.” [Source: Sally Helgesen, “Why Mattering Matters,” Shine a Light, Leader to Leader Institute, 2005]

 

Categories
Engagement

Nonprofit Employees: When Passion for the Mission isn’t Enough

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately, especially working on my book about nonprofit employee and volunteer engagement. Despite their well-intentioned commitment, sometimes staff members (and volunteers) get frustrated with a nonprofit organization and reach the point where passion for the mission and meaningful connection are no longer enough to convince them to stay. In other words, once engaged doesn’t mean always engaged.

Why People Become Disengaged

People don’t stay committed to an organization when they:

1. Feel overwhelmed with too many or conflicting management directives

2. Don’t understand what the organization is all about and what is expected of them

3. Are afraid that their work isn’t valued

4. Don’t see how the various parts of the organization connect in the “big picture”

5. Don’t share a sense of ownership in the organization, including being involved in solving problems and offering ideas. [Source: The Art of Engagement]

High turnover and low morale are signs of a disconnected, disengaged workplace run by complacent management or the clueless-in-charge. And the damage isn’t confined to the internal organization – customers, donors, volunteers and other external stakeholders are aware of, and possibly affected by, employees who disengage at work.

Can you hear me now?

A nonprofit professional and her colleagues were increasingly frustrated, discouraged, and disheartened about their work situation which they described as “toxic.” Managers issued frequent conflicting directives and set unrealistic expectations while providing little guidance and insufficient resources to enable staff members to achieve their goals. Management also paid scant attention to staff concerns until a consultant was hired to address the issue of high turnover. At the consultant’s recommendation, management set up a “suggestion box” system to solicit employee feedback and ideas. More than 135 suggestions were turned in the first week, and there were only 30 employees on staff!

If you’re thinking about a “quick fix,” think again

Disengagement and burnout don’t suddenly happen. Most people start off engaged and excited about their work; the erosion occurs gradually based on one or more of the reasons mentioned above. According to Dr. Judith M. Bardwick: “When people are perceived as a cost and not a resource, when they are treated as a liability and not an asset, when no one seems to know or care that they are there, they don’t work well, and they don’t stay.”

 

Categories
Engagement

You Can’t Keep an Engaged Volunteer Down

Hurricane Irene’s recent landfall on the east coast and my current work in volunteer engagement reminded me of a dear friend and fellow volunteer’s extraordinary experience during Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

I was on the board of the American Marketing Association (AMA) as VP of Professional Chapters back then and had the privilege of serving with many dedicated volunteers on the Professional Chapters Council (PCC). An advisory group comprised of past chapter presidents, PCC members provided guidance and tools to help strengthen chapter leadership among AMA’s network of more than 90 chapters in the U.S. and Canada. We also visited chapters to recognize special achievements – presenting chapter excellence awards, anniversary gavels, and new chapter charters.

Who Said Getting There is Half the Fun?

Chris Bonney, a PCC member from Hampton Roads VA, was scheduled to meet with the Triad chapter in Winston-Salem NC on September 22, 1989. Here’s how he described that incredible trip. (Keep in mind, this was before the prevalence of blackberries and i-phones.)

“Neither rain nor wind nor dark of night could prevent me (although they all tried) from attending the 20th anniversary celebration of the Triad Chapter in Winston Salem. It started with my first plane being delayed nearly four hours because of complications related to an earlier accident at La Guardia airport. Accordingly, I missed the only two connections from Charlotte to Winston Salem – not to mention the baby who threw up on my lap as we circled over Charlotte …

“Having too much time and energy devoted to making this meeting, I rented a car in Charlotte and drove the 90 miles to get to the meeting, arriving an hour and a half late. I was determined not to be forever known as ‘that guy from the PCC who never showed up.’ When I arrived at the meeting room (after spending 15 minutes stuck in the elevator in the hotel’s parking garage), I found the chapter president doing the old shadow-pictures-on-the-wall hoping he could hold the group’s interest until I arrived.”

And for the return trip …

That’s what it took for this intrepid volunteer to reach his destination. Chris’s getting home was no easier as Hurricane Hugo was making its destructive way up the eastern seaboard.

“Having been assured by some [expletive] at the airport that the plane would be flying in the morning, I was crazy enough to drive through the hurricane back to Charlotte to catch my plane home. (By this time Hugo was reclassified as a tropical storm but still packing winds of 60-90 mph.) What a joke! Although Charlotte experienced nothing like the tragedy of Charleston, it was still pretty trashed – thousands of tree uprooted and broken in the highways, flooding, power lines down, billboards and signs asunder …

“With no power anywhere, the city was – according to the car radio message from the two radio stations working on emergency generators – virtually closed for business. I drove the car right up on the curb by the front door of the airport to escape the winds. By 8:30 that morning, there had been so much damage to the airport that they hadn’t even been out on the field to check the planes and runways.”

With all flights cancelled, Chris drove home. It took him more than six hours, and he eventually made it home safely. Despite all the delays in traveling, Chris reported that the chapter visit was well worth it. Trophy

I found this description of his harrowing travel experience in a special presentation I made several weeks later to recognize Chris for his dedication, determination, courage and commitment to the chapter, PCC, and the AMA.

Thanks, Chris, for what you did back then … and for the memory of it now.

 

Categories
Engagement Marketing

What I Did on My Summer (Blog) Vacation

Thank you for your patience during my blog break. What did I accomplish this summer?

Most of my time was spent researching and writing several chapters for my new book on how nonprofits can use internal marketing to engage employees and volunteers. I interviewed colleagues and experts in the field and will connect with more of them this fall.

As part of my research, I read the following books (and I highly recommend them):

In addition to keeping up with my client work, I managed to get in a few days of vacation and enjoyed spending time with friends and family.

Hope you had a great summer!

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Special Request Over My Summer Blog Break

Note to my loyal blog followers:

It’s time for my annual break since blog traffic is typically slower in summer. What’s special about this year’s break is that I’ll be using the time to research and write my new book for nonprofits: Engaging Nonprofit Employees, Volunteers, and Consumers: A Manager’s Guide to Inside-Out Marketing (the “working title” at this stage).

Please let me know if you want to share any good or bad examples of internal marketing in nonprofit organizations. The “good” examples of nonprofits that effectively engage staff and volunteers (including board members) I choose to use in this book may include the organizations’ names, pending their permission. However, I won’t name nonprofits with “bad” examples of what not to do when it comes to engagement or, conversely, how to alienate staff, volunteers, and (ultimately) consumers.

Note to new readers:

Welcome! I hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore my blog that offers an abundance of thoughtful content – more than six years worth! I also invite you to share good and/or bad examples of nonprofit engagement.

See you in September

I’ll return to posting this fall with new content – including updates on my new book. In the meantime, enjoy the summer!

 

Categories
Musings

Celebrate Volunteers

Happy National Volunteer Week!

Special appreciation goes to all volunteers and the valuable support they provide to the organizations they serve.

And for nonprofit managers, here are three great resources on volunteer engagement and management:

What are you doing to engage and honor your organization’s volunteers?

Categories
Engagement Marketing

From Employee to Brand Champion

A trend I’ve noticed from my internal marketing workshops is attendees’ increased interest in engaging their employees as brand advocates/ambassadors/champions/evangelists or whatever preferred term is used to describe highly engaged employees who positively represent the company brand. More and more companies are moving from lip-service to genuinely recognizing their employees’ role in competitive differentiation. These organizations have come to understand that innovation isn’t sustainable. While today’s new products & services can become tomorrow’s commodities, the one thing your competitors cannot copy is your employees’ relationship with your customers.

I’m thrilled that more companies get the concept that their brand “walks on two feet.” At the same time, I’m concerned because developing and sustaining such brand champions cannot be a superficial endeavor. The process starts with corporate and nonprofit leaders answering these critical questions:

  1. WHY do we want and/or need brand champions?
  2. WHAT DO WE EXPECT to happen as a result of engaging our employees in this manner?
  3. HOW will we recognize the employees in these roles and reinforce their efforts?

Collaborative Commitment
Addressing these key questions requires bridging internal silos to generate collaborative discussion among Marketing, Human Resources, Operations, Brand Management, and other key business functions. You’ll need everyone’s agreement and commitment to work together to foster employee engagement.

Once your firm’s leaders identify the rationale and expectations of its brand champions, you can start the process of engaging (all or some of) your employees accordingly. Here’s a sample overview of what’s involved in this process.

  • Clarify what your brand is all about, what your brand values are, and what your brand means to customers. Then communicate and repeatedly reinforce this information with employees.
  • Help employees understand all the touch points that impact your customers’ experience with the brand. Then educate and train employees so they have the requisite skills and tools to effectively deliver on the brand promise.
  • Make sure your internal operations are aligned with and support your brand; eliminate any internal barriers that hamper employees’ ability to serve customers.
  • Solicit and respond to both customer and employee input on how the brand experience can be improved.

Creating a workplace culture that transforms employees to serve as brand advocates requires an ongoing collaborative commitment that is well worth the effort to effectively engage both employees and customers.

If you’re not sure your organization can go the distance here, take time out to reflect on your company’s short- and long-term competitive position. What would you rather have: brand champions or bland champions?

Categories
Marketing

Why Nonprofits Need to Look Backward as Well as Forward

Talking about nonprofit marketing with colleagues recently sparked an interesting discussion on using an organization’s history (aka “heritage marketing”) – for example, celebrating a notable anniversary of a nonprofit’s founding to kick-off a fundraising drive or reinforce an organization’s longevity and brand.

Given the dynamic pace of change today, some might question whether this approach is outmoded. Shouldn’t nonprofits focus on the future rather than the past?

My answer is that an organization’s history shouldn’t be ignored because the past is tangible, the future is not. Through historic records, past meeting minutes and reports, photos, audio visuals, and printed matter, you can:

  • revisit, review, and explore the past as a way to understand what worked and what didn’t
  • gain insight into how the organization, its mission, and its culture have evolved
  • and leverage this knowledge to help the organization continue to evolve and adapt in a changing world.

It’s the reason we consider both the past and the future in strategic planning – to reflect on an organization’s history as part of a situational analysis and use it as a bridge to help envision the future.

Categories
Engagement

Free Gifts for Nonprofit Managers

Here are several resources you can use now and in the New Year to help advance your organization’s mission:

These are gifts that are meant to be shared … enjoy!

 

Categories
Engagement

The New Strategic Imperative: Stop Before You Start

“Leaders don’t stop. Leaders don’t remove. Leaders just add to the things they expect to be done, and then are surprised that people feel hopeless and disengaged.”  – Jim Haudan, author of The Art of Engagement

I’ve seen this situation in many organizations – both for-profit and nonprofit. Struggling to do more with less to cope with economic pressures (including with fewer employees), management tends to keep adding strategic directives without taking any away. The combination of increased workload, information overload, and multi-tasking to keep up with it all, is a dangerous condition resulting in employees feeling overwhelmed at not making any progress. Is it any wonder that they disengage before they withdraw or implode?

In some organizations, management seems to have a limitedattention span as it follows a strategy-du-jour. In some nonprofits, the situation may also stem from initiatives that seem to take on a life of their own, in which management continues to automatically sink resources in such programs/events/activities without stepping back to address “Why are we doing this? Is it still relevant to our mission and our market?”

The best way I know to help prevent piling on strategic initiatives is to STOP – FOCUS – and LISTEN.

  • Before initiating any new strategies, take the time to STOP and consider what you’re asking of your employees. For example: Are our new plans realistic given our organization’s resources and capacity? Will our employees be able to handle the organization’s new initiatives without undue burden?
  • FOCUS your strategic intent by asking: What resources and/or trade-offs are necessary to secure employee commitment? If we weren’t already doing this [existing program or activity], would we start now?
  • LISTEN and take into account employee ideas and concerns: Do employees clearly understand our new direction and the rationale behind it? What ideas/suggestions do our employees have to effectively execute the new plan(s)?

So “do not pass ‘Go’ and do not collect $200” if you’re not prepared to STOP-FOCUS-and LISTEN …  unless you want a “monopoly” of employee disengagement and burnout.