In a radio interview I conducted with Susan Finch from the Sales and Lead Management Association (SLMA) Radio, we discussed:
Listen to my interview
- What do you mean by “strategic volunteering”
- Is volunteering different than philanthropy?
- How much volunteering do you do?
- How much time does it take?
- What types of organizations?
- How did you decide where to volunteer?
- Why do you say that volunteering can be bad?
- Does this seem self serving?
- What is your advice on how to choose?
- Are you good at saying no?
Some of the take-aways included:
What advice do I have for other women to say no?
Have a personal plan - Figure out how does this opportunity/organization fit into your plan? If it does not - say, "No." At least say no until you figure it out.
What if you have 10% of your time allocated for volunteering and this new opportunity would add another 5-10%? You either need to pull back what you were already doing to make room for this new thing, or take a pass for now so that you don't do a shoddy job volunteering for either organization or project.
Can you leave us with 3 takeaways on how to become a strategic volunteer?
- Create volunteer activities for your employees. This is a great way to find good leadership candidates and use these opportunities for skill building and training.
- Men tend to identify mentors at early age both in their career and at a personal level. This development is really valuable in a positive way. Volunteering can help women to develop these mentoring opportunities in addition to networking.
- Quickly identify if it is not a good fit get out fast.
