Preparing volunteer leaders
There was some great discussion in the "Building a Strong Leadership Stream" session this morning--enough for a couple of blog posts!
One of the case studies presented was interesting to me because of the formal, planned development path this particular association has created for their volunteers with an interest in leadership and potentially board service. One of the elements of the leadership path that were mentioned was "robust committees." I found this to be interesting--to see service on a robust, active committee as a preparation for board service. In associations where I've worked, committees are typically very tactical--right down in the weeds, doing detail-oriented work. Then volunteers who excelled in committee work move directly into board service--where they are asked to be strategic, high level, and stay out of the weeds.
Can we really find great strategic leaders by looking at our best tactical volunteers? Or do associations need to offer strategic work for other groups of volunteers, to let potential leaders learn by doing before they actually take on responsibility for the direction of the entire organization?
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Comments
Lisa, are you suggesting that robustness is only to be associated with strategy? How did the session define robustness? When I here the phrase "robust committee experience," I think of one in which a lot happened at both the group process level and the work product level, so much so that the experience is formative for subsequent leadership efforts.
Posted by: Jeffrey Cufaude | December 9, 2007 2:26 PM
No, I didn't mean to suggest that "robust" only meant strategic--my apologies that my quick post glided over that distinction. Your definition is I think exactly what they were getting at.
Thank you for making that distinction clear!
Posted by: Lisa Junker | December 11, 2007 8:08 AM