Incubate your leadership skills

My leadership journey began in middle school when I was elected to the student government body. From that moment forward, I spent as much time leading student organizations as I did on my school work. My parents would argue that I spent too much time leading and not enough time studying. After I finished business school, I continued to take on leadership roles outside of my professional life. While I may not have achieved senior executive status, I have collected many leadership 'badges' from my years of experience leading student and non-profit organizations.

Non-profit Organizations (NPOs) are incubators of future leaders

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are great incubators for rising leaders. They give volunteers real-life professional and leadership experiences to learn and grow. Since NPOs are mission-driven, they cultivate purposeful leadership. Most NPOs lack the operational sophistication of mature companies. This forces their leaders to be agile. Many NPOs need to grow or mature to survive. Therefore, NPO leaders are driven to be builders. The problems that NPOs are trying to solve are larger than the solutions that they can bring to the table. So NPO leaders must stay curious and seek ways to do more with less. NPOs need sponsors and donors to fund their efforts. So NPO leaders must gain business development and relationship management skills to solicit and sustain support. Finally, NPOs are built on the shoulders of volunteers, many of whom lack professional experience. NPO leaders need to be player-coaches who can lead and do. The same set of leadership qualities turns up in corporate success profiles.

The following are three NPO professional and leadership development case studies:

Case 1: Public Speaking

A former coachee of mine wanted to improve his public speaking abilities. He had an incredible fear of speaking in front of others. He recognized that this was a critical skill for him to get to the next level. During our executive coaching sessions, we identified some external opportunities for him to practice speaking in front of an audience. He started by reading books to children at the library. Eventually, he became a lector at church. Once he got comfortable reading publicly, he moved on to making presentations in meetings. By volunteering his time, he committed to practice and improved over time.

Case 2: Business Development and Account Management

A friend of mine was on track to become an executive in her organization. Two of the key readiness requirements were selling services and growing accounts. Through my encouragement, she took on a leadership role to own sponsorships for an NPO. In doing so, she became responsible for finding sponsors and growing the relationships over time. She acknowledged that this experience would be invaluable for her practice and for preparing her for business development activities at work.

Case 3: Learning from Crucible Moments

As I reflected on my term as an NPO leader, I recall many incidents when I had to make decisions with incomplete information. There was no playbook or formal training. I remember how nerve-wracking it was to be the one asked to make the call. But decisions had to be made, and I was the one accountable for making them. I learned a lot from those experiences. I completely remember asking myself in similar crucible situations at work, "What would the NPO me do?" I leveraged my leadership experience from the NPO to navigate ambiguity at work.

Volunteerism equals improved employee experience and PR

Today's workforce values giving back to society. They appreciate employers who make an impact on social causes. Many companies have charitable foundations, giving campaigns, and organized time away from work for volunteering. Employees are more loyal to companies that encourage and support volunteerism. A culture of volunteerism can go a long way to raise an employer's public image.

"Free" Development Experiences

Current challenges to formal professional and leadership development programs include

• finite learning budgets and resources

• lack of appetite for time away to develop new skills, and

• lack of success from existing corporate learning experiences.

Formal internal rotation programs or leadership programs require funding and resources. NPOs offer volunteers opportunities to gain arguably better professional and leadership experience at no cost to the company's learning and development budget. However, you probably should write a check to the NPO as a donation. What would you pay to have your employees, managers, and leaders gain real-life leadership development experiences on a regular basis outside of work hours?

Incentify NPO Experiences

How can we motivate our people to gain NPO experiences?

1. Create a culture of volunteerism. People need to equate volunteering as part of doing business. We must tie volunteerism to our core values. Cascade the requirement for volunteering beyond senior executives and Board membership.

2. Make it easy to volunteer. Help employees find the right opportunities by establishing a network of local NPOs and creating a platform to connect them with volunteer and leadership opportunities.

3. Integrate with performance. Ask managers to integrate NPO experiences into Personal Development Plans (PDPs) and performance appraisals. Encourage the use of NPO experiences as credible examples during interviews.

4. Reward and recognize impact. Reward and recognize people for making an impact through their NPOs. Ask people to share their testimonies on how volunteering improved their professional and leadership skills.

Developing through NPO gigs

Today, much of the incoming workforce prefers to advance their careers through project experience rather than the traditional climb up the corporate ladder. This"Gig Economy" makes it difficult for traditional approaches to leadership and professional development. Volunteering for an NPO can fill that leadership and professional development gap. After all, volunteering can be experienced as gigs as well.

How can NPOs make themselves more compelling for corporate volunteers?

NPOs can position themselves to gain corporate volunteers in the following ways:

• Have a structure that enables volunteers to gain leadership and professional experiences in specific functional roles, including defined terms, roles, and responsibilities.

• Attract retired and seasoned professionals to mentor and coach less tenured professionals through their NPO experiences.

• Provide actionable feedback and statements of impact that volunteers can share with their managers and organizations.

• Recognize companies for supporting their employees to volunteer their time and talents.

I would never trade the experiences I gained while volunteering with student organizations and NPOs. They molded me into the leader that I am today. I would like to think that I will continue to learn from NPO experiences while mentoring other volunteers through theirs.

Stay Amasian!