King David once challenged his mighty warriors, "Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will become commander-in-chief." As a result, Joab stepped forward first, thus becoming the King's commander-in-chief. In essence David was looking for someone to take initiative and volunteer to be the warrior and leader among other mighty warriors and leaders.
If you are a leader in a faith community in particular, there's a great responsibility and even calling to find these warrior-like volunteers, these leaders who embody the spirit of volunteerism, no matter what it cost them. These are the women and men who are looking to find a place to leave their fingerprints on humanity.
This can happen in a plethora of different ways, but it often begins with a simple invitation, perhaps by asking if anyone is willing to engage the battle with heightened responsibility. What we discover in the invitation is the women and men who embody a volunteer spirit. And, these are the people who become the leaders of our tribe and movement.
One unfortunate facet of this journey is that many of us start out with a volunteer spirit, but along the way we lose our motivation, or our vision of why we stepped up in the first place. This is where leaders must develop a keen sense of awareness involving the volunteers and leaders around them. One of the keys to developing awareness is paying closer attention to the joy and creativity levels of our volunteers. When the joy level of our volunteers drop, or when their creative energy sinks, pay attention and be willing to take action necessary to bring change.
Two of the signs to monitor with the volunteers we're working with are joy and creativity. Joyful people use more of their brains, specifically, their right brain which is the creative and imaginative part. If our volunteers lose their joy, they will inevitably lose their creativity and imagination too. In time, as they begin disengaging certain facets of their brain, they'll eventually relinquish their own sense of responsibility of the task and role in front of them because the joy and imaginative spirit that once motivated them will have eroded away.
If people lose their joy and start to feel as if they're just "doing a job," they risk losing their ability to innovate and create. As leaders we must nurture and cultivate this joy and inventiveness that comes through the embodiment of a volunteer spirit. Put out invitations to those around you as you look for those who embody this spirit. And, with the volunteers you have, pay attention to their capacity for joy and ability to create and innovate. These are signs of the embodiment of a volunteer spirit.
Relational Intelligence
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Create Movement. Remember to Love.
- Steve Saccone
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Steve is a leadership catalyst, writer, and creativity consultant. He works with Mosaic, a spiritual community in Los Angeles who strives to empower creativity of the human spirit, as well as cultivate relational and spiritual health. Steve also works as a Field Advisor for the Gallup Organization, serves as Director of Protege, a 2-year Global Leadership Program, and is an Adjunct Professor and guest lecturer for numerous universities.