Archives 2024

An interesting theme ran through several conversations I had over the past few weeks. People are frustrated in volunteer roles. Non-profit leaders can’t figure out how to engage volunteers. They want to know how to motivate people, which can be especially tricky in situations where pay isn’t involved. In this case, for volunteers.

Interestingly, the frustrated volunteers were exactly the type of people the other group was looking for.

After spending a significant amount of time in the non-profit sector and working with military reservists and cadets, I saw several very comprehensive programs established to lead volunteers effectively. Quite frankly, those efforts kept those who didn’t know how to lead employed and gave consultants a decent revenue stream.

(While you’re here, don’t miss this post next: Can You Name the 9 Essential Qualities of a Leader?)

Leading Volunteers vs. Employees

In my opinion, the only difference between leading a volunteer and leading employees is a system of compensation.

I recall a staff meeting when a manager started complaining about volunteers who were given tasks, and when that staff person checked in after a couple of months, the work was not done to her satisfaction. I spoke up and asked, “what would you do if one of your paid supervisors left another employee for months with poorly defined tasks and then got angry when it wasn’t done right?”

The response … “I would discipline them!” Really! The only problem I had was to figure out if this person was the pot or the kettle.

A terrific friend of mine who is a very accomplished businessperson and a community leader of the highest order related to me was asked to participate in a membership drive.

At the inaugural committee meeting, a consultant sat everyone down. Next, they instructed all of the volunteers on what they must do as part of the committee. These volunteers are all very accomplished in their own right. For them, being treated like five-year-olds must be very off-putting.

How would you respond if this was your boss talking to you like that? Let alone how you might respond
as a volunteer.

(Do you have volunteers working alongside paid staff? Then take a look at this post next)

I served with volunteers who, when given authority, and responsibility, and were held to account, led the responses to some of the most complex disasters of our time. I saw reservists (when treated like the professional soldiers they were) accomplish superhuman tasks.

How to Motivate People When Pay Isn’t on the Table

If you want to know how to motivate people, paid or not, it might take going back to basics. Consider what motivates you, other than money, and imagine those same things motivate your volunteers.

Here are some ideas.

Whether paid or unpaid, people want to:

• Have honourable and engaging work to do
• Receive clear expectations
• Feel they are part of something bigger than they are
• Be employed at or above their current capacity
• Get respect and appreciation

Could you use a little more guidance with motivating and leading your team? We should talk. Click here to read about my one-on-one coaching and get in touch.

Did you learn a lot about how to motivate people in this post?

Here are three more to read next:

• Stop Trying To Manage Your Boss; 8 Tips To Partnering With Your Boss
• The Biggest Management Lie Ever Told — Micromanagement Is Bad
• 5 Steps You Can Use To Build a “First Team’ Mindset

This post was first published in 2017, but it was updated in 2021 just for you.

Creating a better workplace is hard.

Creating a better workplace virtually is the same as in person, but 8 times as hard

Consider doubling down on these eight strategies to improve your virtual and remote workplace:

• Make the conversation as “rich” as possible.

People often think first about using webcams. Of course, they add richness by allowing you to see facial expressions, body language and the like.

But richness also considers the ability to share documents, so you are both looking at the same data and information and making the conversation a legitimate 2-way conversation in real-time.

• When coaching, follow a process. 

Many of us use a model for our coaching conversations to guide our discussions, we may also take notes. The same is true online.

Make sure the person knows what you’re doing so that when your eyes drift off-camera to check your list, or if they hear your fingers on a keyboard. Let them know that it is in service to your coaching conversation, and not a distraction.

• Start conversations with, “So, what do you have?”

Too often we start with what’s on our list, then ask the employee, “So, what do you have?”

By finding out what is top of mind for the other person, you can address what’s most important or most concerning to them.

You need to do everything possible to reinforce the idea that this is about them, not you.

The secret of asking ‘And Waht Esle?”

• Stick to schedules and time frames.

When working remotely, time with the boss is precious and your people look forward to having your attention more than you might think.

When you are constantly rescheduling or keeping an eye on the clock, it sends the message that this coaching time isn’t as important as other duties. What might seem like no big deal to you can send a powerful message about your priorities and where they fit in that list.

• Create more pathways

One of the biggest mistakes made in communicating virtually across an organization is assuming that since you have said it, it has been communicated.

Creating more pathways means having more ways and methods of sharing messages. Townhall-type sessions have a limited value. Emails and slide decks are never enough. Cascading communication is helpful but can lose clarity.

The solution isn’t finding one communication pathway but using more of them more often.

• Allow more feedback loops

Even one-on-one communication is hard without a feedback loop.

While we know that, we don’t often create the sort of feedback loops we need in an organization.

Do people have ways of asking meaningful questions? If they do, are they used (and are the questions answered)? Make sure people at all levels have more chances and ways to ask a question, share a concern or make a point and feel safe in doing so.

• Communicate more frequently

Once is never enough.

Organizations create ad campaigns knowing that messages need to be repeated, but often shy away from repeating internal messages often enough. Research shows that a message needs to be heard at least seven times to be assimilated.

Leaders must become the CRO (Chief Reminder Officer) and communicate their most important messages over and over and create an overarching message that is part of all communications.

Read more about the CRO role

• Reduce the risk of assumptions

Leaders often make assumptions about their audience.

Like your people understand the strategies you are talking about, they know the competitive forces in the same way you do, and generally assume people see and think about things the same way you do.

You can reduce assumptions by spending more time on the front line. Go work in the store, answer the phones, and ask people what they see. The better you understand the perspectives of everyone in the organization, the fewer assumptions you will make, and your communication will resonate better with your audience.

Final Thoughts

Communication is only effective when both the sender and receiver are active in the process.

Encourage your audience to be better informed and aware, ask more questions, share opinions, and listen thoughtfully and make sure you are listening carefully and thoughtfully.

Work hard to understand what your people are saying without judgment.

When you do these things, you are doing your part to improve organizational communication.

Of all the jobs a manager/leader has, one that we often feel we could do better, is coaching.

Experience shows that it is the part of the role we often feel gets ignored or isn’t done as well as we’d like. Your employees, especially those who work remotely, most likely agree with you.

So, what can we do about it?

Here are some things you can do to make your coaching more effective when you can’t be face-to-face.

Decide to have a real coaching conversation.

A coaching call is not a “check-in.” Good coaching requires focus on both ends of the line, planning, and attention to detail. Look at it this way: if you were going to coach someone in the office, you’d take them somewhere private. You’d sit down, maybe have a moment of casual conversation and demonstrate relaxed, positive body language.

When coaching virtually, the same things apply.  Be somewhere you both can relax and not be distracted. Take enough time that you’re able to engage in some social conversation before you dive in. Any conversation that starts with, “Let’s not waste time, let’s get down to business,” is probably going to restrict real conversation and the chance to explore what’s going on with the other person.

Read How Silence Is Critical To Good Conversations

Make coaching conversations as rich as possible.

Coaching can be an emotional experience. When we are face to face, we can hear the tone of the person’s response as well as their facial expressions and body language. The best results happen when you’re having rich, real-time conversations. For that reason, you want to have as “rich” a conversation as possible.

You want to make sure you are communicating effectively, and are understood, and any unspoken objections or questions get surfaced. This is almost impossible to do over the telephone alone, so use your webcams. Get both parties used to the idea of being on camera when the stakes are low and the conversations casual, so you’ll both be less self-conscious when your discussions get deeper and more important.

Read How Coaching Is More About the Person Than The Problem

Have a list—but not a checkbox.

A rich, constructive coaching conversation has a lot going on. You need to know what you’re going to discuss, have supporting evidence or questions you need to ask, and there’s a process to a well-run coaching call. Most of us can’t keep everything clear in our head and wind up hanging up and then thinking of all the things we forgot about or could have said or done differently.

So having a list of topics and reminders is a good thing. On the other hand, if we treat it like a checklist, with the goal just to tick off boxes, we often focus on that, rather than listening to the other person for clues that we should probe deeper, or some things aren’t being said. It’s a fine line, but an important one.

Open the call to possibilities.

Coaching means you must actively listen to the other person. One of the challenges for a lot of us is that people will answer the questions they’re asked. Many of us start with well-meaning requests for information that prematurely focus the discussion and don’t always open the door to more productive conversations. For example, there is a difference between “What’s going on with the Jackson account?” and “What are you spending most of your time on?” 

Get Our 27 Open-ended Questions

Here are some open-ended questions to kickstart coaching conversations:

What’s up?

How’s it going?

What’s working?

Where are you stuck?

How can I help?

Notice that you’re leaving the responses up to the other person.

You may want to get to the problem at hand, but if there are other priorities, or challenges or the person has something they need to discuss first, you’ll have a better talk when you get to it.

For more information on coaching at a distance, consider our Coaching Services.

Better Coaching is a critical skill development that we offer to help you become a Better Leader!

For indepth analysis please check out the full book by Michael Bungay Stanier titled

the COACHING HABIT: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever on Amazon.

Coaching for Performance is about addressing and fixing a specific problem, sorting something out. Development is turning from the issue to the person dealing with the issue, calling individuals forward to learn, improve and grow. The remainder of this blog will follow this structure:

1. The Kickstarter Questions “What’s on your mind?”
2. The best coaching question in the world… “And what else”
3. The Focus Question: What is the real challenge here for you?
4. The Foundation Question: “What do you want?”
5. The Lazy Question: “How can I help?”
6. The Strategic Question: “If you are saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?”
7. The Learning Question: “What was most useful for you?”

These simple triggers should form a line manager’s 101 bible for helping coach their team around them.