Just Say ‘No’
What is it about Volunteer Managers and our frequent lack of ability to say ‘No’? Is it that we have all graduated from the school of ‘nicey nicey’ and we just don’t want to upset people? Do we lack the confidence to turn down a gift of time?
‘No’ is a powerful word and one we as volunteer managers
should not be afraid to use. Indeed I’d like to suggest we should be confident and comfortable using it. It needs to be part of our everyday vocabulary. Too often it isn’t.
For those of us working in the formal volunteering sector it is probably a word we don’t use often enough. Too often when I’m training staff, and indeed volunteers, in managing and supporting volunteers one of the revelations for them is that they can say ‘No’ to people who want to volunteer their time. Some of you will be reading this and thinking this is nothing short of heresy. Surely we should be enabling people to volunteer with us at every opportunity?
Let me make my case. For me, volunteer management is all about making a good match between your volunteer’s skills, interests and abilities and the roles your organisation has available. Where this is achieved it results in a fulfilling and rewarding experience for the volunteer and the organisation being able to achieve more. Win win. All the volunteers I’ve ever met want to feel that their donation of their ‘time and talents’ is helping the organisation make a difference (whatever that might be). Not unreasonable really. Surely that’s also our role for our organisation, why else are we there? We are about recruiting volunteers that will make a clear and important contribution to our organisation and its work aren’t we?
If we can’t make use of a potential volunteers ‘time and talents’ then surely the right, fair and honest thing to do is to say so. Too often we can get tempted into saying yes, taking someone on and trying to create a role for them to undertake. Big mistake. In my experience volunteers aren’t fooled by this and quickly realise what is going on. When they do they usually leave and not with the most favourable impression. They feel their precious gift of time was wasted, quite rightly.
Where we don’t have a suitable role that fits a volunteers time and talents then lets make sure we direct them to an organisation that we think can. When someone steps forward and says they want to volunteer I believe whole heartedly we should make every opportunity to find something rewarding and fulfilling for them to do. If that’s not with your organisation then let’s signpost them elsewhere, to somewhere where they really can put their time and talents to best use. Surely as volunteer managers we owe it to each other, and those stepping forward to volunteer to do so.
‘No’ is also a word we should use when we are not convinced the person who wants to volunteer is the right person for our role/the team/ the organisation. As a volunteer manager one of the key tools in our kit bag for ensuring we, and our organisation, does not have problem volunteers to deal with is getting our recruitment and selection right. Key to this is the confidence and ability to say ‘No’ where you don’t feel that person/their skills is the right fit for the role/organisation/the team. After all, recruitment is simply about getting the right person with the right skills in the right role. Not one of these, but all three and where we don’t have all three we owe it our organisations, and indeed the volunteers, to say ‘No’.
So let’s get comfortable just saying ‘No’.
Yes agree completely too often the organisation does exactly what you say. Would we do this for paid staff - I suspect not. Discuss!
As Volunteer Managers, like you, I feel we do have a responsibility to pass people on even if we don't have anything suitable for their 'time and telents'. From experience I know where we have done this people have been really positive and some have even ended up volunteering with us later on when an opportunity arose that fitted their skills/interests.
I think you're quite right Alan, we too often are unable to say 'No'. However, I think it's often just as much an institutional thing as a personal thing. My organisation makes it very clear that we should 'endeavour to provide opportunities for all who wish to volunteer'. This often leads us to trying to create roles that neither we need nor the volunteer really wants.
I don't think saying 'No' is enough though. I do think we have a duty to enable and promote volunteering. For me this means trying to explain some of the other opportunities we may have for volunteering as well as 'signposting' to other organisations, and of course, the VCS network. This way we make sure that people don't fall out of the volunteering loop.
Apologies for the typo's in the above. Forgot to preview this before publishing it and don't know how to edit it - sorry!
Sound advice and I would echo this 100%. First be clear about what the role is and then recruit the volunteer. The danger here is you focus your limited time on managing this volunteer and then possibly not then having the time to manage a volunteer doing the really important thing you needed doing that will delvier most for you and your organisation.
At the end of the day it is our roles as volunteer managers to put people's time and telants to best use for the organistion and sometimes that does involve actually saying thanks but no thanks. That said I'd always direct these people to other organisations who may be abel to make better use of their time and talents.
I'm tempted to think that it's best for the organisation and the applicant if you have a clear role, a clear idea of what sort of person would fit that role - and you stick to it. This way, you'll ensure your reasons for using resources are strategic and in the best interests of the charity. If you're limited to time/capacity, investing your resources in a compromise, may spread you thin and give your second choice (and possibly a prospective first choice!) volunteer a more mediocre experience?
What would you suggest doing with an intermediate situation: where the volunteer offers to do something that would be useful, but not as useful as the thing you actually tried to recruit them to do?
My instinct is to say yes, but make it clear to them that I can only offer very limited support (because I'm still trying to fill the original role).
Couldn't agree more that people need training and support to help this do this. Love the point that we all assume that a nice person never says 'no'.
I'd thoroughly recommend a good assertiveness course for anyone finding themselves with this issue. I found the experience completely illuminating. It's easy to think that someone who never says "no" is a nice person. Though in the long run, it makes for a good deal of stress - for you and others - as you merrily vent your woes to the 'wrong' person or live out the consequences of not piping up when you needed to.