Where's our Leadership Lounge?
TED Talks - how to start a movement by Derek Sivers
I have a longing for a dialogue on leadership within our sector. Go through my blog postings on my own blog and you will see this emerge. I guess I will keep coming back to it. Of course we will have to have a debate about the word “Leadership” first.
Where is the Leadership Lounge in Volunteer Management? Where do you turn to for leadership ideas? Where do you turn to for a little inspiration?
Leadership and inspiration are different things yes but I see them as intertwined on so many occasions.
Don’t leaders inspire?
When I see dialogue in volunteer management I still come across much of the same old dialogue Ive seen come up intermittingly over the last 14 years.
An example is some recent discussion I’ve come across on some forums. What should we call volunteers? What should we call volunteer managers? Or should that be managers of volunteers.
We seem to be addicted to questions of semantics and terminology. Meanwhile the great issues for our sector remain largely unspoken of or commented on.
Yet we will get plenty of folk engaging on the semantic topics. Are basics like “what we should call each other” the Everest of our intellectual conquests in volunteer management?
Where can we form our leadership lounge? Where can we find the space to share thoughts on leadership?
Lessons in leadership can be found in many places.
One place I often go to for ideas and inspiration is the Ted Talks. TED can be found at
TED's mission statement states:
“We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."
I already see i-volunteer as a community of curious souls beginning to engage with ideas and each other on volunteerism and volunteer management! :-)
To end I’d like to point to a fun TED talk on leadership!
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html
Enjoy and let’s aim to inspire each other with ideas and share the great stuff we find both from inside the sector and outside
Thanks for taking the time to read
DJ Cronin
http://djcronin.blogspot.com/
Very inspiring post DJ.
It takes a lot of courage to be that first nut, wondering if anyone will follow your lead. I have now put the TED website in my favourites. It is brilliant!!! Thank you for the link.
I believe that we also need to look outside our sector for leadership. I have come across some great books, seminars, workshops and debates on leadership at university alumni events and on the Australian Institute of Management website.
I agree with you DJ, we need to inspire each other.
Sam I believe that the impossible just takes a little longer.
Cheesy is good Sam - welcome cheesy.
Whatever it takes afterall!
Absolutely brilliant post. It is very true, and often where someone might go for leadership, for example in their own organisation is a closed door because there is such a lack of volunteering expertise (and dare I say it, sometimes enthusiasm) in the senior leadership of the UK Voluntary Sector.
A lot of talk, a lot of bluster. Where are the impossible ideas? Only when we start to talk about the impossible does it become something to strive for.
Sorry. That was awfully cheesy!
Love TED Talks! I agree they are an inspirational resource (I know that word is perhaps over-used, but for me it's true).
And, I will share something with you here - when I was putting together the pitch for our Volunteer Management work with EYV11, I had a long term vision of the VM community getting together to talk about their experiences and share expertise in a TED talks kind of way. Who knows? Perhaps this is where our leadership lounge needs to develop? Watch this space.......
(You can, after all, organise your own TEDx 'fringe' event these days too!)
I think our lessons on leadership come from listening to oneanother and from challenging oneanother. And also from looking outside of what we do - from other sectors, other countries, other organisations etc. Inspiration alone though is sometimes not enough. It can help us feel better about our work, or it can support us to gain the focus we are looking for, but we need to follow through. We need to become skilled in taking that inspiration and converting it into action. Part of that involves talking your ideas through with others and deciding what you will do next, so let's do it!
The point about semantics and terminology is an interesting one. I personally feel language is really important and having a shared understanding of what we mean by stuff can help people to identify with it, decide whether they want to be a part of it and ultimately, contribute to it. However, we do also need to broaden our horizons and your points on leadership are a great place to start. And in the interests of taking inspiration and turning it into action.......
.......we would like to take your blog as the basis for our 'Thoughtful Thursday' discussion on Twitter - let's share what we think in 140 characters as well as responding more fully here.
So to completely steal your questions - "Where is the Leadership Lounge in Volunteer Management? Where do you turn to for leadership ideas? Where do you turn to for a little inspiration?"
To participate via Twitter you can use the tag #ttvolmgrs and follow our team of VMCs - Volunteer Management Champions @volmanchamp (Yes we did have a debate on terminology with that one!)
Just finally, in keeping with your suggested TED talk - I would also encourage people to look at Seth Godin's piece on Tribes and what is in effect 'people power'. http://bit.ly/cH9zOJ Something here for leaders of volunteers too......