Volunteering as a means for professional development

I wanted to share my experience with you so that you can see how you can potentially use volunteering as a method for your own learning, growth and development. I do a fair amount of skills-based volunteer work because it’s important to me (altruism is very high on my Hogan assessment!). 

This year, I started volunteering with the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Vermont State Council as Marketing & Communications Director. I chose this because SHRM is very aligned with my desire to make a large impact on helping people thrive in workplaces (which in turn enables their organization to thrive). I have never been in a marketing or communications role, yet, I’ve learned everything about these core areas for my own business and felt confident that I could navigate this and learn what I needed to know. 

 I didn’t realize it at the time, but, I really enjoy this role because it’s challenging – I’m learning new things all the time and I love that. This specific role also means that I’m involved with every facet of what we’re doing and that’s right up my alley. It’s been reaffirming that my strengths are aligned and utilized. 

5 things I’ve learned from this volunteer role: 

✔️ My professional skills have a lot of value outside of my ‘day job’ – aka what I do for my livelihood. I am an Executive Coach, yet I have proven that I’m a self-starter who loves and feels comfortable taking charge when learning new things, especially when the mission is important to me. 

✔️ I get to experience a team of people brought together for a specific purpose. It’s been great to see how the leaders are effective at steering the ship with a team of volunteers with mixed skillsets. It’s also been a great experience for all of us to adapt as we learn about each other and how we work together. 

✔️ I’m being challenged in ways that I didn’t expect and that is super energizing. I’m learning how to market and promote a conference, navigate a new website platform, and expand other various skillsets that I didn’t expect to. 

✔️ I’ve learned that a strength of mine is shining through in this role and upon reflection, I’ve realized that this strength is a large theme for me and has shown up in many ways over the past several years. I naturally bring people together and want people to be included and in-the-know. It’s really interesting to see that strength play out and be used in different situations. I also didn’t realize how much I enjoyed doing that until now. 

✔️ There’s a lot more of a well-rounded benefit (energy exchange) in this type of volunteer role than I expected. I didn’t expect to learn so much about myself, to expand my skillsets the way I have, and to really enjoy the people I’m working alongside. Don’t get me wrong – I expected to enjoy this and the people, just not as much as I have! 

We often think of volunteering as strictly philanthropic – donating time or money. I’d like you to think of how you can use volunteering as a way to develop yourself professionally. I want you to realize that your skills, strengths, and knowledge are very valuable as well and there are ways you can employ those for growth while helping others. 

Many of you are consistently seeking growth and development. I urge you to look at these types of opportunities that might stretch you out of your comfort zone:  

Catchafire

Your local SHRM chapter or State Council

Professional Association volunteer opportunities: the professional associations I’m involved with have many volunteer opportunities (ICF, AMA, ATD). The American Management Association offers continuing education credits for volunteering. Search for associations that align with you: Glassdoor’s list of professional associations and O*Net searchable professional associations

Find groups or associations for your hobbies. For instance, the American Hiking Society has volunteer opportunities as well as the Appalachian Mountain Club. 

You can ask nonprofits if they could use your skillset in a volunteer capacity (even if they don’t have it listed as a volunteer opportunity)  

An article from Training Magazine: How Skills-Based Volunteering Enriches Onboarding, Training, and Talent Development