Where have all the volunteer leaders gone, long time passing?

The lack of leadership is not just in the volunteer area. Back in the early 2,000’s academics were sounding the alarm about the lack of leadership in all areas.

There is a well-noted and alarming trend reported throughout the world—a desperate shortage of good leaders and talented professionals. These shortages appear at a time when the world is reeling from years of failed leadership. Leaders either have struggled valiantly with ineffective means, such as bureaucracy and command and control, or they have held onto power through brutal and corrupt means. Margaret J. Wheatley

Since we have not been training leaders, over time people who have leadership aspirations or skills quietly moved into non-leadership positions. There is an abundance of research that tells us that if people did not learn new skills or keep themselves active in activities beyond employment, they will not change when they retire.

Over the last two weeks, I have had similar conversations with three leaders of volunteer groups that work with people who are retired, or who are low income. The conversations focused on the fact that leadership is tired and wants to step aside for younger people with perhaps more energy and perhaps new ideas. One person said we have a great many people on our Board who love to say “I am on the Board of …. (but she said, they don’t want to do any of the work.  I said well perhaps at your next annual meeting someone will step forward.) She shook her head and said, they didn’t last year that is why I am still here. The conversations with the other two presidents were similar in ideas although the content was different.  Why are people not stepping up to take leadership roles?

One reason could be that each generation has its own approach and the older Boomers are not or have not paid attention to the needs of the younger members of the organization. Another reason may be that the leadership is seen as not wanting new ideas and are closed to suggestions for change. Another reason is that the organization itself is resistant to the idea of change. The organizational leadership does not encourage or help train new leadership, or they have not set up a leadership succession policy.

Each of the above reasons alone would hold back any potential leader and over time a leadership vacuum happens. The problem is that the present board leadership may not understand what is happening, even though the president does understand.  Every organization needs to, in my opinion, renew itself to continue. That renewal may start with a discussion of a vision and mission statement. I suspect many organizations have not looked at these statements since they were created. There are organizations and people who can help organizations renew and reinvigorate themselves so I hope that the leaders I talked to can take advantage of the information we shared so they can bring on new leaders, and their organizations can continue to be thriving contributors to our society.