Crucial Work Skills #5 Community Involvement – How to enrich your life and that of others with causes greater than yourself.

Greetings from Alamo, 

Our fifth installment in the Crucial Work Skills white paper focuses on Community Involvement. A give-back component in your life is vital to a well-rounded adult experience. It also has some unique benefits that are often overlooked or poorly described. We will attempt to outline how to identify the right causes that matter to you and maximize your contribution. 

Identifying

We have outlined the process of self-discovery called Interests, Strengths, and Style previously with an eye towards your vocation and suggested you never lose sight of how the needs for your strengths may change as the tools valued in the marketplace may change. 

When it comes to helping others, the process is similar. What are your current interests? List a few areas, and as you do this, consider getting out of your core comfort zone. We have found that in giving back your time and talents, there is less of a concern that you are great at something. It can be as important that you want to show up and help.  In addition, unlike a job, you are not making a full-time commitment, so this is an area in which you can dabble a bit to find the right fit.

Dabbling with different causes will allow you to expand the network of people you meet as you volunteer, which is an important byproduct of volunteering that we will address later.

What is your second strength?

In the working world, very few people can worry about a second strength; we need to maximize our contribution with our greatest strength as the market is so indifferent to our presence that we need every ounce of ability to drive revenue to create economic safety for ourselves and our families.

An unintended consequence is that we seldom get a chance to round out our skills, and this is one of the secrets of giving back: you can flex into an additional area and get better. No one is teaching you marketing if you are great at sales; they just want you to close deals. Yet, over the last 30 years, the relationship between sales and marketing has changed. It behooves a good salesperson to understand marketing and vice versa.

When you show up to help a non-profit, and they assign people to committees, it is okay to identify some of the other areas of running an entity that you may not be strong in and offer to be a grunt on that committee. The committee leader could end up being a great mentor, and you will get to cross-train, all while helping the target demographic you care about.

Common interests for the common good can create uncommonly wonderful friendships.

Not only is helping people good for the recipient, but it can also help you build new skills and have meaningful shared experiences with your fellow volunteers.

In 2004, I volunteered at the Guardsmen Christmas Tree Lot, which is one of the largest indoor Christmas Tree lots in the United States. A crew of 25 new guys had put in a solid 10-hour shift on a Saturday setting up the lot, and it was early the next day, so we had another 10 hours ahead of us. I found the local greasy spoon to get some chow, and sure enough, several of the guys I had just gotten to know were of a similar mind; it was a good place to fuel up for the day.

That Christmas season, I started making friendships that last to this day, and I am certain that even if our paths had crossed, the trust would never have been established at such a level without that year of service we all volunteered together.

In 2010, we wrote a book called The Next Gen Almanac, which outlined the potential benefits of a strong and meaningful shared experience.

We called the magic formula: SE = C = T = Opportunity

 SE = meaningful shared experience (like working at a tree lot together)

C = window into the other person's character (with character being highly portable and long-lasting)

T = trust with the size of trust correlating to the meaningfulness of the shared experience.

Opportunity = Now that you trust each other, the opportunities you can create together are limitless.

Thinking back to Peter Drucker’s key questions, he suggested three main questions to ask yourself all your life: How can I maximize my contribution while I am alive? Once I have figured out what I want to contribute to, how am I allocating my time and capital? Finally, what is my next most important task?

We hope we have made the case that as you allocate your time, helping others is one of the greatest force multipliers available to everyone.

What cause that is greater than yourself are you helping?