Skills You Can Bring to Volunteering
Volunteering can be a great way to learn new skills and maintain those you already have. It also provides a unique opportunity to work with others in a variety of settings, which can help build teamwork and communication skills.
As a result, volunteering can also be a valuable stepping stone to obtaining a career. Whether you are looking to change careers or get back into the workforce after a long time, volunteering is a great place to start!
Compassion
Compassion is a powerful ability to feel what others are feeling and motivate prosocial behaviors. It can help you to prevent burnout, improve your physical and mental health, and create deeper connections with others.
Compassion comes in many forms and can be cultivated through practice, mindfulness, and a willingness to help others. It can also be a source of joy.
The ability to act with compassion can be challenging for some people, but it is a skill that can be learned and mastered. Volunteers can learn compassion by observing others and allowing their own feelings of empathy to flow into compassionate actions.
Leadership
Leadership is the ability to motivate and guide others toward a shared goal. It is a skill that anyone can develop and improve over time.
People who lead have a vision of what they want to achieve, establish goals that are achievable, and provide followers with the tools to accomplish these goals. They often make decisions that may be difficult or even controversial.
Volunteerism can help participants build leadership skills, including the ability to organize a group and rally volunteers behind a shared cause. It also provides a chance for participants to work with new people outside of their normal social circles, which can help them connect with a variety of professional contacts and expand their networking opportunities.
One of the most important skills that leaders must possess is communication. They need to be able to communicate clearly and concisely without coming off as egotistical or arrogant.
Teamwork
Teamwork is a key factor in any organization’s success. It’s a crucial skill that doesn’t just help your volunteer team function better but also helps them stay motivated toward your organization’s goals.
When working in a team, everyone shares information, experiences, and knowledge, which increases collaboration and problem-solving ability. People are also more likely to take calculated risks if they have other people working with them.
Good teamwork relies on robust, transparent communication that doesn’t leave things to chance. It also involves conflict management. When a dispute arises, team members want to feel supported by their manager and colleagues. They want to be able to discuss their concerns without feeling like they’re being judged or gossiped about.
Communication
Effective communication is one of the most valuable skills that you can bring to volunteering. This includes being able to listen, speak clearly and concisely, and give feedback.
Communication skills also involve nonverbal communication, such as body language, eye contact, gestures, and handshakes. These aspects of communication can have a big influence on how your audience interprets what you’re saying.
Make a commitment to practice your communication skills on a regular basis to improve them. That might mean responding to emails or Slack messages at a set time, staying on topic in conversations, and adding meaningful input during team meetings.
Problem-Solving
Problem-solving is a skill that is essential for all individuals. It gives us a way to identify things, activities, interactions, and processes that are broken or not operating the way we want them to.
It also helps us understand relationships and implement the changes and improvements needed to compete in a constantly changing environment.
Volunteering offers a unique opportunity to build problem-solving skills, as volunteers are often faced with challenging situations that they may not have experience solving.
Problem-solving requires critical thinking and the ability to see a problem from different perspectives. This can help you identify potential solutions to problems, resulting in more effective and efficient outcomes.