Day 12 ... Let’s just say that when I read Carol Kinsey Goman's post Seven Seconds to Make a First Impression on the Forbes blog it struck a chord. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen chapter leaders make all the classic mistakes including #1 in Carol’s list. They start off a meeting with a shrug like the meeting is a burden or a grimacing smile suggesting “let’s get started so we can get it over”.  And then the meeting goes downhill.

This post along with a few others will make a good summer reading list for chapter leaders:

• 5 Body Language Secrets Every Leader Should Know, alsoby Carol Kinsey Goman
• Emotions are Contagious by Jamie Notter
• Board Members: Rocket Fuel or Rocks by Lucy P Marcus on the Harvard Business Review blog
• Does Your Organization Need Cultural Rehab by Lori Halley on the Wild Apricot Blog. It offers a number of links that are good reads too.
• The Fundmental Purpose of Your Team, another post from Harvard Business Review, this written by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback

Happy reading! Any to add??

Attitude.

I just finished a blog posting by Mike Myatt excogitating on how attitude reflects leadership.  Talk about hitting the nail on the head.  We know intuitively that the right or wrong leadership can have a devastating impact on our associations. This is felt all the more at the chapter or component level. Yet putting our finger on the problem isn’t as obvious.

We talk about needing to do skill assessments, training and coaching, and even term limits as solutions. Yet when it comes right down to it – a positive person overcomes most all weaknesses of leadership skill. They tend to attract competition, passionate, positive people. They tend to invite meaningful dialog. They tend to work hard. They tend to be team players and inclusive.  By drawing in individuals with complementary skills and creating a positive work environment, the group is empowered. The leader has led.

Attitude is a game-changer.

So where does this lead us – those of us who are both trying to be good volunteer leaders and those who are managing volunteer leaders?

1) Start talking about the power – no the importance – of attitude in leadership.  Make this part of our leadership training script. Host facilitated conversations or training on attitude. Cover how to test your own attitude – Myatt gives us 5 test questions that are useful.

2) Confront the “elephant in the room”.  Too often groups point their collective fingers at a multitude of reasons why they have failed when the real cause is the negative environment. It is our responsibility as we sit on the team to broach this subject. It is our responsibility as volunteer managers to work with the individual. And if need be, it is our responsibility to remove the person.

I would propose, following on Myatt’s reflection, that very often this negative attitude is the result of a bad habit. We take on the habit of reviewing the negative issues to either appear as empathic or a realist. Soon this becomes a script. So if we confront and then coach, we could actually turn-around some leaders. The key is that we have this conversation.

3) Encourage self-assessment and group assessment for leaders.  This is perhaps one of the glaring missing links in association volunteer programs. I remember upon completing my tenure as chair for the ASAE Components Relations Section Council I asked for feedback and when there wasn’t formal assessment, I openly asked for feedback. I didn’t receive any. Well, maybe I did in that I was selected to serve on another council. But that simply says I was a reliable volunteer not if I was a good leader.

It is important that we ask our teams to rate its leaders and, we in turn, as leaders rate ourselves. The next step is having a candid conversation about the evaluation.

4) Have a positive attitude. Modeling the behavior is one of the most powerful methods of change. As many leadership coaches say leaders may have bad days, but they can’t show it. I’d like to tweak and say that when a leader has a bad day, they show demonstrate how to rise above it. The benefit to being candid is that it becomes a “teaching moment.”

How will you nurture good attitudes?

photo credit: photobucket.com / wolfie01_01

I haven’t been very active in this playground because I’ve been spending more time on a new playground More than PR Basics helping our PRSA Maryland chapter launch a blog (and plan and build a phenomenal 1-day event about the marriage of traditional and new media for pr professionals which takes place Tuesday Oct 6) and in Hootsuite land helping two nonprofits get involved in the Twitter conversation.

My focus on our chapters and their respective social media efforts has been fun and has reminded me that we do need to nurture and coach our leaders for success. To that end, here are some links that are definitely worth sharing with your chapter leaders (and really any and all volunteer leaders) to help them succeed:

Of all the support and services we get from our national organizations, the one getting the least attention is recruiting leaders. Yes, each of my national associations (we manage five chapters for five different associations) offers leadership development at some level. Most also offer checklists for recruiting leaders and ideas on recognizing them. But, could national associations do more? Could they help us in actually recruiting leaders?

Peter and I recently came back from a very exciting session with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America leadership where we heard from passionate volunteers who, like most our chapter leaders, are determined to have effective chapters but are struggling with how to do that within the challenges of today.

A watershed of criticism followed VP nominee Sarah Palin’s and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's ill-placed remarks about community organizers. Barack Obama didn't shine either on the subject. Time to turn criticism to commendation. they did wide up shining the light on the power of community organizers and here's a salute to those who change the world one community at a time.