What can volunteering teach you about teamwork?

Engaging in volunteering activities undeniably nurtures effective communication skills. Effective communication hinges on understanding the 'why,' 'what,' and 'whom' of our message. Volunteering provides a unique avenue to comprehend these faceta of communication. Understanding the objective of our communication is pivotal, and volunteering offers a rich opportunity to grasp this essence. Moreover, it allows individuals to experience the transformative power of active listening, fostering deeper connections and empathy. Furthermore, one can come to understand the true essence of asking questions—asking not merely to extract information from others, but to collaborate and discover answers collectively.

I feel that step zero is actually active listening in the volunteering experience to improve communication . Listening to one s own responses to the act, listening in to the community that one is engaging with ...and communicating basis the same. This makes the communication far more equitable and engaging. Volunteering with listening therefore is a great opportunity to learn more mindful communication

Volunteering is the perfect way to grow your communication skills. You’re with a group of people who share a common passion. The drive to reach your goal encourages open communication and teamwork. This environment will help you build confidence that can carry over into the other areas of your life.

As the person Volunteering you must have a goal in mind. Because if you don't, it will be very difficult to pay attention to everything listed in this article. Volunteering will always help you land a job, but if you go out to volunteer and they don't spend the time to interview you and learn about what your interests are or why you are volunteering. Run... Because they are just looking for humans to fit in a space. Volunteer with places that build you up, and not just because someone told you that it was a good idea.

Communication plays a crucial role in a person's personal life and their career. Especially, when we work as a team, 'Effective Communication' is the key. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), one-third of projects fail due to poor communication. The PMI also found that ineffective communication had a negative impact on project success more than half the time. I have personally seen many volunteers, my colleagues improving their communication skill when they volunteer. Volunteering puts a person in different scenarios. They need to work with different people for every project or event. So, this puts volunteers to think creatively and communicate better to get things done.

I have a slightly different point of view . Collaboration undoubtedly is valuable. However it must be contextualised against the urgency of completing the task. For instance, if a task needs to be completed within a defined time frame for a nonprofit, and collaborating with others will slower the pace. The agency to decide what volunteerable tasks can be done collaboratively and what needs to get done quickly irrespective of collaboratively , must always rest with the nonprofit. For the nonprofit , it will always be about easy cost effective outcomes and less about building volunteering specially in the skills based volunteering projects

Collaboration is a key element to to sustainable success in any venture. For immediate and urgent tasks to accomplish, maybe you go solo. But, if we want to make a difference in a growing, sustainable model, it’s important to have more heads and hands working together.

They say, 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' I have experienced this personally while volunteering. Once I saw a lady who looked very simple, thin and silent. She is part of a team which needs to visit 2 villages & conduct talent search contest to rural kids. Only when the volunteering work started, I saw how beautifully she worked with all her team members and get the work on time. Only after I personally interacted with her, I got to know she heads a business unit with 5000 people in a huge corporate. Her team rated their volunteering experience better than any other team that day. This shows, how important collaboration is & what it can make to a volunteering experience. As a person, I learned 'Team Work' only through volunteering.

I agree. More so when from childhood onwards, our entire system incentivises individual results, individual growth, individual recognition! A selfless act of helping people our planet brings out a brilliant opportunity of shared goals and collaborative thinking/doing.

For young people especially, volunteering in organisations that align with your passions are a great opportunity to enhance your leadership skills. Most great leaders are not born, but they are those who roll up their sleeves to do the hard work over time. So practice, learn and refine while continuously take on feedback with an open heart and mind - it’s a journey well worth undertaking!

Volunteering also inculcates distributed and responsible leadership, as against authoritative one. When the act is for social good, several hands need to make the dough, give it shape, call the shots, at several points in time! It distributes power- more often than not, everyone leads in their own right. And in my experience a natural respect for skills and experience emerges in teams.

In my volunteering experience over a decade, have learnt every step in volunteering, from day one, either demands leadership skills or contributes to cultivation of these skills. Any task necessitates proactive thinking and the ability to make on-the-spot decisions, and working on the ground in the community unknowingly helps fosters these skills.

During an inter school competition, I announced the winners and gave the champion award only to realize I made a calculation error. The team to whom we should not have handed over championship started celebrating. The team who are supposed to be champions were hurting. All because of my score calculation mistake. We were in trouble. That's when my manager pitched in and announced both the teams as 'Winners', the champions of the contest. Both the teams went back home happy that day. No one shed a tear. Happy faces everywhere. A right decision at the right time is all it takes to win the moment. That's the value, a powerful leader brings to the table. Volunteering offers many such moments which tests our leadership skills.

Volunteering brings in diverse people with diverse perspectives. It leads to a lot of 'Conflicts', all for a good cause. It requires, lot of empathy, good listening skills, respect towards others to untie a deadlock situation and bring harmony to the team and community. Volunteering definitely help us get better at conflict resolutions.

Volunteering is a great educator on optimizing and prioritizing the limited resources to surplus needs of the society. This life lesson gets crucial with exponential increase in the demand.

Volunteering and crisis management go hand in hand- you can never be prepared enough. You are playing on the ground and there would be hurdles some expected and some unexpected. Volunteering teaches you resilience and breaking down bigger challenges into smaller achievable milestones, thinking fast and being agile. Team building happens the best in out of the box situations.

Volunteering often times comprises of team members who are from diverse professional backgrounds who will be bringing their individual wealth of experience to achieve a common goal as team. Bearing this in mind, one is able to appreciate the beauty of creativity in each individual, and how each person’s contribution is helping to achieve a common purpose. It further reinforces the popular saying, “no man is an island” In my opinion, one thing I have observed while volunteering in a team is that, it diminishes the weakness of each individuals, because collectively, a “weakness” of person A, can be the “strength”of person B or C who are also on the team. So, in the end, the weakness is irrelevant and that’s the beauty of team volunteering ??

Teamwork teaches us to be humble. Teamwork in volunteering involves the 4 things mentioned above, but also learning to listen to colleagues, to share ideas, to respect the ideas of others, to help each other, to be vulnerable and care for the vulnerability of others, to learn from each person, everyone has a purpose in life to share.

Selflessness is the key to any form of Volunteering. There is no measure for this metric. The more one gives the more they receive.

Volunteering also gives one the opportunity to learn limits. This is not a negative thing, but a good way to teach how to evaluate your role and what limits are associated with that role. Learning to collaborate and contribute within those limits forces the volunteer to adapt their skills to make the best impact. If a task or situation calls for knowledge or a skill that is outside their role, they must involve other teammates or work with management to complete said task. This is team work, but also a lesson in knowing where those limits fall and how to work through, or around, them.