We Need More Community Builders

Dear community builder,

If your dream is big, you will need a community to help fulfill it. If it is worthy enough, success may come . . . over time as you lean into difficulty, trust your team, and commit to excellence something remarkable can happen. After 1800+ volunteer hours building communities over 7 consecutive years, I hope one of these insights might help overcome an obstacle or encourage you in your efforts.

20 community building insights:

1. People in charge underestimate the value of a community until they need one; build one anyway.
2. Trust is built and strengthened one conversation at a time and enhanced through living servant leadership behaviors.
3. Employees are smart. Most want to help. Not all want to contribute. All value being invited. Few want to be told.
4. Each individual deserves respect; relationships should not be taken for granted.
5. Deliberate and continuous “listening” enables better decisions and more effective service.
6. A Field of Dreams approach to community building doesn't work. Community-minded, generous, caring people do.
7. Everyone has a great idea or two. People with great ideas but not willing to give their hands and feet to realize them may only be distractions in disguise.
8. Engaging members on their terms, not ours increases interest, commitment, and causes the community to spread.
9. Leading volunteers is different from leading staff.
10. A community is more like nurturing a garden through the seasons than building a city.
11. Little can be accomplished alone; community leaders need help inside and outside the organization.
12. Pride and ego interfere with results; ensure you have people around you to see what you cannot.
13. Community volunteer leaders need to live community values.
14. Align each activity to the community mission to maximize impact.
15. Steward any community resources wisely and in ways to maximize value to those served; everyone is watching.
16. Each community lives its own life; some longer than others. That's good and normal.
17. Search for latent talent in every member and invite them to use it in service to others in the community; this is where the magic lies.
18. Stop doing some good ideas to make room for a great idea.
19. Not every person you think might support in your community does; that doesn't mean it's not worth it. It just means it's not for them.
20. You will seldom feel disappointed when you live with a spirit of generosity.

Eric Peterson Community Strategist, Program Manager, Creator, and Coach. I write about Servant Leadership, Team Building, and Community. Founder of?ShepherindingHeart.com.

Shepherding is the art of becoming the leader others want to follow