Will & Leadership
Respect and Dignity
One of my primary rules about volunteers is that you cannot order them to do anything. By definition a volunteer always has a choice to get up and leave and not do what you order. And that’s (hopefully) not what you want.
Volunteers can only be asked. This leaves them free to exercise their own will. This communicates that you trust them. This demonstrates that you respect them as people, and value their contribution to your organization.
The concept of “will” is vitally important to human beings. What is it that prison camps and interrogations try so hard to break in a person?
With no will there is no resistance. With no will there is no pleasure. With no will a human is reduced to an automaton - a machine - and you are not your own. And human beings will fight this from happening with every ounce of their strength… until their will is broken.
Thus I believe that every organization must respect each individual’s will - whether in a volunteer-based non-profit or a Fortune 500.
What if they say “no”?
The is one main reason a volunteer won’t do something when asked: their personal benefit (whatever it is they expected to get) isn’t worth the effort. This can happen for two reasons -
- They don’t understand how your request advances the group’s mission or is personally rewarding
- Your request doesn’t advance the group’s request and is not personally rewarding.
Both of those reasons are the organization’s responsibility to cover - and not the fault of your volunteers.
Okay, so maybe there is a third possible reason they say “no”: they’re lazy and just don’t want to do it. But you probably don’t want to assume that about your volunteers and if it is true - well, do you really want them trying to fight for world peace? 
This concept of will plays out in an interesting paradox in my organization, which is Christian.