The Volunteer Leadership Training Series is a peer-to-peer program researched, complied and created through an initiative of KAVCO members. This series of training is focused on sharing the vital elements of leading volunteers.

1. Volunteer Leadership Training
Effective Volunteer
Supervision
Becoming a better supervisor.
January 2012
Module 3 of 4
Created by C.Piggott

2. Effective Volunteer Supervision
Some words that could describe the traits of an effective
supervisor are planning, communicating, leading, and
problem solving.
Help is a key word. You must offer it and ask for it.
As a supervisor, you can’t do everything required by your
organization or program.
In large part, you must learn to do your job by getting your
volunteers and agency partners to do the work.

3. Effective Volunteer Supervision
1. Communicator - Active listening; providing feedback;
conflict management.
Problem solving - coaching volunteers.
2. Advisor /
3. Team Builder - Building a collaborative team environment.
Manager Planning - work; setting priorities/
4. Planner/
delegating tasks; managing time; managing meeting.
5. Community Partnership - Assessing community needs;
building and sustaining collaboration; public relation.

4. The Communicator
Supervisors spend about 75 percent of their time engaged in
two activities-talking and listening.
The three critical communication skills you must call on if you
hope to be a helper and a leader are:
Active listening
Providing feedback
Conflict management

5. Active listening
First, you need to listen to understand—What is this person
expressing to me about how she or he is thinking and feeling?
Second, you need to check to see if the person with whom you
are interacting understands the meaning or the message of
what you are saying in response. The greater the diversity of
your volunteer group (or staff), the more challenging clear
communication becomes because everyone filters what they
hear differently.

6. Providing Feedback
You communicate work expectations to volunteers.
You have volunteers express their expectations for support
from you, from agency partners, and from other volunteers.
You explain who assesses their performance and how that
information is communicated, and to whom.
Last, but not least, you describe the consequences
tied to the process. There are rules of the game and you
explain how to play by them.

7. Conflict Management
You communicate work expectations to volunteers.
You have volunteers express their expectations for support
from you, from agency partners, and from other volunteers.
You explain who assesses their performance and how that
information is communicated, and to whom.
Last, but not least, you describe the consequences
tied to the process. There are rules of the game and you
explain how to play by them.

8. Advisor /
Problem solving
By helping your volunteers accurately identify their problems
and then determining viable solutions together, you will be
fulfilling one of your most important supervisory functions.
The three critical skills you must call on if you hope to be a
helper and a leader are:
„Problem solving
„ Coaching
„Helping volunteers build commitment

9. Problem Solving
By helping your volunteers accurately identify their problems
and determining viable solutions, you will be fulfilling one of
your most important supervisory functions
Supervisors with strong advisory skills create ways to make the
process truly collaborative. This means you must resist the urge
to take over and dictate solutions.

10. Coaching
Coaching means unlocking volunteer’s potential and
helping them improve their problem-solving and planning skills.
The goal is to help volunteers learn rather than to teach them.
Your role as a coach is to help volunteers define their personal
and professional goals and provide them with the information,
resources, knowledge, and skills they need.
Your resources are your knowledge, skills, and ability and the
world of other training, coaching, and teaching resources in the
community.

11. Helping volunteers build commitment
It is critical that you understand what your members/volunteers
want to get out of their assignments and what motivates them to
do their job well.
Different people will be motivated by different things, depending
upon what they value. What might be a risk to one person may
be rewarding to another.
Once you begin learning about your volunteers’ internal
incentives (wha t the y wa nt fo r the m s e lve s , no t wha t y o u wa nt fo r the m ),
you can help them find ways to achieve their personal rewards
while helping the program accomplish its goals.

12. Volunteers are likely to develop their
commitment to program goals when:
1. They are clear about their mission, values, and goals
and can see them in action.
2. They feel appreciated for their contributions.
3. They are competent and confident.
4. They have influence over developing their roles in the
program.
5. Their personal goals are met
One way to help members/volunteers sustain their energy
level and commitment is to build a supportive, high-
energy organizational culture.

13. Planner and Manager
Most volunteer supervisors work with plans that cover a
period of one year or less.
Depending on your organization and assignment, you may
be asked to participate in the development of programs and
projects which address the strategies of your agency and
national office.
A program is defined as a set of activities which accomplish
broad objectives over a relatively long period. If you fail to
plan, you plan to fail.

14. Project plans usually include the following
components:
1. Goals—an overall broad but clear statement of what you want to
achieve in a given period of time.
2. Objectives—similar to goals but more specific and focused on
short-term results needed to meet the long-term goal. Objectives
should be “SMART:” specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,
and time-bound.
3. Tasks or Activities—steps you need to do in order to reach your
objectives They have influence over developing their roles in the
program.
4. Resources—human, physical, or monetary resources you will
need to complete the tasks/activities.
5. Monitoring/ Evaluation Plan—checkpoints for measuring
your progress on the tasks and your overall success in reaching
the project’s objectives.

15. Community Partnership
• Build and maintain collaborative relationships because
community members (individuals, organizations, and agencies)
know more about their problems than anyone.
• The more you involve community members in defining and
developing your service activities, the more they will buy into
the project and sustain their efforts over the long term
• Community partners increase your program’s potential to
offer better services and accomplish things neither group could
do alone because you are pooling your ideas and energy along
with other resources.

16. In conclusion
•Supervising volunteers isn't much different from supervising
paid employees. If you do it well, you will keep the best
volunteers coming back to give their time.
• Supervising volunteers can be time-consuming, but it is
investing in the future of our organization. It is volunteers who
always add value both to direct client service and to the
necessary support work. And, it is fulfilled volunteers who
spread the word in the community about all the good work
done in that particular organization
You have now completed Module 3 of the KAVCO Volunteer Leadership Training.
Please follow this link
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DK35Y8Q

17. Resources
•http://www.nonprofit champion.com/cycleofvolunteermanagement.html.
•http://www.citizensinformationboard.ie/publications/voluntary_sector/managing_volunteers/3
introductionvm_publications_voluntary_managing.html
•http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/
•http://www.slideshare.net/FamilyForce/the-volunteer-management-cycle
•www.energizeinc.com/art/subj/Reten.html
•www.ecivc.net/Presentations/Siebold.pdf