The idea of using volunteering as a way to develop leadership seems to be growing. I know that City Action has been working with Barclays to place volunteers into trustee, mentoring and finance project roles as part of their Leadership Development Programme.  Also, the Civil Service fast stream now offer a one year placement with a charity to some participants as part of the scheme.  Many organisations are using similar partnerships to further develop their staff that are already in leadership roles.

Last Thursday I attended the launch of a piece of research, carried out by Corporate Citizenship on behalf of ACEVO looking at how private sector leaders can strengthen leadership in the third sector through cross-sector partnerships.

The research highlighted the numerous benefits that come from such initiatives for both the charity and the business. Brian Bannister, Head of Communications at PwC gave a vivid and enlightening account of what he has gained from a 6 week secondment to Barnardos in the North West where he was working with Wendy Shepherd a Project Manager, who Brian described as a truly inspirational leader.

It was clear to see that Brian had benefited immensely from the experience. Not only did he leave the secondment feeling a strong sense of loyalty to PwC, he also changed his perspective towards managing staff (everything he now does is based on the ‘Wendy test’). Brian’s experience of working on a small, under-funded project has strengthened his innovation skills, and his ability to motive staff when times are tough or uncertain, which is especially relevant in the current economic climate.

 From Brian’s description it sounded as if Wendy also gained a lot from the PwC staff, not least observing how PwC colleagues challenged ideas in a professional way, and project management – in particular full cost recovery in terms of preparing tenders.

There definitely seems to be a lot of scope for this model to grow, and hopefully it will in many businesses. In PwC it lies within Human Resources and not Community Affairs, however, it could be a really good way for organisations to strengthen relationships between these two departments.

I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon preparing for my mid-year appraisal review; some of the time was spent tracking the progress that I have made on my objectives, the rest trying to evidence my ‘core behaviours’ (the behaviours that it is vital I display in order to carry out my job).  

Whilst grappling with the task of how to evidence that I can effectively communicate and influence, plan and organise, work in a team etc, it struck me how useful my volunteering really is. As an employee at the City of London, my volunteering can be linked into my appraisal process. All employees are encouraged to think of volunteering as an alternative learning and development tool. I, however, hadn’t really thought about this on a personal level. 

I volunteer giving fundraising advice to a partnership for older people in Hackney. The work that I do for them is quite ad hoc, but usually last minute so as to fit the potential funders’ guidelines. This means that I do sometimes have to juggle things around – maybe take a long lunchbreak in which to do the volunteering work and then prioritise my afternoon activities differently (planning and organising). I often end up giving feedback on written applications that have been prepared by the charity’s staff (communications and influence). Giving constructive feedback to other people is something that I sometimes find hard to do at work, so this is a great way to get practise. The volunteering is also useful in terms of practicing writing in a clear and succinct way and keeping up my knowledge of the voluntary sector. 

On top of all these skills, as I work in the Corporate Responsibility team, my volunteering is actually related to my role as I get the experience of being a corporate volunteer. This means that I can talk at a personal level when trying to encourage others to volunteer.  

I know the expression is often thrown around in relation to volunteering – but it does seem to be a win, win situation!