Are You Running for Mayor?

Jackie Hendrix, chairman of the Shoals' Chamber of Commerce, was our last forum speaker. He is a local business owner, but also does a lot for the community. Mr. Hendrix basically informed us that our lives are networking opportunities and that we must do what we can to get our there and put things on our resumes. Now don't get me wrong, he was not telling us to volunteer just so it would look good, but he did say that it is OK to have some selfish drives for motivation. The thing to remember and know is that promoting yourself is not the main reason you are volunteering. He also told us that when we do volunteer with an organization make sure that it is not in name only and that you actually do work. He told us about the 80/20% rule. Which is when 20% of people do 80% of the work. Unfortunately, this holds true for many situations and leaves people burnt out and feeling unappreciated. So we should all pitch in and do our parts if we sign up do volunteer.
Beyond the fact that it's OK to be a little selfish when volunteering, Mr. Hendrix also told us to beware of spreading ourselves too thin. The example he used for this was "Peter's Principle." Basically this principle is the promotion of someone beyond his/her level of competence or up to the level of incompetence, so with this in mind, you can not perform optimally if you are spread too thin. Also just because someone is really good at organizing their own life does not mean that they can automatically organize big events and other large situations. So in the end, be a good citizen and get involved, but don't get so involved that you aren't really helping people at all!
P.S. A few tips to keep in mind about volunteering:

• Socially, it's the responsible thing to do...
• Get involved and be able to network
• It's OK to look for win-win situations
• Ask questions to network and get to know people
• People like it when you remember their names...

Until next time... =)
Lesley <3