Are you supported by your board and staff?

How many in your organisation support the work you do? Do they show it, are they ambassadors, do they trumpet the work being done?

I’ve started thinking about this after visiting a few FaceBook pages of community, non-profit organisations and looking through their ‘friends’ I see that only a small handful of staff, and board members (also users of FaceBook) are ‘friends’. 

Why is this? Don’t they want to be seen to be associated, or has the organisation not let them know about their online presence? 

The best way any organisation, or business, can gain further support is through encouraging staff to show their support – to get them to truly buy-in to what the organisation is doing. 

An organisation can prosper and grow through the support it has in the community; and yes, having supporters talk about the work undertake in great in getting their friends to also come on board. But another group that should be nurtured and encouraged to be ‘ambassadors are the people working for the organisation – they should be encouraged to show that they are proud to be part of it, to take every opportunity to talk about it; and are excited about being part of it. 

We know that in business staff can seem disinterested, spending most of their time counting down the hours until their day finishes; only working from week to week, passing the time of day. 

Have you considered how you can help engage your staff, how to manage them and get them on board; to be part of the organisation? 

This isn’t always possible, and unless you can get their ‘buy in’ early and stop negative attitudes setting in the early days you will have almost no chance to ‘mould them’. 

There will be some staff that will never change; you need to look for ways to help them see for themselves that perhaps the work they are doing is “perhaps not best suited to them”; that perhaps they need to “look for something more to their liking”. 

Normally though those working in the charity, non-profit sector are drawn to it for reasons often only known to themselves, or perhaps through personal motivation (the organisation may have helped them, their family or friend); or perhaps they have simply had the ‘calling’ to help others. 

Whether staff (and board members) are working with you for aulturistic reasons or not, there should be some encouragement to get them to fully support the work being undertaken, to show they ‘believe’ in what’s being done, that they’re happy to share the work being done with their friends and family – both on and offline. 

It’s important for any organisation to ensure they have ambassadors, people engaged who support them and who will trumpet about the work being done at every opportunity (staff).

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