People Volunteer For Only One Reason

People volunteer for one basic reason – fulfillment.  Yikes!  Did that set your teeth on edge?  Read on!  (And keep that open mind open like you always claim you do!  This is not going where you think it is.)  People volunteer to serve the community, to do good works, to spread the good news or to just give back.  But those are the public reasons we volunteer.  The private reason is that we want food for our soul.  Regardless what organization we volunteer for, what position we step into, privately we need soul food.  And that is not a bad thing.  Reading this might have you thinking that people volunteer because they are self serving.  Yes and No.

When people first volunteer it may be for something as simple as being part of a group, or perhaps, privately, for some form of recognition.  Then they realize that there may actually be something they can do that the love to do and can be good at.  They want to use their natural talents and skills, their gifts. 

Who gave us these gifts?  God.  God gave us those talents and gifts to use.  Not to bury.  Remember the Parable of The Talents, Mathew 25:14-30?  Verse 15 says- “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.” Most of us read that and initially look at the word ‘talent’ as having a monetary meaning.  Some versions of the bible actually assign U.S. dollar amounts in the story. 

Read it another way. What if the word ‘talents’ actually means, well, talents – as in gifts, skills, abilities?

What does all of this have to do with you as an individual?  Have you buried your talent or are you a ‘good and faithful servant?  A friend of mine, Wendy S. and I were having lunch.    We were talking about some photos I had taken of a missions trip to Ukraine last year.  She got an almost forlorn look on her face and said “Wow, I really wish I could go and work with people overseas.”  I asked her what held her back.  She said “I would feel like I was abandoning my two sons and husband.”  Then she got quiet, slowly looked at me and said “And I would come back fulfilled and feel guilty about it.”

My reply?  The fulfillment of your soul is God’s gift to you for doing His work.  For not burying your talents that he gave you.  He did reward the servant that multiplied his ‘talents’, did he not?  And from a not so biblical perspective, how bad would it be to come back home and have the family see you happy for a change?  I can hear the comments now – “Geez, I am not sure I want Mom to be happy.  She is fun to be around for a while, but she has way too much energy.” Or  “I will have to hide my wife.  Ever since she volunteered she glows so bright the neighbors want to tap into our power supply.”
What does this have to do with those that coordinate volunteers?  Your job is to help them discover their talents, to support them in developing them and putting them to use.  Make sure their talents are used where they will multiply.

What does this have to do with business?  Do you want to have self-motivated employees?  One great way to do that is to look at employees as volunteers.  Money is not the primary motivator.  Fulfillment is.  If you want a self motivated employee, look at them as if they were a volunteer in your organization.  We volunteer in hopes that we can use our talents because we don’t often get to use them at work.  As we use them we become fulfilled.

God wants us to use our talents, not bury them.  People volunteer so that they do not have to bury their talents.  Don’t bury yours and don’t let others bury theirs.  Go.  Be a good and faithful servant.  And be rewarded with fulfillment.