There’s a lot to be said about free help. Some of it is even positive! Har har.
I’m kidding, I love these three categories of people – both for the value they bring to projects and their authenticity about why they are contributing.
When you pay someone, their motives for doing the work are not as clear, because there’s this assumption that people are doing the work primarily for money. Hopefully, there’s a deeper reason, but it can be tricky to pinpoint.
When you take money out of the equation, you can get down to people’s real motivation quickly.
Interns – I do not agree with expecting work from individuals without pay. However, I do see a great value in unpaid interns that are on the job to learn. I have had great experiences training people for free in exchange for their help with menial tasks. My video production department couldn’t support paying crew to create big productions, but we had the equipment and the know-how – what we needed someone to hold a light or unload the truck. Often I had highly motivated people that wanted to learn more about video editing, motion graphics, etc that were more than willing to help on set [also a learning experience] for the opportunity to be in studio with us during post-production.
Volunteers – this is the best person to have on your team, right? Volunteers aren’t just charity/non-profit folks building houses in an underdeveloped country or running a can soup drive. At the core, volunteers offer to do something because it’s what they believe in – so give them something to believe in! I’m not talking about charity work, although it does apply – employees can be ‘volunteers for the cause’ if you can show them that what your doing makes the world better and makes them better, and they go the extra mile because of it.
Show your employees the greater meaning in what you do, both for their career and for the world/community/customers you serve and you’re effectively raising the bar of what work is about. If work is about a paycheck, and not rising to the occasion to volunteer for a great meaning, it is up to the leaders to attach that meaning to the work.
Volun-tolds are here, but they aren’t happy about it. They’ve been tapped by someone with influence to do this work with you for no clear benefit to their own life. The refreshing thing about a volun-told is that again it is easy to get right down to their primary motivation for being there. Sure, they’ve joined your special project team because their boss told them to. But that doesn’t mean they have to hate it or half-ass it.
Ask a volun-told one simple question – what would you like to get out of this project for yourself? Put it all out there. Often times having to lean on someone for support they aren’t really thrilled to give you means finding some way to make them an offer. Give them something back of value first. Extend your hand with a gift, not for help. My experience with volun-tolds extends to advisory boards and committees and non-profit boards. If you want them to do something for you, make it easy, don’t require too much of their time, and give them so much value beforehand they will feel compelled to repay the favor.
Quick example and I’m out: The board of a non-profit needs to start asking for donations through their various networks of colleagues and business relationships. Well, don’t tell them to pick up the phone and get to work! Motivate them to make the calls by giving them a great pitch deck they can use to show off the organization. Remind them why you picked them and how much it means to you to have their support. Write them scripts they can use (or not) for calls and emails. Help them make a list of people to call, and help them stick to it. Take their feedback and help them adjust.
The big TL;DR – Interns, Volunteers and Volun-tolds are all valuable to projects – but you have to inspire them, give more than you receive, and leave them excited to work with you again in the future.
