Empower Your Community

I’ve heard associations talk about recruiting active members (sometimes even board members) to SEED questions in the community. The expectation is that your active leaders will also be online community leaders. That is great! But the purpose of the community should be to empower your rank and file members. Your community should be the gateway to leadership within your organization.We have committees that recruit members based on their participation in our forums. Your entire organization needs to listen to the community and recruit volunteer leaders based on their interests. As association community managers we should be more strategic in our member journey. Engaging your community to become leaders is one way to do that.Unanswered Questions Every community has them…I’m a huge believer in circular knowledge sharing. Everyone has knowledge and perspective to share. Every member can contribute to your community in some way – show them how!I’ve found that personally reaching out to an individual to answer a specific question goes along way. It makes them feel important and respected. It makes them invested in the community. You have members that would love to share their expertise on a topic. Don’t just ask your prominent, respected members with 25 years of experience to answer questions. Pay attention to your members and their interests. If you notice someone always asking questions and never answering, look at their profile. What questions could they answer? Engage them in leading the community by sharing their knowledge. They will begin to take on more of a leadership role within the community.Trick: I like to search old community conversations and see if anyone else has asked a similar question to an unanswered question. If the question is older, I like to circle back and recruit the person who asked to share the solution they found.Champions Celebrate your champions! You have community leaders, but you need to empower them. We call our champions Topic Moderators. These were people that were already leading community discussions, we just asked them to formally commit to doing it. My initial ask is small, “Can you commit to posting one to three times a week?” I’ve found that once they make that commitment, they take ownership of the community. This official role in the community really empowers them. We have a badge for them and a special profile page to highlight them. I’ve introduced these members to members of our senior leadership team, and I’ve watched them introduce themselves as “an ASCE Collaborate Topic Moderator.” They list it in their social media profiles and websites. They are proud of their role and the community. I’ve found this greatly increased after we started having calls every other week for them to connect with each other and brainstorm ideas. They felt like they were part of something larger.Think about all your champions do for your community. Provide them opportunities and open doors for them within the organization.Developing Writing SkillsI’ve had multiple members tell me how much the community has helped them develop their writing skills. This is very important for engineers developing leadership skills. The community is an informal, safe space to practice professional communication. This is a huge community benefit for our members – especially the international ones. I’ve watched members grow and improve their abilities to professionally communicate. They are thankful the community offers them a place to practice and develop their writing skills that transfers to their workplace performance.Mentoring We have the Higher Logic Mentor Match module for our community. I believe mentoring fits so well with your community. While the program offers one-on-one personal mentoring, the community is a collaborative mentoring space. Once members post three replies, we ask them to enroll as a mentor. Most young professionals don’t feel qualified to mentor anyone. But the truth is, they are the BEST mentors. Think about it, you want a mentor who just experienced what you are trying to accomplish. Someone two to five years farther along in your career path. Guess what, that means that a college senior is the best mentor for a college freshman. Everyone is qualified to be a mentor. If you have this mindset it is much easier to find community leaders. Participating as a mentor is a great way to build leadership skills in a non-intimidating environment. I’ve found that the mentors in our program our more likely to respond to community questions.Conclusion Professional organizations are a great place to develop leadership skills. They offer volunteering for leadership roles that may not be available in someone’s job. Your community can offer these opportunities and empower your rank and file members to become more involved and lead in the organization. The skills that they learn and develop in the community will translate into the skill set they need to excel in their careers.