In the first two installments of this article I told you about a person on one of my volunteer teams who was having trouble committing to the responsibilities of the service position. At the end of part 2 I left you with the thought that I would probably "fire" this person. Well, sometimes things change.
Interestingly enough I never had to confront the man. He actually came to me. I think he realized he was falling short, and felt convicted to apologize. This was perfect because I actually like the guy and was seriously dreading that conversation. Due to his honesty and self awareness of the situation I decided to keep him on the team and give him another chance. He stepped it up and hasn't been a problem for me or the team going forward.
As any good leader will do I am constantly on the lookout for changing situations concerning our volunteer teams. Seems like there is always something that is completely out of my control. Typically they manifest themselves in some negative way, i.e. a missing child, a domestic dispute, or a medical emergency. But every now and then an uncontrollable situation turns out for the best. In the curious case of the irresponsible volunteer, he just informed me that he's taking a new job out of state and will be moving. He has resigned from the team.
The twists and turns of life are never dull are they?
