The theme this month of NAPO’s blog is Personal Growth and Development. What an excellent opportunity to share how volunteering with NAPO enables me to grow and develop as a business professional, a leader, and a human being.

Having just completed my two year term as NAPO President, I can tell you that I worked very hard and dedicated a lot of time to the position, however, there is no doubt in my mind that I received so much more than I gave. And I can say the same thing about many of my NAPO volunteer leadership positions. Serving six years on my chapter board, serving twice as Conference Chair, and serving as a Board member were fulfilling and enabled me to become the person I am today.

It’s always easy to speak holistically, and that matters. But specifically I can tell you that because of NAPO and volunteering with NAPO the following skills have been honed:

Business Skills:
• Technology – not sure I would have prioritized learning these for myself, but because of my many volunteer positions I now can and do regularly use Canva, Constant Contact, QuickBooks, PayPal, Doodle, Join.Me, Google Voice & Google Docs (thanks Kim!), GoTo Webinar, not to mention my high level understanding of search engine optimization, web design, and database packages.
• Productivity – yes, productivity. It’s different dealing with a hundred people than 5 or 10. On a typical day as President I’d receive over 200 emails that needed to be managed. I had to develop new systems to handle the volume. Now my email and task management seminars are much more applicable to large teams.
• Marketing – Google Ads, Facebook Ads, branding, design, messaging, and creating marketing plans.
• Speaking – conferences, chapter visits, speaking to the media, leading meetings, speaking to a 600 person audience – all cake and totally fun!

Leadership Skills:
• How to:
o engage volunteers
o manage differing opinions to a win-win outcome
o plan strategically
o delegate effectively

• The value of
o working to consensus
o staying in integrity
o leading from essence – which spring-boarded into a teaching tool and a book I should be writing soon:

Better Knowing of Self – the value of which is priceless:
• Confidence to trust my instincts
• Clarity that my ideas are visionary and not just fleeting thoughts
• Finally understanding my purpose in the world is to be a leader

I know I will continue to grow and develop as I embark on future opportunities. It’s a part of who I am. And I will always be grateful to NAPO and all of our members for this opportunity to become my best self. I look forward to many further growth and development opportunities as I wind-down from this amazing experience. I assure you I’m not going far. I have another year on the NAPO Board as Immediate Past President. And after that, seriously, I can’t imagine life without some kind of volunteer involvement with NAPO.

Looking forward to working with you as a NAPO volunteer!

Blog submitted by Ellen Faye COC©/ CPO©/ GC