At different points in our lives we get asked to take on leadership roles with smaller or larger, local or national charitable, volunteer and other community not-for-profit organisations. They can be fun and wonderful uses of time but they can also very quickly become miserable experiences.

The largest cause of that misery, is yourself when you believe you are somehow the one, who has to take on the burden of solving other people’s problems. The uncomfortable truth is those individuals are responsible for solving their own problems. Let them deal with it but by all means give them support.

Memo to self:

• Don’t believe it is your internal problem or personal challenge to do so.
• Don’t cede power, control and influence to others, who try to push you into their “misery black hole”.
• Don’t try to please everybody. It’s okay if some people are unhappy.
• Don’t compromise your standards.
• Don’t work with organisations, who insist that “goodwill” (people’s feelings) rather than a “for-profit mentality” is the primary driver to running a successful non-profit organisation, large or small. The former is too unsustainable and too unpredictable, even more so where you have volatile key people, to build a vibrant charity, voluntary group or community around. You cannot be over-reliant on the kindness of one or two volunteers or strangers.