Nonprofit Volunteering: Gaining Perspective and Staying Motivated
By Lee Burgess • July 15, 2013 •Writers in Residence
Throughout this series, I have been sharing with you what I have learned from my nonprofit and volunteer work and how I have been able to draw on those experiences in my professional life. Today, I want to share with you an interview with a friend of mine, Hannah Seigel Proff. Hannah works at the Colorado State Public Defender’s office in Denver, Colorado. The entire time I have known Hannah she has been passionate about her volunteer work. Today she shares with us her story of why she volunteers, what she has learned from it, and how you can find…
Nonprofit Volunteering — An Opportunity to Stretch and Grow
By Lee Burgess • May 28, 2013 •Writers in Residence
A few posts back, I wrote about how nonprofit work can give you the opportunity to learn self-promotion, which for me was an opportunity to stretch and grow. However, I think that nonprofit work can present many opportunities — to grow as a professional, as a person (are they separate things?), and in a safe, collaborative environment. And, you just might help your community while you are at it! Asking for Help Sometimes we forget this, but throughout your career you are going to need to ask for help. I have talked about how important it is to ask for…
Nonprofit Volunteering: Being a Mentor and Getting Mentored Yourself
By Lee Burgess • April 16, 2013 •Writers in Residence
I think almost all of us can agree as to the importance of mentorship. Mentors help us by giving us guidance, being a sounding board, and providing support when we need it. I think that we often have a very closed-minded view of where mentors come from, likely limited to supervisors at work. Mentors, in my opinion, can and should come from many different parts of your life, professional and personal. We don’t need one mentor; we need mentors whom we can reach out to when we need help or advice.One way to meet new mentors is to get involved…
Nonprofit Volunteering: Gaining Valuable Leadership and Management Experience
By Lee Burgess • March 05, 2013 •Writers in Residence
Lawyers, in my opinion, need to be leaders and managers. At various points in your career you may be leading or managing other lawyers, staff, or a large trial team. These are just a few examples, but if you spoke to many attorneys, they would tell you that they have been in situation after situation where they were called on to lead or manage. Are we all born to be leaders? There are many different styles of leadership and at times it might seem that some folks are better leaders and managers than others. But you know what I have…
Nonprofit Volunteering: Learning How to Self-Promote
By Lee Burgess • February 02, 2013 •Writers in Residence
In the next few installments of this column, I am going discuss some of the skills I believe can be gained through nonprofit work outside of your day-to-day job. Today, I want to share with you how my nonprofit work taught me the art of self-promotion. I was once on a panel about serving on a nonprofit board and the moderator asked me about the skills that I had learned from my service. One of the first things that came to mind was that I had learned a lot about how to promote myself, through promoting my nonprofit. Let’s take…