Final Paper
Introduction
I served at the Habitat of Creator Dayton organization for approximately 8 to 12 weeks. The organization’s goal is to transform lives and communities by providing families with affordable homeownership opportunities. According to Habitat org (2015) the organization play a vital role in the United States in decreasing family homelessness and provide shelter needs, ‘Estimates of homelessness in the Unites states vary from 1.6 to 3.0 million people'( Habitat 2015). Since the foundation of habitat it has helped more than 6 million people to afforded housing for their families’. Every four minutes, habitat serves a family in need of better housing’ (Habitat 2015).
My volunteering time at habitat consist of two option whether your work at the restore or help in building a house. At the Restore our job is to takes used items which been donated by caring, and cleaning them up or re-purposes them to be sold on our sales floor. Most of my volunteered hours were at the Restore, which was 15 hours. On the other hand I volunteered 10 hours in a site to help to build a house. Volunteering at the site was one of my best experiences. I meet amazing people who really admire me because they come to the site every week and do it for many years. Most of them were seniors, where they carry a lot of experience in how to build houses. The majority of the tasks or roles that I held at the Habitat included, but not limited to: organizing the agency supplies, registration working, and calling the sponsors. Overall, I could tell that the organization appreciated any work that I did.
Model the Way
It is the first of the five practices of leadership and In order to effectively model the way is to clarify values.
According to Dr. Majerti, He said that a leading by an example is always more effective than leading by a command’ If people see you work hard while speaking about hard work onto them, they are more likely to follow you. I find this statement is applying to what work the Habitat Community do and I also hope that I can see it in the next forthcoming weeks by volunteering the community.
This leadership role was clearly demonstrated by a set of members in the community. The two leaders who guided me throughout this volunteer experience was the coordinator and director of the community. These two individuals showed respect towards me, appreciation, and encouragement. These individuals valued the organization, and they set priorities to enhance the organizational cultural.
Leadership can also be stated in different ways as ‘Leadership by empowering those around you makes a dramatic change. That’s clearly what Habitat do for the community by asking their people to take a step and to comment a change. Every week habitat scheduled meetings with their volunteers to discuss what need to be changed to improve the organization. In addition to that, when I volunteering first for the organization, the director gave me a detour of the building/work place, introduced me to all the staff members, and also educated me about the community values.
Inspired a shared vision
Richard Boyatzis, Kylie Rochford, and Scott Taylor (2015) stated that a vision, ‘whether for the individual, team, or organizational level, visions, and shared visions are generally developed to create motivation and encouragement to move from a current state to a desired goal’ People who come to volunteer are always self-motivated and have no price in waking up in the morning and come to help at the organization. When there is a passion for the work you do, you valued it and work harder every day. Habitat help to build a better community, and everyone who volunteer there share the organization vision. I care about working for the Habitat, I see the people needs at the restore for affordable furniture, others wants help to build their home.
I have learned from habitat that you need passion to believe in the work you do. about According to Kouzez in 2012, ‘When you communicate your vision or idea of the future, you need to talk about how they’re going to make a different in the work, how they are going to have a positive impact on people and the forthcoming events to build a positive relationship among themselves with positive approach’ The people who I meet there are self-motivated, who wakes up in the morning and come to volunteer because they know they making a different in their community. The statics shows a declining in the numbers of volunteers every year. By volunteering at habitat I see a lot of retires people who works there voluntarily. I just wish if there is more number of younger volunteers at the organization. When I go home I hope to be weekly volunteers in an organization share the same vision as Habitat to help build a better community.
Challenge the process
When it comes to change at habitat, they are really doing a great job in what they doing but, believe there must be a change in creating more space for the furniture they receive from donators. The first thing they have to do is to build change bigger store for the furniture they can’t fit in the store, or rent another warehouse in different location. Sometimes the Restore is full with furniture, we have trouble where to put the stuff, and how to organize it. I interview one of the supervisors Mark at the Restore. I ask him if we could at less put the extra furniture, which we can’t fit at the Restore in the parking space outside until we can organize the space inside the warehouse. Too bad they can’t use the parking spot for two reasons: they might have trouble with the Municipal and they might have someone steal it.
Learning from my experiences is always beneficial and could help in avoiding future problems. You always need to look at what you did in the past to keep improving in the future. According to Kouzes, ‘Whenever you challenge the current state, tackle the demanding issues, make considerable changes, or confront the adversity, you may sometimes fail’.
I didn’t have the opportunity to work in the United States. But I can talk about a change challenge I had when I switch my major in my second year in college. I have a hard time accepting the change psychologically As in a connoting note, according to John Cullen, Kelly Martin, and Jean Johnson (2009), ‘change triggers can be minimal and maximal and have little effect on the organization.
Enable others to act
According to Lisa Frye, teamwork is defining the culture, setting the vision and goals, identifying the staff, and finding the appropriate positions for each individual.
Most of the people who I met at the site were doing this since years and done it every week. Also, most of them were senior which is the opposite of what you see at the warehouse. In Kent Wright Engagement intelligence video one important thing is to make people feel great about themselves (wright 2013). Habitat creates a dedication ceremony in the day they give a house to a family for a celebration. In the ceremony, they invite the people who helped in building the house to meet the family and exchanged gifts to each other. Also, if someone has anything to give to the family they can bring it in the ceremony. This ceremony really engages the people and makes them understand the message of the organization and push them to work harder.
According to Kouzak & Posnir, All over the world, people celebrate. They take time off work to gather to mark an important occasion). At the beginning of the video Kent mention that people would only remember how you made them feel (Wright 2013). I find this statement really true because sometimes I forget why I hate or love a person who I know a long time ago but I still have a feeling for them. I think you should be caution in the way you communicate with people because you can’t know how they feel about you. The majority of individuals who participated in this event had a specific role/task, and it took trust and communication with one another to provide a stronger climate of collaboration.
Encourage the Heart
Chin-Yi Shu (2015) states that a few studies show how ”intrinsic motivation manifests itself in terms of general work behavior and how intrinsic motivation levels satisfy the needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness” During my service hours at this organization, I noticed that this organization has leaders, staff members, and volunteers who provide a moment of motivation to one another on a daily basis. The organization, on the other hand, rewarded their volunteers by giving each volunteer a shirt to wear/keep for the event day. Overall, the volunteers and staff members had a desire to help others, and their desire/motivation helped me to do the same.
The individuals at the habitat would show their appreciation to others in different ways, but the one factor that I found most common are individuals saying ‘thank you’. This comment was enough for me to do my task well, provide me with a sense of motivation, and to consider volunteering for the walk next year.
Final Reflection
The experience that I had at the Habitat was full of knowledge about versus of subjects, from volunteering at tat warehouse to help in building a house. I would never know how group work is needed until I volunteered at the restore where you need more than one hand to work there. On the other hand I met a really carrying people at the location where I learned what becoming a role model means. When you work with self-motivated people who are self-ordinated to a specific task, which is helping the community. Also, the amount of people who I met there where they strive for a house really hit something inside me, and make me respect Habitat mission. I would admit that I have a hard time in waking seven in the morning to volunteer at the house site. But I can a sure that I will be back there even after the class is done because I met really inspiring people at the cite location, and they always asks for help.
The experience at Habitat inspired me and motivate me to work harder in my dreams. It makes me believe community service really matter in today work with the decreasing numbers of volunteers every year. Also, it improve my communication skills, In addition to this, it will shape my leadership behavior by ensuring that I will avoid overseeing the minor tasks that someone is doing, I will appreciate the work that everyone has done, and motivate others with my full potential.