High Performing Volunteer Team
Performance 'Secrets' of a Volunteer Team
I had the honor of volunteering as part of the Lighthouse Charity Team (LCT), cooking and serving food for 1200 plus soldiers and their families. These soldiers are members of the elite 147th Reconnaissance Wing and were celebrating Family Day at Ellington Field in Webster, Texas.
The Lighthouse Charity Team is a charitable organization that cooks for first responders. They are renowned in the Greater Texas Gulf Coast Region for their excellent food, giving hearts & hands and doing whatever it takes to help our military, police and fire fighters, plus many local citizens in need of help.
Throughout the day I couldn’t help but note the commonalities between a tightly knit, highly performing military team to this group of 40 volunteers. They demonstrated high performance at its best. As a student of leadership, I noted the following seven tactics utilized by this volunteer team…tactics that would be present in any high performing team regardless of occupation.
Tactic 1: Prepare…long before the battle begins.
Months before the event, the LCT met with the military coordinators of the Family Day event. They set expectations, clarified needs and brought the information back to the team to ensure all details were taken care of. Volunteers were recruited, a menu set, food ordered and the event was put on the official calendar.
Tactic 2: Choose leaders who can lead.
The LCT has a system by which they assign leaders to each event. The leader of an event is called a “Gray Hat”. It takes a while to train to become a Gray Hat because all responsibilities, pre and post event, fall on their shoulders. These Gray Hats, like military leaders, need to be disciplined, knowledgeable and proficient at leading others. In this particular event, because it was so large, there were two “Gray Hats”, one in charge of the cooking and one in charge of the set up and serving. I watched in awe as both worked together, side-by-side, planning the event. The day of the event, despite the numerous challenges faced due to inclement weather, they never lost their cool and directed others in a professional manner. They rose to the occasion, took charge and instructed team members on how to proceed without missing a beat.
Tactic 3: Have a plan B.
The event was to be held on the tarmac under a giant tent, next to an open pavilion. The week before the event it looked like rain would be a problem, so a tent was ordered to cover the cooking equipment. The morning of the event we arrived at the location encountering high winds and an oncoming storm, so within the hour, the Colonel and the Gray Hats made the decision to move the entire event into a nearby empty hangar. I watched as the leaders from both the 147th and LCT made the necessary plans to move everything from one location to another – no small feat. Everyone was assigned a task and it was done in a matter of one hour!
Tactic 4: Commitment to the Mission.
While the team knew the weather would be a problem, no one bowed out. The leader of the LCT organization stated it well: “Would our military shirk their duties in the face of bad weather?” The answer, of course was no. The mission would go on, rain or shine, just as any military maneuver, and not one team member disagreed with his line of thinking.
Tactic 5: Perform with precision.
From the perch at my “Nacho Station”, I watched as the team cooked, chopped and served hot dogs, hamburgers and sausage on a stick to over 1200 troops and their families all within 45 minutes! The direction given by the leaders was clear and the food line moved quickly.
The standards set by the this team of volunteers are high: work hard, be a team player, keep your station clean at all times, wear an apron and gloves, never place any food items on the floor even if they are in jars, know where all your equipment and ingredients are kept and return them to the same location when done. Be relentlessly helpful to your “customers” and serve with a smile. If in doubt, ask, but act quickly when necessary and make your own decisions.
Tactic 6: Don’t Stop Until the Job is Done.
Regardless of how tired you get, or especially when things don’t go as planned, never give up. Stay the course and get the job done. When we were asked late in the event to feed another few dozen night shift security crew, despite the fatigue of the team, no one said “we can’t do that”. All jumped back in to make it happen. Then, when the Gray Hat announced we were done, everyone stayed to dismantle the equipment and tables and load everything back on the trucks. We then drove to the LCT facility to unload, wash and reload the equipment, leaving everything spic and span for the next group and the next event.
Tactic 7: Celebrate the win together.
Like the military, this group does not need accolades, medals or recognition. A simple thank you, a high five, and the look on the soldiers’ families faces as they enjoyed the food and the fun of the day was enough. Though we’ll talk about the event in Monday’s weekly meeting, and the leaders of the LCT will thank everyone for a job well done, realistically the volunteers are, like the military, just happy to serve. "People Helping People - Cooking for a Cause."
This high performing team is a machine. They work together, play together and consider themselves family. The seven tactics used by the team on a consistent basis are good tools to use on any team, profit or non-profit to achieve high performance.
To read more about what they do and how you can help, go to www.lighthousecharityteam.com and read their newly published book, “Cooking For a Cause – How a Small Group of Loyal Texas Volunteers Raised over $20,000,000 for Charity”.
Lorraine Grubbs is an author/speaker and business coach. You can learn more about the work she does at: www.lorrainegrubbs.com