What do your officers wish they had accomplished?

Your term is wrapping up. You've done some great things, but many goals didn't get accomplished because of time, changing priorities, or a lack of resources.

As you approach election time, ask each current officer to make a list of 3-5 things that they wish they had been able to do. Have them describe what prevented the goals from being accomplished and why the organization would have been better had the goals been achieved.

When you are facing officer transition, one of the best things you can do is help the incoming officers avoid re-creating the wheel.

These lists could be a great discussion starter in a transition retreat. Take some time at your next exec meeting and do these together, if you're afraid that outgoing officers won't do them on their own.

Give under-utlized officers something to do!

Regardless of what student organization you are in, there are probably officer positions that don't have a lot to do. Some, like president, have so much to do they can't keep up. Some others seem to have no specific role and they spend time twiddling their thumbs. This is a problem.

It's hard to stay motivated when you have very little important to do. And, it's hard for the overworked officers to stay motivated when their counterparts aren't carrying the same amount of weight.

And remember the most important rule of student leadership motivation: PEOPLE SUPPORT WHAT THEY CREATE. If your officers are constantly feeling like they are helping to create a successful organization, they will not be motivated.

Here are a few suggestions for energizing those under-utilized officers.

1. Don't be hemmed in by the job descriptions in your bylaws or Constitution. Just because your bylaws say that the Secretary's only job is to keep minutes at the meeting does not mean that he or she can't do other things. Put your Secretary in charge of a long-lingering problem and put some deadlines and expectations on him or her. So what if your Historian is only supposed to take pictures at events. Put him in charge of upgrading your risk management. Maybe even ask these officers if there is a significant organizational problem that they would like to tackle this year? As president, you should not feel constricted by your bylaws with regard to offering opportunities. In fact, your executive board will run better when everyone on it feels like he/she is making an important contribution.

2. As a fall-back, constitutional revision is always a great way to keep someone busy. Not to say it isn't important, but it is time consuming and can be tedious. Most busy officers don't have time to sit down and do it. It's a great thing to delegate and the discussion it produces in your organization will fire a lot of people up.

3. Assign under-utilized officers to help the overworked officers. If your Parliamentarian doesn't have a lot on her plate, then make her 2nd in command to the officer in charge of Homecoming. Have them work as a team. If your officer in charge of Homecoming protests, tell him that you don't want him burning out or feeling overwhelmed, so you've asked another officer to back him up. This is also a great defensive move against having one person in your organization totally responsible for a big thing, then flaking.

4. Put one of your officers in charge of your executive committee goals (this assumes that your exec actually has a set of goals for the year). Each week at your exec meeting, this officer is in charge of spending some time reviewing pertinent goals and helping the exec committee, as a whole, to make progress on the goals. Many of you have goals, but no one is staying on top of them after they are set. Assigning an under-utilized officer to manage their progress is a great, meaningful leadership opportunity. You can even say that you are putting this officer in charge of the organization's "strategic plan." That sounds very important.

5. Put an under-utilized officer in charge of "External Relations." This person is now in charge of finding co-sponsors for events, creating networking (social) opportunities with the student officers of allied organizations on campus, etc. This might not be necessary for a student government, but for special interest student organizations, it can make a big difference in terms of campus image and member recruitment.

You can really tell a lot about what kind of officer someone will be by how enthusiastically they seize or avoid these requests. Someone who seizes the opportunity to be the "strategic plan manager" might end up being a good future president. The officer who does nothing with a delegated set of responsibilities is probably at the peak of his or her ascension in the organization.

Be aware that giving under-utilized officers meaningful sets of responsibilities is an exercise in delegation and relinquishment of control. If this is a problem for you, then it's something to work on. You should trust your organization and your fellow officers enough to spread the important and critical work around.

What's the best thing to say when running for president?

You want to run for president of your organization, and to do it, you have to stand up and give a pitch. A speech. You have to make your case for why they should trust you to run the group for the next year.

Even if you're a shoo-in for the spot, the speech can be intimidating. How can you say something that will instill confidence yet not sound cheesy and trite?

You might want to say things like:

You have to elect me because I'm the only one who understands what the hell is going on.

Elect me so I can continue to do all the work like I've been doing all year anyway.

Vote for me. After the last dummy we had, I would be a massive improvement.

But, of course, you can't say those things. Aim for a spirit of collaborative leadership in your comments.

- I will aggressively seek out your best ideas. I won't just have an open door, I'm going to be knocking on your door, asking for your thoughts, your criticisms, and your willingness to step up and share the leadership with me and the other officers.

- Communication is the most important quality I plan to nurture, because when everyone is talking, trusting each other, setting shared goals, and working in unity, we can get amazing things done. I believe the most important thing I can do as president is keep everyone talking and feeling great about being part of this team.

- I promise to pay attention to the details.

- I will work very hard to move this organization forward, in small ways and maybe in a few big ways. If I didn't think I could do that, then I wouldn't want the job. If you just want someone to keep everything the same, I'm not the best person to vote for. I think our organization can be better and that's why I'm asking for this opportunity.

- I want this to be fun. I want to enjoy the experience, and I want you to enjoy being part of this organization. That won't always be easy, so I'll need your help. There will be times when the stress of being president will get to me, and that's when I'll need you to step in, offer me a little encouragement, and put my mind back in the right place. I'm going to count on you, just as much as you'll be counting on me.

- We have some problems. We all know that. I'm willing to put in the earnest effort to move us toward some fixes. Don't elect me to solve the problems. Elect me because you feel like you'd be willing to stand next to me and share the heavy lifting.

- I bring some good qualities that will help me succeed in this position. I hope that by serving as your president, I'll grow even more as a leader. I'm doing this because I want to make a difference, but also because I want to emerge a smarter, more able leader. If you give me this opportunity, I'm going to personally invest in it just as each of you is personally investing in me.

November 4, 2008