When you are new to coalition building, assessing roles and responsibilities is a natural first step. You spend time figuring out what you need to be doing and what others are doing. If you have been leading coalitions for a long time, you may find yourself stuck doing the same things just because you have always done them. When you become highly skilled at performing specific tasks or fulfilling expected roles, you (and your team) may not see a need to re-assess. However, if you are in a place where you are continuing to do things just because you are the one who can do them and you have lost your passion or interest in them, re-assessing is critical. Join me this week as I provide three reasons you may want to re-assess roles and responsibilities for your coalition, partnership or team.
Burnout
Coalition work is challenging. You often have many more needs than resources and very few (if any) paid staff. While the interest may remain, the specific roles, responsibilities and tasks may need to change. One of the most effective ways to address burnout is to stop, reflect and reassess purpose, roles and responsibilities. You may be burned out because you are trying to do too much and you have put pressure on yourself and your team to keep an unrealistic pace. When you pause to reassess what you are doing and who is doing it, you have an opportunity to renew and refresh your team.
Lack of engagement
When you set up a coalition structure, you often have high levels of engagement and support for the work. As we enter a new season of gathering and engaging with our coalitions, the structure, purpose, roles and responsibilities may not apply in the same way they did even a year ago. For instance, if you are trying to manage four workgroups and only one workgroup is actively participating, meeting and working together, this is a great time to reassess. Do you have the capacity to support four work groups right now? Do you have genuine interest from your coalition or is this only driven by funders or the board? Are your coalition leaders and members participating in roles that align with their areas of interest, passion, skills and talents? Rather than continuing to try to do the same things you have been doing or you think you *should* be doing, if you are struggling with lack of engagement. Pause, reflect and reassess.
Turnover
If you have new staff or coalition leaders, this is a perfect time to reassess the work. Who did you hire? What are their interests and skills? How does this align with existing staff? In many ways, turnover provides an opportunity for both new and seasoned coalition staff and leaders to reflect on what they really want to be doing, are good at doing and have capacity to do. You will probably need to pause some of your ongoing efforts to take the time to reassess roles and responsibilities. Although some of your coalition members may become frustrated by your lack of action, once you take the time to clarify, you will all be able to work together more efficiently and effectively toward your common goals.
What about you? Is it time for your coalition to reassess roles and responsibilities? Are you all experiencing burnout, lack of engagement or turnover?
If you are ready to dive into this further, check out the recording from my most recent Masterclass, Who is doing what in your coalition!
Photo by Hugo Rocha on Unsplash
