Companies spend a fortune growing managers. Workshops, offsites, executive coaches, the whole circuit. And the best training ground they own is already running, quietly, in the volunteer program — where people actually love showing up.
That's my favorite thing about a good volunteer program: it's secretly the best leadership school in the building, and it costs almost nothing.
Think about what skills-based volunteering asks of someone. Walk into an unfamiliar organization. Crack a problem you've never seen before. Rally people who don't report to you and don't have to listen to you. No title to hide behind, no authority to lean on. You lead because people want to follow you. That's the whole job of management, packed into a single day — and people come back lit up by it.
The numbers back it up. People who volunteer are far more likely to feel they're growing at work: 70% say they have real opportunities to grow professionally, versus 39% of folks who don't volunteer. Give someone a real project, a cause they believe in, and stakes that matter, and watch the confidence click into place. They return to the day job stretched in a way no slide deck could manage.
The best part is that it never feels like training. Nobody's performing for a manager with a grading rubric. They're solving a real problem for an organization that genuinely needs them, and the growth sneaks in the side door while they're having the time of their life.
So if you want to grow your next generation of leaders, you might already own the perfect program. The development is baked right in. You just have to see it for what it is and lean in.
Where did you learn to lead — in a classroom, or out in the field?