Essay Sample on Volunteering

Understanding of Serving Others

The opportunity of volunteering as a servant leadership involves going beyond self-interest and creating opportunities for followers so that they can grow.

In volunteering as a servant leader in a rehabilitation center, the leader takes it as being first among equals and use persuasion to convince others to work together and get things done to help rehabilitate members of the community. The servant leadership approach places the leader under the role of a steward, who leads the others through trust. When involved in volunteering, as a servant leader, involves practices that enrich the lives of other individuals and the entire community. The focus of volunteering, especially as a sub-acute skilled nurse, is to help the larger community achieve greater good and become more balanced and developed (American Hospital Association, 2017). The community is the organization that creates the major goal from which the motivation comes to make it a better place through volunteering. When volunteering, it is an application of expertise, and the skills learned to improve the self and the others to create a better society.

One key takeaway about servant leadership in volunteering is creating awareness. Those under us as servant leaders need to understand what we are doing, why we are doing it, and its importance to society. Therefore, there is a need to show others what they need to know and do while doing it regularly as a practice to create a new behavior until it becomes a habit. By creating a habit, others learn to adapt and critically analyze new situations so that new approaches can be developed to deal with certain challenges in life. Servant leadership also creates a system of working that incorporates the plans of a society or community to better achieve the desired goals (American Hospital Association, 2017). Essentially, those that fall behind the leader form part of the system that helps change the community.

Working as a servant leader in a sub-acute context as a skilled nurse creates value, both for the nurse and the patients. Working as a volunteer in a hospital or medical setting as a servant leader brings the feeling of obligation to serve the community and give back. Additionally, it is also an opportunity to promote health and help followers understand the benefit and value of giving back to the community. The community acts as an organization, and volunteering in such a setting supports the local people in a way that appreciates the effort of being part of that community.

On the other hand, a rehabilitation setting also forms a community and volunteering as a servant leader creates ethical and responsible behavior to the followers (American Hospital Association, 2017). Those in rehab need to understand the value of reasoning and behaving ethically, and servant leadership helps in the development of fairness, honesty, and integrity within the society.

Development of confidence to allow others to realize their potential is a key attribute associated with servant leadership. When volunteering, the goal is to help others gather the required confidence to face life and issues like work, just like The Java Grounds does. Mike Chaves presents the perfect example of developmental volunteering as the Heart for the City program helped him, and now he has come back to work as a youth mentor in Java Grounds (The Java Grounds, 2013). In essence, servant leadership, when volunteering, means putting the interests of the other first and working towards creating a philosophy to serve others and help the community develop.

References

American Hospital Association. (2017). The Volunteer Leader. New York: The Volunteer Leader.

The Java Grounds. (2013, August 8). Heart For The City – The Java Grounds. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRF2LbfwpJ4&feature=youtu.be.