Should You Level Up in Your Community?
Continuing the journey to belonging and connection, today we will think about the level of commitment that you make to an organization or pursuit — in other words, what you want the path to be. This is about recognizing that to be part of a community in a way that provides personal fulfillment and belonging, it takes a certain level of engagement and action.
Being focused on the community with a level of commitment is like being an intentional listener. If you have experienced the difference in the seven types of listening as described by Erin Eatough in https://www.betterup.com/blog/types-of-listening, you will start to realize how it relates to belonging and the importance of thoughtful engagement with community.
To apply the concept, you start with assessing how you spend your time and what it reveals about your interests. As discussed in my previous posts, your communities should reflect and build on those interests so that you want to be an active participant and are willing to devote the time to it. For example, being involved in your neighborhood association is voluntary as is supporting a cause. Even time dedicated to your family as a community is voluntary in terms of the level of participation. Similarly, work and/or school may be a necessity, but you can choose related activities that are internal as a source of community.
While you are planning for your future direction, the time that you dedicate to a community now may be an indication of your true level of interest in the group or the purpose. Time management is important to being engaged with a community of choice. In many ways, choosing your communities and being involved to develop your relationships with others, calls on your time management skills and provides the reward of a better life balance as discussed in https://www.dummies.com/business/human-resources/employee-relations/keys-to-evaluating-how-well-you-use-your-time/.
In thinking about how time management relates to your community pursuits, think about how your level of engagement with an entity suggests your current level of commitment. You may find that there are some cases where you may have fallen into a routine and been handed responsibilities but would prefer to move on to something else.
What does it mean to look at your level of engagement? To make it a manageable process, you can classify your level of current participation into one of four general categories:
- Observer — you are interested in the group but do not participate in activities or interact significantly with other community members now.
- Member — you enjoy being part of the community and participate in activities.
- Active Member — you are a frequent participant in activities and volunteer to do things that strengthen the community.
- Leader — you are part of leadership and a decision-making body as well as being an active member. There will be much more about leadership in Part III.
Now you can look at your current and desired level of involvement for whatever entity you are evaluating. While you consider your role, think about how much time you typically spend engaging with it because that should align with your level of interest. Feel free to include virtual as well as in-person interactions attending events and organizing. (Considering a new community? Time is zero!)
After thinking about your level of connection today, it is time to look forward. To evaluate your participation and direction, ask yourself:
- Would you like your commitment to the group to increase, stay the same, or decrease within the next 6 months to a year?
- What role would you like to have next?
With this clearer understanding of your intentions, you can start to prioritize involvement with entities where you have leadership aspirations. And you can reduce your time commitment where you are “just” interested in observing. Sounds simple but it can be as hard to reduce a time commitment as to ascend to leadership. That’s where being intentional, focused, and thoughtful become important.
In future posts, we will consider how to develop your interest in leadership and how to step away from an entity graciously and gracefully to stay on the path to community and belonging.
“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi
