Empowering Everyone to be Community Leaders
You don't need to be a community builder to build community
Building community can feel like you’re on a lonely island, but it doesn’t need to be. I have been in a position before where I felt like the weight of keeping the community running fell on my shoulders, but I had to remind myself that my team has my back.
If you’re a team of one or even have multiple members on your community team, read on to see how you can empower others to join in on the community fun.
Step One: Ask others how they would like to be involved
The first step is to ask other team members if they would like to be more involved in community building. Being active in community isn’t for everyone and doesn’t need to be.
That is perfectly fine for your teammates who don’t want to be more involved, you can mention that you will keep them in mind for future opportunities. Focus on the members who wish to be more involved but don’t know where to start.
Step Two: Create a plan, together
Now that you have chatted with your team about wanting to participate, now is the time to work together on how to get them more involved.
Talk to your teammates about their strengths, what they like chatting about, what they don’t like, etc.
Some questions I like to bring up are:
What are your favorite channels in the community & why?
How often would you like to post/participate in the community?
Are you comfortable with being tagged in posts for additional insights/advice?
Would you like to participate in any community rituals (for example, Monday posts about accountability, etc.)
This will all help you create a plan for you and your teammates to know exactly how you can be supported and support them on their journey.
Step Three: Practice makes perfect better
Great, so now you have chatted with your teammates who want to get more involved and discussed some ideas on how to get more involved as well.
What’s next? Give them the space and opportunity to show up how they would like in the community!
An idea that might work well for you and your team is to hold weekly or bi-weekly check-in calls about how their community involvement is going, any support that might be needed, and so on.
At SuperHi, we hold these calls on a bi-weekly basis for the extended community team. It is often an informal time to chat, but we have found that holding this space together really helps us all stay more on top of all the community happenings.
Step Four: Adapt as needed
Even if you and your team are in a groove at this point, don’t be afraid to adapt. Schedules change, your co-worker(s) might switch roles, etc.
As the saying goes, the only thing that is constant is change.
If at any point some members on your team need to pull back on their community responsibilities then reassure them that it is okay. The community will be there for them if/when they’re ready again.
Step Five: Learning together is more fun
As a community leader with years of experience, there will always be something new to learn. Make sure that you’re taking into consideration of what your team members are bringing up in terms of feedback and ideas.
Being able to bring your teammate’s ideas to life is not only great for the community but will almost guarantee their continued support as they feel like they’re ideas are heard and supported.
One of my favorite resources that I have worked on came up from a brainstorm with another teammate. We were talking about possible new resources that we could help build for the community, and in that meeting, we came up with the community hub. This is a tool that our members reference each week for the latest updates, event recordings, tools, etc.
We all can learn from each other.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! Hopefully, by now you have a better sense of empowering your teammates to become their own version of a community builder.
Remember this is a process that is ever-changing, and the important part is finding what works for you and your team and sticking to that.