Are you creating more leaders? Or are you not?
Yay! You know the secret of growing a community and keeping it together by tracking essential metrics now, what’s next?
The previous story was, of course, just scratching the surface. Now it’s time to dive deeper into managing your growing community. The best way to understand this is by answering the question below.
Can you build a thriving community on your own?
Think before you come to a conclusion!
Well, if you ask us, the answer would be no. You can’t!
Unless...you’re creating more leaders within your community. Growing a community isn’t only about management, btw. It’s about developing leaders. With their help, your community will affect more people and sustain itself longer than you could have managed on your own.
But this is easier said than done.
In any community, there will always be a small set of extra-passionate people who will do the majority of work to push the community onward and upward. And with that, you also get an added set of responsibilities.
It really isn’t complicated.
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Initially, when you’re just starting off with your community, you are the only leader. And when you’re the original leader, trusting others to take over is often a challenge. You might get protective, controlling, or even paranoid. We usually worry about people “misinterpreting the brand” or “not having the same standards”. Don’t worry! We’ve seen this in almost every community we have worked with.
What do you do then?
Shift your mindset.
First things first. You have to get rid of this fear of losing control. Shift your mindset from toiling alone to empowering others. Your community depends on it. This shift is important for both small and big communities because it’s not just going to help you in growing your reach. It’s also the only way for large communities to stay relevant in the long term and for small communities to ensure their own sustainability.
Cultivate hand-raisers into leaders.
Seek the most genuine and qualified people from your pool of hand-raisers. They will become the homegrown leaders of your community.
How do we go about picking leaders?
Here are the 3 key questions that you need to ask to find the most qualified people in your community:
Are these hand-raisers genuine in their passion for the product and the people who’re going to use it?
Do they communicate clearly and passionately? Will they be able to communicate in and out of the product even better than you or your team?
Are they qualified to take on the advocacy responsibilities of a leader?
Your job, as a community leader, is to curate these exceptional members from your community, give them the structure and support that they need, and let them fly. Most importantly, trust them with their decisions.
When these leaders will act as a catalyst in fulfilling your community’s purpose, you will be the happiest. Because you will be watching some of them exceeding your expectations as well.
But what if a leader doesn’t work out?
What if someone, who at first seemed like a great fit for a leadership role, but ended up not working out? Or perhaps you are mistaken about how genuine a leader’s motivation was?
It’s definitely not a great feeling. Inevitably, you will promote the wrong leader at some point. But don’t worry. It’s not something that you should be scared of.
Glynk’s tip 💡
Don’t be afraid to let go of the leaders who are not the right fit for your community. Because just as an exceptional leader can move a community forward, a bad one can actually crumble the community’s magic. Make the feedback process crystal clear. Do consistent check-ins with your leaders and create safe spaces for transitions.
Bottom line - if the leader doesn’t work out, the decision to part ways should be straightforward.
Community professionals, this is for you!
We believe great things happen when you bring incredibly passionate individuals together. The Community Makers is the nucleus of all verified community builders. We will also be joined by researchers who have put in years into understanding communities and their impact. Through this initiative, we aim to unlearn, learn, and build some impactful communities together.
We have started rolling out invites for The Community Makers Club. If you have a knack for building communities and believe you could add value to other members, just reply back to this email with "Interested". Our team will get in touch with you and revert in 48 hours on your status.