Leading the self-development cycle in volunteer organizations

Leaders of volunteers face challenges that are unique to the bond between volunteers and their organization. One of the most difficult challenges is the trade-off between performance and retention. We use a qualitative study of maestros of amateur choirs to explain how leaders can overcome this trade-off and improve volunteer performance while ensuring retention. We show that leaders can do so by enacting a virtuous cycle of self-development where they enforce performance to make their organization an effective context for the self-development of volunteers, thereby ensuring retention.