What Makes a Good Association Executive?

What Makes a Good Association Executive?

I think one would be hard pressed to find a child when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up” respond something along the lines of “When I grow up I want to manage professional membership and trade associations in order to promote best practices and professional development within a wide array of industries” And carried through to high school and college there just aren’t people getting prepped for the association job market. You will clearly find a lot of intelligent and passionate people interested in non-profit management and while associations generally are non-profits, most are not focused on charitable deeds, the type of work that the young aspiring non-profit worker has as the image of their career.

So how do people get into association management. Almost every person I have talked to without fail when asked this question has simply said the same thing, “by accident” or “I fell into it”. Many people come into it from the industry that the association represents switching from being part of the industry to representing it. While others end up in the industry because they apply to an association management company or stand alone association for a specific function, marketing, finance, design, etc. Then they find themselves in the association world and never leave. This seems to be very commonplace in Washington DC (where I fell into it, a very happy accident) and Chicago – both large concentrations of associations.

So if there is not an obvious path or degree in association management, then what are the skill sets that are right for the field.

Here are just a few of the essentials.

1. Volunteer Management – people who have managed volunteers, whether at work or in their free time through a favorite charity, homeowners organization, or religious organization understand what it takes to manage volunteers.

2. Customer Service – associations have members and those dues paying members are paying for a service. Unlike something you purchase and can touch and feel where you can get the immediate satisfaction from buying a new gadget or piece of clothing – purchasing a membership in an association can be a leap of faith. Not knowing what value he or she will get from their membership, you have a customer who needs to be shown in every way that their investment was well worth their dollars.

3. Being Resourceful – association staffs are quite often small and in these cases the people who work with a particular association has to be ready to tackle something they never thought they would have to do. Whether its a challenge in planning a conference, a database issue, or internal politics of an industry, chances are an association staffer is going to be faced with a challenge that they haven’t been trained for.

4. Intellectual Curiosity – This could be said for a lot of careers but in association management one in often thrown into an industry they know nothing about. So its essential that this new association staffer finds something that makes them “tick” in working at that association. Even if the particular subject matter doesn’t spark their interest – figuring out ways of making the organization run better, making members more successful, or simply seeing a project fully through is important for someone who wants to get ahead in their career.

So while this career, like any other, is not for everyone, many of those who do fall into it by accident realize very soon that it was a happy accident and the job that we never knew existed becomes our new career.