Above photo credit: Wolf Marloh

The May Volunteer of the Month is John Turner, Presentation Skills Advisor, at Nuveen Global. John delivered an exceptional three hour presentation skills masterclass for seven of ELBA’s Project Managers. One attendee described the session as “the best training I have ever attended”.  The ELBA Team will be applying John’s tools and techniques to future presentations and workshops.

John’s volunteering was a great example of how professional skills can be used to build the capacity of the third sector. We caught up with him to find out about his volunteering experience.

Hi John! Why did you decide to volunteer?
I volunteered as part of Nuveen Global’s volunteering programme, whereby Nuveen staff are encouraged to share skills and knowledge with local charitable organisations. I’ve always been keen to work with organisations and companies which promote social mobility, diversity and inclusion. ELBA clearly does a great job in that field, so this was a great chance for me to help.

What did you gain from your volunteering experience?
It was great to work on presentation skills with people who are already highly competent. I find that the higher the standard, the more I learn from delivering my courses, and the participants were very open and forthcoming with ideas. We had the time to explore some issues in much more depth than usual. I have taken away some ideas to improve what I do, as well as a better understanding of how ELBA works. It was an absolute pleasure. 

Would you recommend volunteering to a colleague and if so then why?
I would of course recommend volunteering to my colleagues. Sharing knowledge and skills can bring great rewards to the volunteers – not only the sense of intrinsic satisfaction from helping others, but also more tangible enhancements to confidence and knowledge of other fields of industry.