A recent community job ad sought someone with a ‘passion for helping people’.
This seems obvious. If a member has problems, a community manager with a passion for helping people can jump in and help them get answers. It’s picking someone up after they’ve tripped over.
Is that really who we want managing a community?
I think a more precise job advert would’ve read: “A passion for helping people succeed”.
Helping people succeed is different from just helping someone. It’s not a single interaction. It’s building a beneficial relationship over many interactions. It’s learning what people need and helping them satisfy their needs. It’s picking someone off the ground and connecting them with experts who will make sure they don’t trip again.
It may be just one extra word, but it means a lot.