Leading the self‐development cycle in volunteer organizations

Abstract 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.