EIGHT TYPES OF SKILLS NECESSARY TO BECOME AN EXCELLENT LEADER
LEADERSHIP:
Is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change? Most years of experience in Exploring have shown that good leadership is a result of the careful application of 11 skills that any post of officer can learn to use. With practice, these skills can become a part of the adult’s or youth officer’s leadership style and will prove helpful in Exploring and all other leadership situations. This competency enables a learner to:
Recognize understanding the needs and characteristics of group members as a major technique for building group unity and identity.
Recognize and differentiate between values, norms, needs, and characteristics.
Gain knowledge of the relationship between planning activities, group performance, and individual needs and characteristics.
It is essential that we first understand ourselves and our own needs and characteristics. Only then can we know and understand other people. This understanding hopefully come naturally as we mature, creeping over us like ivy winding about a tree. By directly exploring and encouraging discovery of these personality traits, we can accelerate the maturing of a leader, adding fertilizer to the ivy and tree. Knowledge of individual needs and characteristics is important for every member of a group. As any group forms, an informal assessment of members' characteristics and needs always takes place. This competency brings the process out of the closet and uses it to everyone's advantage. Members volunteer their own needs and characteristics in an open, trusting environment via specific learning activities and exercises. Everyone is accepted and their individual differences are valued, for the differences contribute to an environment calculated to encourage growth.
The competency Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics has five major parts:
"Understanding Motives".
"Assessing Values".
"Evaluating Norms".
"Meeting Individual Needs".
"Learning Personal Characteristics".
UNDERSTANDING MOTIVES:
We should differentiate between needs and wants. A need can be strictly interpreted as those elements essential for human survival: shelter, food, warmth, and love. A want is merely a desire; something that we believe will make us happier or our circumstances easier. The psychologist Abraham Maslow conceived of our needs and wants as a pyramid, the top of the pyramid representing our ability to realize our own potential or our capacity to help others (or altruistic behavior). He called this self-actualization.
As a leader, we must be able to evaluate an individual's relative position within this hierarchy of needs. For example, if a learner's personal life is insecure, their motive for attending camp may be very different from another person whose personal life is relatively stable. The insecure person may simply be escaping a bad environment or seeking affirmation of their self-worth, while the other individual is seeking to exercise skill they already know they possess and greater skill as a leader. Furthermore, according to Maslow, fulfilled needs are no longer motivators. We must not however arrogantly assume based on a few external facts or characteristics that we understand a person's true motives. We should use our intuition and discernment, but it is our obligation within the context of the program to build some trust and help the person reveal their needs and motives. They may not yet even understand what their own needs and motives are, so as a leader you must be sensitive to this.
ASSESSING VALUES:
Values are closely held beliefs developed over many years. They do not change readily or quickly. They are the standards by which attitudes are formed, but they are not attitudes. Values are not behavioral traits; they are not needs (the lack of something desirable). Values are affective in nature; they are the markers by which we choose between one behavior and another. How individual’s values combine in a group creates the dynamics of group interaction. Everyone's set of values are personal and unique. Though individual values are not necessarily talked about, they are nonetheless operative. Values cannot be ignored if we are to know ourselves and others. In White Stag, we don't teach or identify for learners a particular set of values. We rarely engage in specific, overt values clarification exercises. Values are often brought to light in the course of other activities, as part of the group leadership development process, and examined in a limited context. Adolescent staff are usually not adequately prepared or trained to facilitate sensitive values clarification exercises. Nonetheless, individual values can and do change as a consequence of participation in the White Stag Leadership Development Program. By example, we set certain values as our standards. We value the group as a whole, though not at the expense of an individual. We value the outdoors and express our wonder and reverence for it. We value our fellow learners, and tell them so in many ways. We value creativity, autonomy and maturity, and encourage and reward these qualities during the development process and program.
EVALUATING NORMS:
These are the common rules and customs followed by group members. They may or may not be overtly defined. Norms specify acceptable and appropriate behavior. In White Stag, rising at the crack of dawn to run half naked about camp shouting "Augi! Augi! Augi!" is an acceptable "norm." At IBM, wearing a white shirt used to be the norm. Norms develop from the values, expectations and acquired habits that members bring with them to the group. Some White Stag members with an extensive Scouting background believe that the uniform ought to worn at all times; others believe uniforms are only necessary when the candidates are around, or aren't required at all. Norms are for the most part unquestionably followed. They are rarely overtly examined by the group itself, especially for their vast influence on communication within and between groups. The norms of White Stag are in some respects very different from what we experience every day. We have many ceremonies mimicking social rites of passage. We have numerous, complex and unique traditions.
MEETING INDIVISUAL NEEDS:
These include the physical, everyday ones of eating, breathing and sleeping. These are our survival needs. We also have certain psychological needs not as easily recognizable, but critical to our physical and emotional well-being nonetheless. A newborn infant, left alone and never touched, although it may eat, breath and sleep well, will die. Needs might include, for instance, "doing something challenging or new," "coed activities," "receiving recognition," "fun," "respect from others," and "time alone." Given knowledge of a member's needs, the group can have a powerful impact as it assists individuals in fulfilling their needs. A group leader who strives to respond to individual needs will subsequently earn considerable loyalty and commitment from group members. Members can continue to contribute under very stressful and trying circumstances, beyond their own estimation of their capacity, if they are given specific, positive feedback.
LERANING PERSONAL CHARACTERSTICS:
These are individual signs of who we are. Someone may value competition, need physical recreation and be characterized as an athlete. Characteristics are the obvious landmarks others judge us by (sometimes accurately, sometimes not). "He's shallow--he never talks about anything but girls and football." "She's an idealist--always working for one cause or another, never giving up."
KNOWLEDGE AND USING THE RESOURCES OF THE GROUP
This competency enables a learner to:
Recognize knowledge and use of group resources as a major technique in bringing a group together and creating commitment to common goals.
Recognize that resources are theoretically limitless, and that the leader's (and group's) ability to recognize and utilized diverse resources tremendously affects what the group can accomplish.
Involve more people in active leadership by giving each a part according to his or her resources.
Evaluate the impact the availability of resources has on doing a job and maintaining the group.
ABOUT GROUP RESOURCES:
What happens when a group of people meet for the first time? An informal process of "getting to know you" always takes place. Standard rituals of introduction take place: "Where do you live? What school do/did you attend? What do you do? Where were you born? Where did you grow up?" People do a lot of quick assessment: "How much can I trust this fellow?" "Does he do things by the book?" "Is this someone I'd like to spend more time with?"
CONTROLLING THE GROUP:
This competency enables a learner to:
Recognize how his behavior influences and controls others?
Distinguish between controlling group performance and setting the example.
Identify control as a function of the group, or of a facilitator, and the advantages and disadvantages of each having that responsibility.
Identify different techniques for controlling group performance and their suitability in different situations.
Deploy group resources to the best interests of the group while encouraging personal growth.
Evaluate leadership performance in terms of group performance.
COUNSELLING:
This competency enables the learner to:
Gain knowledge of the principles of counseling.
Practice some simple techniques to be used in ordinary situations.
Develop an awareness of counseling as a function of leaders.
Grow personally in areas of problem solving and decision making.
Help others to increased ability to solve problems and make decisions
REPRESENTING THE GROUP:
This competency enables the learner to:
Understand Representing the Group as the process by which other groups identify his group.
Identify some of the questions a representative must ask of himself before proceeding without prior group consensus or input.
Develop an attitude of faithful representation of the entire group.
Assess whether or not a decision can be agreed to without further group decision-making.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
This competency, sometimes also called Planning, enables the learner to:
Identify problem-solving as one of they key techniques in developing the group's capability.
Gain knowledge of a definite technique for problem-solving and planning.
Understand the value of problem-solving in group commitment to the task and to group unity.
The basic outline for this competency has not changed in over 30 years. Additional information is added, layers of complexity are introduced, but the basic scheme remains: Analyze Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate.
SHARING LEADERSHIP:
This competency enables the learner to:
Develop a concept of leadership for a group which permits different functions of leadership being shared or distributed among group members according to the situation and member's strengths.
Gain knowledge of the forces acting on the leader and the group, and inherent in the situation which makes for appropriateness of leadership styles.
Distinguish between situations in which certain styles of leadership are appropriate.
Relate styles of leadership to the twin factors of getting the job done and maintaining group integrity and morale.
Develop attitudes of using appropriate styles of leadership to fit needs of the group to meet situations and accomplish short-and long-range goals.
SETTING THE EXAMPLE:
This competency enables the learner to:
List three positive results a leader who sets a good example can obtain.
See that Setting an Example is an important part of Controlling Group Performance.
Recognize the leader's responsibility for setting the example.
List seven ways a leader can set a good example.
EVALUATION:
This competency enables the learner to:
Use evaluation as a technique to maintain group integrity while improving job performance.
Describe what is meant by "getting the job done" and "maintaining the group."
Analyze a situation for improvement.
Avoid conflicts between getting the job done and maintaining the group.
Develop an attitude of constant (informal and formal) evaluation.
Use a variety of strategies for evaluation purposes.
Evaluation is the constant companion of the White Stag learner and staff member. We constantly strive to improve ourselves, so we continually evaluate how we are doing. We call this the "Evaluation Attitude." This attitude, it turns out, is one of the five founding principles of the White Stag program. In almost any situation, except when responding to purely mechanical systems, we must consider the task and the people.
ABOUT EVALUATION:
Ask a Patrol Member Development candidate at the end of the summer camp, "When do you evaluate?" and he'll tell you, "Always." Ask another candidate from Patrol Leader Development "what do you look for when you evaluate?" and he'll say, "The strong and the weak points, possible improvements, and things to keep." Ask a third candidate, a young woman from Troop Leader Development, bowed under a large pack, "What is evaluation?" and he'll tell you everything the others have said and add, "We evaluate how well the group is keeping itself together and how well we're getting the job done." Evaluation is a continual process, either informal or formal, of judging a situation against a standard.
Evaluation is, in essence, two things:
Our desire is to improve our evaluation skills so that we evaluate in the same manner a eagle soars on the winds: constantly testing, consciously and unconsciously, wind current, flow, our altitude, strength, time, direction, position relative to our target, etc., all the elements that affect our reaching and surpassing the next mountain peak.
COMMUNICATION:
To improve your skills in getting information pay attention and listen carefully. Make notes and sketches. Ask questions and repeat your understanding of what was said. To improve your skills in giving information. Be sure others are listening before you speak. Speak slowly and clearly. Draw diagrams, if needed. Ask those receiving information to take notes. Have the listeners repeat their understanding of what was said. Encourage questions.
PLANNING:
Planning is an important part of everything we do in Exploring. The following is a simple process for planning. Consider the task and objectives. What do you want to accomplish? Consider the resources-equipment, knowledge, skills and attitudes. Consider the alternatives, Brainstorm. Reach a decision, evaluating each option. Write the plan down and review it with the post.
