Leadership, Bobwhite Blather, Page 6

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Motivating volunteers to commit

Has this ever happened to you? You spot a parent at a troop meeting, chat with him or her and decide they’d be a good fit for a particular task you have in mind. After discussing it, they agree to take on the job, and you give some basic direction. Later that month at the committee meeting, they either don’t show up or report that nothing much has been done. We tend to brush it off as “everyone’s busy” and let it go, but as the weeks go by, there really isn’t any further progress. You really hate to bug them – they did volunteer, after all – but something has to move forward.

Sound familiar? Continue reading “Motivating volunteers to commit”

June 23, 2014July 7, 2014

More on “helicoptering”

I’ve written before about the so-called “helicopter parent” phenomenon. Some parents are so concerned with keeping their child from failing that they practically do everything for them so they won’t fail at the tasks at hand, but with adverse consequences. Helicopter parenting often results in children who are ill-equipped to handle situations on their own once they finally break free of their parents’ influence – if that is even possible. Tales abound of parents who go so far as to represent their children in college, calling professors and registrars to intervene in what their kids really should be doing.

So what’s so bad about making sure your child is successful? Don’t we all want to have children who are successful? Continue reading “More on “helicoptering””

May 12, 2014

Let boys be boys!

For Â most kids, play dates can be fun. You get dropped off at a friend’s house, play a few games, maybe have lunch or a snack that Mom prepared, the go play in the backyard, watch TV or play video games, then get picked up and go back home. Sounds like fun, right? But for a lot of people, what they fondly remember were long days spent playing with friends in an unstructured manner. You’d go to the park and swing on the big swingset, roam the neighborhood, ride bikes all over town, sneak into the kitchen and cook some hot dogs for lunch, then just hang out and build a fort in the backyard with things you’d find in the garage. Continue reading “Let boys be boys!”

April 14, 2014

How to lead millionaires

Having more money than we could ever imagine is a dream far from the reality of most Scouters. Indeed, most of us give up a lot – not only our time, but our money and other resources – because we truly care about the Scouting program and our young people and want them to have the opportunity to enjoy success, as only Scouting can give it.

Clearly, we Scouters are not doing this for financial reward. But what if we were all comfortably well-off? What if we were in the position to be able to pay anyone their price to do the things we want done? Would we still devote our time to an activity that pays nothing in return? Continue reading “How to lead millionaires”

December 23, 2013

Knowing when to leave

Go while the going is good /Â Knowing when to leave may be the smartest thing that anyone can learn

-“Knowing When To Leave“Â by Burt Bacharach & Hal David

We all remember when we first took the plunge into Scout leadership. Usually it’s in Cub Scouts, and when our sons wanted to join and the Cubmaster or committee chair told us that the den needed a den leader, we were the ones who stood in place when everyone else took a step backward. As our sons grow, so does our involvement in our units. It changes substantially but we end up settling into our role in our troop and getting comfortable doing it. Continue reading “Knowing when to leave”