THE REASON They don’t appear to know how to lead. WHAT’S HAPPENING Scouts are elected to leadership positions but are doing a lackluster job. They don’t seem to appreciate the opportunity and are very slow to take things on. THE SOLUTION Sometimes this apparent lack of initiative is a matter of perspective. What we picture in our minds as leadership may be very different from what our Scouts see themselves doing....
Experience, maturity and skill are not prerequisites to leadership; they are the traits produced as we practice leadership. We often get email or comments from Scoutmasters with a troop of young Scouts wondering how they can be anything like boy led. They look around a bunch of immature 11-year-old boys and don’t see anyone who measures up to their preconceived notion of a leader so the adults take over the leadership and may never let it go....
Bruce Tuckman first offered a theory of group development in the mid 1960’s. Tuckman’s model has been a part of Woodbadge training for about a dozen years. Here’s Tuckman’s three stages: Forming Individuals want to be accepted by the others, avoid controversy or conflict. The group is busy with routines: who does what, when to meet, etc. Individuals gather information and impressions about each other about the groups goals and how to approach it....
There’s nothing wrong with having a plan Plans are great. But missions are better. Missions survive when plans fail, and plans almost always fail. [Seth Godin](https://scoutmastercg.com/theres-nothing-wrong-with-having-a-plan/Seth's Blog: There’s nothing wrong with having a plan.) When first discussing plans with youth leaders they usually tell me the mission or goal they have in mind: “What do you have planned for the next Troop meeting?” “We’re going to prepare everyone for the backpacking trip....
Reader Bill Macfarlane, Scoutmaster of Troop 8 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, writes: I was at Round Table the other day and overheard a rather heated discussion about “boy-led” troops. I heard one of the participants ask; “Where is it written that troops are boy-led?”. This got me wondering where this was written in BSA literature so I decided to look. Here’s what I found: “Training boy leaders to run their troop is the Scoutmaster’s most important job....
Here’s the PowerPoint presentation I use at troop leader training. Please feel free to use and adapt it as you see fit (you do not have to credit me.) Here’s the article explaining the concept Before this session, I call the older guys who have seen this before off to the side and ask them to lay low during this session, as they already know the right answer. I pause for while on slide 7 and let them thrash around awhile: Then I show them slide 8: I pause again on slide 13....
Is there really a job description for Scout youth leaders? Every First Class Scout is a leader by definition. Three requirements for advancement are common to every rank after First Class: Merit Badges Service to the community Leadership: ‘Serve actively in a position of responsibility’ It is every First Class Scout’s job to lead, train, and inspire Scouts to achieve First Class rank. It’s his job whether he is SPL, PL or “just” Historian....
William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt is the man who wrote the book on Scouting, literally. His Patrol Leader’s Handbook is, without a doubt, his best and most influential work. His understanding of scouting was simple, but not simplistic. Here he lays out the scoutmaster’s job in a few sentences: “Let them lead in practically everything. Let them work out their own problems, interfere as little as possible—but be ever ready to give wise guidance—not when you think they need it, but when they seek it....
“The Paper Chase” started as a novel, was made into a movie and, finally, a TV series in the 1970’s. The story follows a law student in his first year at Harvard. The student’s nemesis is the brilliant, dispassionate and relentlessness Professor Kingsfield. Kingsfield has an off-putting demeanor and, at first, appears to be indifferent to his students and their problems. What he knows, though, is that his relentless attitude actually serves the interests of his students....
One of my Scouts was out last fall for a while playing football and was thinking about not coming back. His dad encouraged him, he came back, and in February he was elected Patrol Leader. This led to him participating in our Troop Leader Training Conference (TLT). Now he is really pumped and excited about Scouts. This was something he talked about at his First Class Board of Review; two of the adults on the board told me how important the TLT was to this particular Scout....
Scout leadership is not all about ticking things off the to do list – or even having the list in the first place. Leaders possess the initiative, sense of purpose and skill that motivates others. They are able to look beyond the task into the motivation behind it, they are able to see what needs to happen three or four moves ahead; to anticipate the needs of those they are leading....
Tom Gillard is a Scoutmaster in Tullahoma Tennessee. We struck up a correspondence after he was part of a session about the patrol method I presented over the internet for a group of Scouters attending a Merit Badge University. Over the past couple of months Tom has written to tell me about his experiences applying the patrol method in his Troop. Tom is no newcomer to Scouting but he wanted to work towards strengthening his youth leadership....
Imagine you are 13 and have just been elected patrol leader. Perhaps you’ve watched how all this works for a year or two and have at least some idea of what patrol leader does. It’s likely that this is the first time you’ve had this kind of responsibility so you can’t really fully appreciate what it means. Perhaps you’ve received some formal training; maybe it made sense at the time, maybe it didn’t....
It’s about time! Working the Patrol Method a Scout leader’s guide to youth leadership training is the best work on the patrol method since ‘Green Bar’ Bill Hillcourt’s Handbook for Patrol Leaders last published in 1965 or Baden Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership originally published in 1920. Authors Rob Faris,Ted Knight and Harry Wimbrough have created an indispensable tool for understanding, implementing and maintaining Scouting’s centrally important concept, the patrol, in the 21st century....
Applying the patrol method is a perennial challenge for all of us, indeed it is the subject of much of the Scoutmaster blog and podcast. Someone took the time to make this patrol method video from the filmstrip that was part of the Scoutmaster Fundamentals course decades ago. However dated the format it is has some very pertinent, practical advice. The storytelling format is a very effective way to relate the principles involved....
Thanks to the 90 participants who responded to the patrol system survey. I have prepared an analysis of the results that I plan on using during a university of Scouting training event. The patrol system is the essential element of Scouting. It is the central focus of successfully delivering all that the Scouting program promises. Applying the patrol system (or method) has always been a challenge as it is often misunderstood....
Scouting is a process of developing character. In this second part of a three part series I’ll talk about the Scouting process and the changes we need to make to allow the process to work. It’s likely we’ll all find changes challenging especially when those changes are aimed at empowering our you leadership. I’ll suggest some structural changes you can make to enable the process of youth leadership development to take hold....
Listener Allan Green (no relation) asks three questions when youth don’t lead: Youth leaders elected, but reluctant to lead. I have had 2 successive SPL’s who would not prepare, would not work, canceled most TLC meetings, and who did not treat their fellow scouts very well. The last one was rarely seen at summer camp this past summer, preferring to hang with friends in other camp sites or at the lake....
One of the most common things I am asked about… .. is how to manage the transition from adult-led to youth-led Scouting. In this first of three podcasts talking about this transition I’ll point out that the process begins with education ourselves as to how Scouting is constituted, how the game is played. What we will learn is youth leadership youth leadership is central to achieving our aim as Scouters and we ought to do all we can assure we respect and encourage our Scouts authority and autonomy....
Scoutmaster Podcast 10 This podcast features my patrol system overview based on Baden-Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership In This Podcast Patrol system [2:02] Clean camp [10:34] Choosing a Troop [14:33] “Difficult” Scouts [18:44] Podcast Notes Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS