youth Leaders not willing to put time in

[troop251scout]

I am the spl of my troop and i have noticed that i do almost everything. My assistant and the patrol leaders are not trustworthy to get things done. what should i do to get them to help more?

I thank in advance for your imput

[EagleInKY]

Learning to depend on others is a tough thing to do. It's frustrating, I know. It's something we adult leaders deal with all of the time. At some point you may have to decide what you will do for them. You may have to let them fall on their face every once in a while. Sometimes, guys will let others do the work for them, as long as they see the work getting done.

 

1) Make sure they understand their responsibility.

2) If he hasn't done it, have your SM sit down with them (w/ you present) to discuss their responsibility.

3) Delegate to them and let them know you are not going to cover for them.

4) Let them go. If they fail, they'll learn from it.

[OldGreyEagle]

Everything EagleinKY says is on target, you may also want to look at your own style, have you been to Council/Distirct Junior Leader training? I forget the current abbreviation and probably butchered the title. You say your assistants and Patrol leaders are not "trustworthy" do you tell them this? And if so in what tones? Are you encouraging them or are you deriding and insulting them. Do you tell them what to do or do you ask them what to do ? Do you do your best work for a teacher who fumes and rants and raves or for a teacher who motivates with positive encouragement? You seem to be a gung ho scout and thats great, one of the hardest lessons for us gung ho'ers to learn is that not everyone has the same e'spirit de corp as we have inately and its up to us to motivate those who need it.

 

In the BSA there are four recognized leadership styles, Directing, Supporting, Coaching and Delegating, there is a time and place for each style and you shouldnt get stuck relying on any one style, vary it to fit the situation. On a campout there may be a situation where a decision must be made as to where to locate the flagpole. You could say, ok, the flagpole goes there, but it would be better to get your PLC together and say ok, we need to decide where to put the flagpole. Let them make the decision, after all when we say Boy-run, Boy is taken to be plural, not singular.

 

BTW, if you think I am all wet, let me know, it happens

[Eagle1973]

What the others said and for a more specific addition to OGE's post:

 

Be willing to do what your delegates have decided, even though it isn't exactly as you would have done if you made the decision, as long as it gets the job done and nobody is seriously killed in the process.

 

Learning the finer points of leadership is a long, constant journey. But, I'm here to tell ya, the leadership skills I learned and developed in the BSA served me very well in my US Navy career.

[troop251scout]

Thank you for the responses they truly helped and starting tonight i will completely change and try out the different suggestions you gave! It is just hard to have people who are not as into the who expierence as i am and gets really frustrating when ever i know that they didnt put any effort into what they did or didnt do it the way i wanted it done but like you all said we are a team and need to work together and i guess that i just need to ease up alittle bit and sort of back off of them on my expectations as they are currently very high!

 

Once again thank you!

 

-Troop251scout

[EagleInKY]

troop251scout - You sound very much like my overachieving son. He's currently ASPL and feels very much like you. He is very dedicated, and gets frustrated that others aren't as "into it" as much as him. I counsel him often about patience and accepting that others aren't going to be as dedicated to it as much as he is. And, that's okay. You get out of it what you put into it. You'll learn a lot about leadership through the process.

 

Best of luck!

[Fuzzy Bear]

I would like to add another perspective to the list of the very good ideas on leadership.

 

I have learned that I can do many things myself. I can and have achieved beyond many of my own expectations. I have done things by myself or with limited help only because I wanted to do them. I have been in leadership positions as a youth and an adult using this type of thinking. People would follow me only because they knew that we would arrive at whatever destination that I had my sights set on just because I can dream and it can become reality. In short, I have been successful in Scouting.

 

This is what I found out about this type of leadership. I personally enjoyed and benefited from the experiences but I didn't allow others to benefit from their roles. I didn't get their input or let them excel or fail. It had more to do with me and my experience than it had to do with "us" and our experience. Scouting is a shared adventure and is not always successful. The secret of Scouting is found in the JOURNEY and not in our personal goals. (*not too original)

 

Today, I would rather work with a group with a shared vision than work on any project where I stand alone with those that only hang on. I would rather fail with a group, than succeed on my own. I would rather figure out how we can fix something than to celebrate over how I accomplished it. I would rather have stories of how we struggled and failed than how I won alone. In short, my present leadership goal is to work only with a group and go wherever it takes us.

 

FB

 

[Vicki]

What Fuzzy Bear said! That could have been me typing that - although I'm not quite as far along the road as he is.

 

Vicki - Bear patrol C-12-04

[anarchist]

troop251scout

may I suggest that you also take a page from your school book. Treat much of this as your history or english teacher would a major paper. When you assign a task give the PLC a schedule...outline, resources and first draft dates...all of it, back to you by...date(?). this gives them short term goals that can then proceed to the next step/goal in a logical progression and gives you updates on prgress. Always give plenty of lead time (proper planning requires this)and follow up on everything until you have trained the PLC to do it correctly.

 

NO SURPRISES- it helps to have a few minutes of email, phone or 'face' time with your ASPL/PL's each week outside of the troop meetings so you can get progress reports and make adjustments...

 

Failure is way 'over-rated', especially when someone elses failure seems to reflect on you. If you keep to your plans and require updates you can make adjustments as problems arise and keep failure rates low. You can also build a better team by lending a hand or offering some additional help when you see it is needed. Don't allow a PL's screw up to ruin an event for many others, stay on top of it (the planning/exicution) and use your ASPL as a resourse... help the 'failing PL see what failure could lead to...them help him succeed.

It is all about learning and teaching, and you seem to be on of the 'keepers'

good scouting.

 

[Eagledad]

>>Today, I would rather work with a group with a shared vision than work on any project where I stand alone with those that only hang on.

[troop251scout]

Wow! Thanks for all of the replies, i already took many suggestions into mind and i will be planning on using almost everything suggested because most of what people said is how i feel or what i would like to get to!

 

Once Again Thank You For Your Feedback!

 

-Troop251scout

[SM484]

Have you ever seen the "Woods Wisdom" book? That book has two years of planning and programs. The program schedules and games are centered around the merit badges your troop is currently working on. From troop meetings to campouts, it lays it all out for you. The SM I replaced passed this book on to me. I have a second copy I give to the SPL to use to plan the six months he is in office.

 

Check it out and get'r done!