A fresh start with new friends had me in the back of the room while Sr.Cdr. gave the Outpost a classic "pep-talk" and the subjects he covered were very interesting! *Sound familiar? It went like this: 1. This is YOUR Outpost . "If I had an interest in being here, I'd make the effort to come prepared....." "You know.. I haven't been handing out as many advancements as I've wanted too.. you guys seem to have fallen asleep! How come?" "A couple of weeks ago, I asked for input... what merits you might want to work on in the coming winter meetings, I know we talked about Leather craft... But I haven't heard from you boys if that is what YOU want?" And finely.... "You know.. Commanders had a meeting and talked about allowing more and more freedom for you boys to have input and plan your meetings as well as events... That might be a different idea than how we have been running.. but I have to tell you it's pretty attractive to the Commanders.... Royal Rangers is YOUR program gentlemen.." --------------****+****------------- *I went up stairs with the Challengers.. and began my short lecture on Leadership 101 as published haphazardly on Rangernet.org <G> The boys started to tell me how leadership was the chain of Command and that to OBEY was the 'golden rule of Leadership... I wrote those qualities on the board.. and asked the question: "So what kind of leader would you follow? what kind of leader would you trust? what qualities of a leader would you desire to LOVE?" If you were going to be a "leader" how would you treat your friends different?" "When you become a Dad.. how will you treat your sons?" I began to talk about "virtue's" and caring for each other... When suddenly a horn blew and one boy jumped and yelled "We have to go now!" (He left and yelled COME ON! NOW!) ...suddenly my Challengers were walking in lock step down a stair and into a room filled with silent boys at attention... the Commanders walked through the group waiting to catch eyes roaming....they checked for proper alignment of the backbone and serious look on the face. *A prolonged period of un-comfortableness surrounded me.... --------------------------------------------------------------- The room was stone silent, and was brought to an end by "Commander" passing out a "Tootsie pop"..."GOOD JOB GENTLEMEN" We retreated back to the classroom where I wrote on the board...with 5 min's remaining.. .My room went silent<G> Leadership is critical thinking.. It is a product of careful thought and management of resources.. It's applying the right tool to the right job, and with Older Rangers it's freeing them from the direct assault of "In your face" to a "backdoor kind of wisdom" and getting them to *prefer others to their desires...for a greater good than personal fulfillment. It may involve standing at attention... *but mostly it don't<G> I held in my hand a article called "Praise that doesn't demean, and Criticism that doesn't wound" and handed it to the Challengers.. It shows how we adults praise without thinking... and that sometimes HONESTY in the heart of the boy leaves questions in his mind as to his right to claim the "prize" we award. We must be very carefull in the choice of words that might confuse and open mind. The boys are a LOT SMARTER than they let on... they wonder what and why we do things.. and often mimic our actions on the "outside" without fully understanding what is on the "Inside"... . I couldn't eat the Tootsie-pop.. I threw it out! RRanger Leadership Training Course *Section one- Organization and Advancement Q.#4 One of the Royal Rangers program goals is to give boys military training (True) (False) . -=A=- _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC! http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
