Scoutmaster

From Webelos Den Leader to Scoutmaster

I was a Webelos Den Leader for eighteen (!) boys. The next year I became a Scoutmaster. It took some time and mentoring to get me to stop being a Den Leader and start being a Scoutmaster.

Working with Webelos is fundamentally different than working with Scouts. Webelos den leaders are required to do most of the planning and leading that become the responsibility of youth leadership in a Scout Troop. Making the shift from Den Leader to Assistant Scoutmaster is an important step. We do all we can to help new Scouts transitioning from Webelos - let's not forget that Den Leaders stepping into new roles will need some help too.

A formal sit down with all of the adult leadership is in order when a new leader joins the Troop. Here are a few points that I share with transitioning Webelos Den Leaders:

• In becoming an assistant Scoutmaster your role in Scouting has changed significantly. It is my job as a Scoutmaster to help you make the transition from Den Leader.
• The Scouts who were once members of your den are now under the leadership of a Patrol Leader. They are now his responsibility. If this responsibility is to have any integrity he must be given plenty of latitude to do the job as sees fit. Both the Senior Patrol leader and I will be monitoring his performance and would appreciate any concerns being expressed directly to me rather than the Patrol Leader.
• Your Scouts will naturally look to you for direction. When they do direct them to their Patrol leader for answers even if you know the answer.
• It is likely that you are going to feel uncomfortable or antsy and doubt the ability of our youth leadership. Welcome to the club. It is a natural reaction that all Scouter's experience. The best thing to do in this instance talk to the Scoutmaster or another Assistant Scoutmaster.
• Our youth leadership is very respectful and responsive of any direction or comment given by an adult. They also respect a chain of command - talk to the Scoutmaster before you talk to a Scout.
• If you see a situation that is an immediate danger to propriety or safety you have permission to step in and correct it. I have to do this once every four or five years.

Some frank talk, good humor and empathy will go a long way towards easing the transition for everyone.

Ten Things Scoutmasters Can Do For a Senior Patrol Leader

1. Let him own the program.
SPLs are actually responsible for the Troop program, meetings, outings, the whole megillah. If he is receiving a written plan from you he is not actually responsible for the program, he is responsible for running your idea of what the program should be.
2. Praise publicly, criticize privately
Never ever holler at or criticize your SPL in front of other Scouts. No other action will undercut his authority more completely than this.
3. Give him some direction and boundaries.
Always keep him focused on what Scouting promises Scouts. Show him where the boundaries are and point out the vast possibilities.
4. Be polite, ask permission.
Can I take a moment to say something? Do you need any adult support for that? What can I do to help you with this?
5. Encourage him
There will always be problems - challenge is good. He is responsible not to prevent problems but to lead the Troop through them.
6. Set the proper tone for leadership.
Scouts are not soldiers, you are not the captain, the SPL is not you drill sergeant. You are the coach, your SPL is the team captain, the Scouts are the players.
7. Use your authority sparingly.
When circumstances demand step in quietly (with permission) and ask questions that will lead to a course correction. Don't grab the wheel out of his hands unless the wreck is imminent.
8. Keep your distance.
Let the Scouts live their own lives, go fold a tent, conduct a Scoutmaster's conference, have a cup of coffee or watch quietly.
9. Guard the playing field.
When other adults interfere quietly redirect their attention to something else. One direct, clear statement about the role of adults is usually all that is needed.
10. Give him plenty of feedback.
Plenty is two minutes a meeting.

Training by Action.

The picture that forms in my mind when I look at most attempts at leadership training is watching someone try to get a prize out of one of those claw machines. Manipulating the frustratingly inaccurate claw to catch a prize worth less than the quarters required to win.

Training done at one remove from the situation where the skills will be applied is about as effective as the controls on the claw machine. Most training tends to favor abstract explanations and remote analysis over action.

Given the opportunity to go out and do compelling, interesting things Scouts train themselves in leadership. They don't need manipulation through the seven points of something or the eleven steps of that - they need to go out and give things a try.  Scouts are clamoring to do -- not to study. Once they start doing real things instead of discussing or looking at videos of how things are to be done they begin leading.

Scouts learn best through action and discovery. Complex concepts are best understood by experiencing rather than discussing them. Reflecting on an experience is far more effective than an abstract explanation and analysis.

So how does a newly minted Patrol Leader (for instance) learn his job? The same way one learns to rappel down a wall or swim- by doing it. When learning to rappel or swim someone is nearby to help or explain but  not to carry the Scout through the experience on their backs. Good training does not carry a youth leader through the experience - it puts him into the harness or in the pool.

We may observe but must not physically hover around a patrol meeting. For one our presence changes the situation, besides the temptation to interfere is often too great.  Later, rather than making observations and talking too much, we ask lots of questions that enable the Scout to discover his strengths and find his own answers.

Once a Scout learns how to reflect on his own actions and find his own answers it will become an integral part of his experience as a leader - he learns to train himself.

Ten Things Adults Do to Frustrate Troop Youth Leadership.

This is not a missive from an ivory tower. The author is able to write about these ten frustrations largely because he has been guilty of all of them at one time or another -

1. Talking too much
When it is time to have your say keep it short, direct and intelligible. Scouts always appreciate brevity and concision. When they begin to show an unusual interest in the ceiling or their shoes you have talked for too long.
2. Coercion
Adults can manipulate circumstances and conversations to bring about the result they desire. Narrowly defining options or ideas can be unfairly coercive. Instead look for direction from honest discussion - Scouts can come up with simple resolutions to difficult problems when given the latitude so to do.
3. Nitpicking
Don't sweat the small stuff. Concentrate on the good. Minimize the shortcomings-celebrate the achievements.
4. Micro Management
Show scouts the point on the map that is their goal. Don't tell them how to take every step. Allow them to discover talents and abilities without stopping them every ten minutes.
5. Anger
"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred." -Thomas Jefferson
Anger is a dark storm that will pass - talk to another adult first . Doing this is a good way to "count to ten". It is irresponsible and childish to unload on your Scouts.
6. Sacrificing the perfectly good to the perfect
Perfection is not our goal. Growing up and learning is a messy, unpredictable business. Don't expect perfection, expect action.
7. Treating honest mistakes as horrible crimes.
Mistakes are ineveitable, even desirable - they indicate action and growth. Few of your problems as a Scoutmaster are from deliberate premeditated disobedience or carelessness. Scouts will make mistakes in judgment and action - seize on these moments for introspection, not punishment.
8. Hovering
Scouts need space, real responsibility and autonomy. They do not need someone breathing down their necks. Maintain safety and propriety from a respectful distance.
9. Shifting standards
Don't change the rules in the middle of the game or otherwise unfairly shift some fundamental goal. Every course needs adjustment, but no one benefits from a shifting standard.
10. Usurpation
Actual responsibility for behavior, achievement and action leads to actual achievement or actual disappointment. When adults usurp this responsibility to make things easier or more predictable they compromise achievement.

Hitting the Wall

Marathon runners sometime experience a sudden loss of energy that they call 'hitting the wall'. The race is going well  until one seems to pass through an invisible barrier and get-up-and-go gets up and leaves.

Scoutmasters and their youth leadership may have a similar experience when communication breaks down, goals become fuzzy and nothing seems to work. Otherwise capable and energetic leaders may encounter a simple setback that drains their enthusiasm - a common experience; especially for developing youth leaders.

Given the responsibility for an aspect of the Troop program youth leaders (and adults for that matter) often find that what seemed simple becomes hopelessly complex. Youth leadership is especially susceptible to growing frustrated, feeling inadequate, and subsequently giving up. They have hit the wall. Normally their first reaction is minimizing the importance of the task they were given and making only a token effort.

When the inadequacy of their preparation comes to light (more often than not at a point too late to do anything about it) the reaction of their fellow leaders may make them reluctant to take on any other responsibility in the future.

First the wall, followed by frustration, disappointment, and topped off by a negative reaction. Such a course of events will discourage even the most energetic leadership.

We can't avoid the wall - we are all going to hit it. We can minimize the resulting troubles. First we have to recognize that the wall exists and have some idea of where it is- forewarned is forearmed. Unlike a marathon runner Scout leaders aren't running on their own; we have a team to support us. When a youth leader takes on a responsibility it is incumbent on the Scoutmaster and his assistants to help them define the task, point out the resources and offer lots of support. We mustn't do it for them, but we need to let them know that there are walls out there and be ready to lend a hand when they hit one.

Planning Without Tears

Much effort is extended by Scoutmasters in training their Youth Leadership the art of planning. Scouts are more likely to leave things to chance not because they are careless or stupid but because they are inexperienced.

They probably will not read a book on planning, nor endure  a long lecture on the subject. They will respond to concise directions and can even be cajoled into following most of them. Guide them with  questions  through a process of discovering how to plan meetings and events.

Define the Task
What has to be done? When does it have to be done?, Who's doing it? Where,When,How?   

Consider Resources.
Time,skills,equipment. What do we have?, What do we need? How will we get it?

Consider Alternatives
Be prepared to respond to changing conditions.

Write the Plan.
Share it with others,maintain focus.

Put the Plan into action.

Evaluate.
Successes, difficulties. What should we do different next time?

Scoutmastership, Leadership, Management

Whenever I type the word 'scoutmastership' my eternally faithful spell check underlines it in red. My best guess is that the term was coined by Baden Powell  in the title of his booklet 'Aids to Scoutmastership'. Dictionaries don't recognize the word. Scoutmastership embodies an important concept that differentiates the work of Scouting in general and Scoutmasters in particular from other forms of leadership, administration and management.

Scoutmasters may find inspiration and practical advice in the study of business management concepts and adapt them to the unique practice of Scoutmastership. As Scoutmasters we are not responsible for the production of a product or the management of easily quantified numerical goals. Nor are we merely charged with administering a program  or maintaining a  set of standards.

To be sure Scoutmastership has elements of teaching, parenting, mentoring, leading managing and administering yet it defies the definition of any single field. The term "Scoutmastership" properly sets the role apart as a unique endeavor. Scoutmasters  mentor Scouts through a variety of experiences in such a way that they learn for themselves to weave together the various influences of their lives into a cohesive whole. We are given more general inspiration than specific direction - and purposefully so - because each one of us will have a slightly different way of carrying out the work.

A great revelation is the discovery that there is no universally adaptable step-by-step plan for Scouting but rather well expressed yet potentially frustrating generalizations. Is every Eagle Scout identical in character and deportment to all others? Does every Scout Troop operate under a universal specific method of administration? Is every Scout equally talented? Do they all share identical dispositions?

Policies and procedures are our tools, not our masters. Should we observe them? Certainly. But we must not mistake them as the game itself - they are merely the rules we play by. Imagine a sport  devoid of rules or a field with no players; both equally joyless and meaningless.

To build on a thought expressed by Carl Schurz:

Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.

I think of a long night on the Chesapeake Bay steering a replica of a seventeenth century ship.
Unlike the steering wheel of a car or the sophisticated controls of a modern vessel the ship was equipped with a primitive device attached to the rudder called a whipstave. The steersman stands in a tiny "doghouse" on the after deck with no view of the water at all much less over the bow ahead. Directions must be relayed by an officer conning the ship above the doghouse to the steersman who, watching the the compass, swings the whipstave to adjust the course. It is not an easy system, nor one that lends itself to pinpoint accuracy. Staying on course  is not following a  line; it is occupying a position within a wide path. Ships don't respond quickly, the con must anticipate adjustments to the course far ahead accounting for the currents, winds  and vagarious nature of the sea. A skilled mariner does not fight with the sea; he learns to integrate them into the art of steering the ship.

Scouting is a wide path with plenty of room for course correction and plenty of allowance for leeway. Scoutmastership is the job not so much of directing as coaxing; not so much arriving as traveling; achieving as striving. Scoutmastership integrates the influences of society, family, school, church to form decent human beings while they are in the chaotic throes of "finding themselves".  We are not working towards goals, we are shaping a destinies.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
Scoutmaster's Mission Statement
Promises to Keep
Taking Direction from Youth Leadership

AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership

" Fundamentally, a leader must have ability. Ability has two components: knowledge and skill. Knowledge is understanding a task. Skill is proficiency at performing a task. The key to developing knowledge and skill is repeated exposure...  In order to generalize learning to a variety of complex situations, you as leader need to have a varied and extensive base of exposure to related situations. It is this experience that allows you to develop ability." - Alex Kosseff on the AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership

Scout leaders may not routinely lead expeditions to Nepal or outings requiring extensive specialized skills but the information in the AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership remains a vital resource. Competent leaders should have a grasp of group dynamics, risk assessment, effective decision making and planning. Mastering these elements leads to a better quality of experience for everyone, less stress on the leader and a broader scope of activities.

Kosseff has produced a solidly well-written and thorough guide that merits close study by anyone leading groups in the outdoors (or anywhere for that matter).

Available at the Scoutmaster Essentials Amazon store.

What We Want to Hear

Here's a couple of recent things I have heard within the Troop that I found encouraging indications we are on the right track.

Our SPL is working on Camp Staff this summer so the ASPL is required to step up and lead the Troop through our summer meetings and a week at summer camp. We meet outdoors at the local park during the summer months and rain was threatening this week's meeting. I was monitoring the situation and planning to call the ASPL to confer about canceling the meeting (it was going to rain, it had been raining all day) when the phone rang and there he was.

As I carefully (too carefully) explained that two out of three patrol leaders were out of town and just how I would handle getting the word out he said "I'll handle it" and our conversation ended quickly.

That was just what I wanted to hear.

This ASPL knows his stuff, camp is going to be a breeze!

On a spring campout we welcomed several new scouts and one new father on his first outing as an Assistant Scoutmaster. Adults often find it more difficult making the transition from Webelos to a Scout Troop than do boys. Webelos leaders are more directly involved and working with a patrol system and youth leadership represents a big change.

Like most our new ASM's son was used to dad solving some of his problems and giving him direction on campouts. When he came around the adult's campsite (especially at meal time) my time-tested method of putting him back on track is to ask "where is your patrol?". Invariably the scout points to his patrol campsite and says "over there" and I than say "I think they need you". After the second or third time this happens most new scouts get it and they head off to their patrol when I first ask the question.

I had this exchange within earshot of the new ASM three or four times in the course of the weekend. When Sunday breakfast rolled around the new ASM's son found his way over to our part of he campsite again and started inquiring after his fathers breakfast. The new ASM looked at him and asked "where is your patrol?" the boy grimaced a little bit and headed off to join his fellow scouts without a word.

That was just what I wanted to hear.

The new ASM got a hearty handshake and I welcomed him to the troop.

Leadership Training

My career as a amateur and, very occasionally, professional actor has demonstrated that people raise their performance level astronomically when they have a real audience. I have seen people who rehearse poorly preform brilliantly. I see similar difference in scouting; when the boys are being trained they rarely perform at the same level as when they are doing real work.

Troop leadership  need brief and useful time to itself to mark out plans and prepare for them, but they do not need elaborate and, to most boys, tiresome 'training'. They will learn more from  actually doing the work rather than rehearsing.

Leadership training is not an event, syllabus or session; it is a constant relationship between the members of a troop built on a basis of shared responsibility and service.