Are You A Leader?

Commander Saysitall is a legend.

He attended NTC, ANTC, National Academy, and was one of the youngest ever to attend. He has been to every training camp that Royal Rangers has known to have. His chest is so full of ribbons and he has earned ever known awards to Royal Rangers. HE IS A GREAT LEADER and looks the part wearing the Navy blue smoky hat with gold braid.

But let?s look at his great leadership at another angle. When he became a local commander, it was large outpost of 56 boys, and 10 leaders. The next year he had only 5 go to district camp, and no one competed for Ranger of the year from his Outpost. He had just 1 kid advance that year and that was his own boy and his outpost went to very little activities. That summer, Commander Saysitall, became camp commander trainer and taught the National Special Activities class, which was boring, but no one from the District or National offices noticed, because most had other duties to attend. So no one was in the room to really find out.

Six months later, Commander Saysitall is awarded the Meritorious Service Award for his personal accomplishments, and some one is heard to say. "He is a great leader."

EVEN THOUGH NO ONE ACTUALLY FOLLOWS HIM.

THE POINT MADE IS:

All to often, leadership is confused with personal achievements. Holding positions doesn?t make one a good leader. Nor does passing a test, or attending lots of camps or training classes. When your outpost shrinks and quality suffers within the local level you work at. SOMETHING IS WRONG.

1. Take a good look at yourself. Most "good" leaders examine themselves quite often to see if improvement can be accomplished. Set goals of how to improve or make next year even better. See if more boys can fit into your program, or more help. If that can?t be accomplished then, a higher quality Outpost, the best in the District such as: the best song, best skit, best camp, best Outpost, best flag, or whatever you do strive for the best.
2. Get off your self-glory act and start striving to have your position to become replaceable. That?s right; get your job ready for you to be replaced. Royal Ranger Leaders need to begin to learn that the next level of personal excellence is recruiting, equipping, training, and motivating subordinates. To one day to take the reins of leadership when you are gone and have well trained leaders ready to take the positions when you?re out of the picture. I submit to you that once you are a master of a program, if you aren?t inspiring others and improving leadership, quality, and retention, then you may be just dead weight.
3. Become a mentor and mentor others. You as a leader need to be personal and professional at the same time. Remember souls of young ones are what you are striving for. A good way to do this is have an evaluation for leadership test. You may be a great person when it comes to drills, uniforms, camping, etc. But you may be mean, rude, controlling, or just plain ignore those below you. If you do then they will lose motivation, quit, or become very frustrated towards the program.

Have you ever sat down with another leader and tried to figure out what he is struggling with? Many times leaders, or those just thrown into the program just go through the motions. They just pass test, attending activities, or just get promoted. They have a form of leadership, but lack the substance. They blame their pastor, church, facilities, lack of money for not improving or they say the kids are just plain stupid. If this is true then you as a leader are facing a bigger problem that needs to be fixed.

Commanders can be frustrated and running out of ways to motivate their Outpost and other leaders. It is all too often that all they need are practical suggestions and help from you. A encouraging word and few pointers helping others can go a long ways instead of looking down on that leader as ignorant stupid people.

Remember these 2 things:

1. YOU WERE CALLED INTO THIS MINISTRY. Just filling in and just being a leader will not get the job done. This is a true ?calling? working with Royal Rangers. Pray for a vision, a calling, burden, or an answer to your dryness with this program.
2. THIS ISN?T A GLORY SHOW FOR YOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS. You must learn to take care of your boys and your position will take care of itself. Don?t try to take care of yourself so much. If you do, you?ll see yourself put at the last of the line by many other leaders and boys. Promotion is good, but when you allow ?self? to get in the way of your youth or boys. You lost the cause and need to pick it back up again.

?Jeff Ortner