PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP-pt2

Leadership is a Property of the Group

Leadership is a combination of three dynamic factors: the group, the environment, and the task. More than one member of the group will perform leadership functions. Several members may contribute to goal achievements, depending on the requirements of the situation and the resources it offers, including the people, time, and material available. The task in which the group is engaged also affects the type of leadership needed. Leadership, therefore, may be looked upon as the property of the group.

What is a Group?

The group is "an assemblage of persons or objects gathered or located together; an aggregation."We believe that when two or more people gather for the purpose of accomplishing a task, leadership emerges. This is the concept of leadership with which we concern ourselves in White Stag. It is vital in all cultures that groups are able to work together to achieve the maximum benefit for society.

How do Groups Come About?

The most basic and obvious group is our family.

Leaders are needed in all circumstances, even for the most routine tasks, in the most common affairs of every day...In the family the leadership function of a parent is most basic. There is scarcely any leadership role in society which would be of greater significance than parenthood.

With the many challenges facing society today, it is abundantly clear that many families lack leadership.

Beyond the family, people band themselves together for numerous reasons. Some involve simple interpersonal relations such as neighbors organized to form a neighborhood association. Others may involve quite complex interrelationships, such as a large integrated manufacturing enterprise. In each case the group has been organized to meet a need that is recognized by or is common to all the members of the group.

About Leaders

What constitutes leadership? How can a leader be recognized? Leadership in most dictionaries is simply the "capacity or ability to lead." In White Stag, we argue that it is not quite so simple or that obvious.

The Leader's Function

Some groups persist and prosper and some blow up or wither away. Those that prosper are characterized by having a leader, someone who functions in two ways.

• The leader helps the group meet the needs of the individuals.
• No two members join for exactly the same reason. The leader helps knit the individuals into a cooperating group. The leader helps them all to see a common reason, a common goal that is mutually desired, and he delegates responsibilities among the individuals so they can see how their efforts will lead toward reaching the goal.
• The leader helps the group realize the purpose for which it was created. The leader helps the group:
  • Define the purposes for which it exists.
  • Keep its activity within the defined purposes and goals.
  • Find alternative ways of attaining their goal.
  • Grow to a more progressive organization in its own eyes.
  • Clarify the responsibilities of its officers and members to carry out the program.
  • Evaluate itself--why it exists, where it is headed, how much progress it is making.

Simply put, leadership is...

...influencing the group to accomplish a mutually agreed-upon task while advancing the group's integrity and morale.

In the language of an eleven-year old, it's "getting the job done and keeping the group together."

The group remains in existence only as long as these two needs are being fulfilled. The leader is not the same as the boss. The following poem says it well.

The Leader

The boss drives group members; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on good will.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says "I"; the leader says "we."
The boss assigns the task, the leader sets the pace.
The boss says, "Get there on time"; the leader gets there ahead of time.
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss makes work a drudgery; the leader makes it a game.
The boss says, "Go"; the leader says, "Let's go."

--Author unknown

A Leader's Key Functions

The leader accepts three key functions in his role:

• Authority: the right to make decisions.
• Responsibility: assignment for achieving a goal.
• Accountability: acceptance of success or failure.

You may at times be asked to accept a leadership position but are granted only two of these three responsibilities. If this happens, watch out. When you do not possess any one of the three functions, just imagine you are sitting on a three-legged stool--and you've just had one of the legs broken off from under you. You know what's going to happen next.

What the Leader Must Know

What must you, as the leader, know to be able to help the group? You must know:

• The members and be interested in their welfare.
• Their hopes, ambitions, abilities, limitations and prejudices.
• The things the members want to learn, or at least where and how to get the knowledge, such as woodcraft skills.
• How to motivate members to want to learn new skills and gain new attitudes. Without motivation no learning takes place and without learning the member stagnates and consequently finds no satisfaction from being a part of the group.
• How to establish communication between the members of the group.
• How to conduct or supervise meetings, discussions, and informal activities. Within White Stag, these include campfires, singing, Sunday services, troop leader councils, work parties and so forth. Common experiences that the group enjoys or that they are proud of help weld the group together.
• How to assess his own effectiveness, how to get the group to evaluate itself, its goals and its progress toward them. This in turn becomes a powerful motivating force for further learning.

Can a Group Have Several Leaders?

This leadership capability is usually assumed by the world at large to rest in a designated individual. He or she, in modern democratic social structures, typically governs with the consent of the governed for a specified period of weeks, months or years.

In White Stag we implicitly include as a leader any member of the group who possesses the knowledge, skill, and ability needed by group members to help the group achieve cooperative results. While there is usually a designated leader--someone appointed or elected to that role--for our purposes a leader is someone who is exerting more influence on the group than anyone else at that moment.

At any specific moment, one person is exercising more influence than anyone else on the group and therefore by definition is the leader. This functional take on leadership assumes that different leaders exercise different roles in keeping the group moving towards its purpose. The leader of the moment does not automatically usurp the responsibility and authority of any designated leader, although in certain crisis situations this may in fact take place.

The leader of the moment is usually fulfilling only one of the many functions necessary to the group's continued success. The leadership control of the group continues to rest with the person selected to function in most of the required roles. Some leaders excel in several leadership functions and neglect others. Those women and men who are recognized and acclaimed as outstanding leaders have cultivated excellent skill in many areas, are in effect multi-disciplinary leaders.

To give you a practical example, take a group of Scouts on a hike. The Patrol Leader is the designated individual in charge. But perhaps one of the members had just been hiking in the same area last week. That person then might assume temporary leadership in guiding the group towards its campsite over the next ridge. If, during the hike, a Scout falls and sprains his ankle, yet another Scout with superior skills in first aid may assume leadership in treating and managing the care of the injured Scout. Everyone, including the designated leader, willingly takes direction from another member of the group who demonstrates the leadership skills necessary in the moment.

Some might say that map reading and first aid are practical skills and not a demonstration of leadership. True for only a moment. For the Scout familiar with the terrain, or the knowledgeable first aider, what must each be able to do to persuade the others that he really knows what he's talking about? If either is non-communicative, uncertain, cannot articulate a plan, does not demonstrate resourcefulness, fails to be sensitive to group members' needs--then they fail as leaders. To implement the practical skill in a group setting requires something more, which we conceive of as a specific set of leadership skills.

The real measure of leadership excellence is evident when members of the group talk in terms of "we" instead of "I". They are identifying their personal goals as the group's goals and feel they belong to the very best group.

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