Eisenhower and Leadership

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because they want to do it."

                           Dwight D. Eisenhower

I received this quote in my inbox today, and I thought, how appropriate to also talk about this for out Gold Award girls!

We’re asking these girls to identify a root cause, to do some research in their community, and to really evaluate what the need is, and how they can help to fill it.  The starting place is the issue, not the project!

The next piece is for the Gold girls to gather non-troop (mostly) volunteers who also feel passionately about the cause. And these are the peeps she will be leading to complete her project. There could be an element of educating peers about the issue, and asking for volunteers who are moved by the topic.  It could be as simple as addressing a club with like-minded mission to step up and volunteer.  Either way, she is going to have to use her leadership to make this happen!

And she’ll need to hone her skills to get her volunteers on board, and to have them be valued contributors to her project.  It sure seems like the more they are vested in the issue, the more likely the volunteers will be to help. And the more likely it seems that they will also spread the word about the issue being addressed and it’s potential solutions.

While the Gold girl is going to have to manage time and meetings, we also need to guide her to LEAD!  Let others do some the work, and learn how to best acknowledge and reward their successes.  Afterall, the better the volunteers are led, the better likelihood of a well developed and executed Gold Award Take Action Project!