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! 

Moving from Silver to Gold

I had a Cadette Essentials Leadership Training a while ago, and it was a really great, small group!  Really motivated current Junior leaders who were looking forward to bridging their girls to Cadettes.   And we had two leaders who were brand new to Scouting!  They had a troop of 14 girls who were also brand new to Girl Scouting AND Cadettes.  WOW!

This was the first time I’d really had enough time in the training to properly introduce the Silver Award to a group of Junior leaders.  It went well, but it also led to discussion about the Gold!  The leaders spoke about how the girls saw the Gold as a real goal to achieve.  Part of my job that night was to talk about the new Gold requirements, and how the Journey path could be used to achieve the steps to get ready for the Gold.

We talked about the difference between Service Projects and Take Action Projects. Between the Take Action projects of the Journeys and the Take Action projects of the Gold.  And we talked about how important it is to hold the girls to the high standards of both awards.  There were questions about sustainability and global reach that are just the starting points for these leaders to begin guiding their girls.  These leaders took it seriously, and I could see that I had given them something new to think about,

It felt good to begin the Journey to the Gold with these new Cadette leaders.  And it makes me even more hopeful that once the transition from Old to New gold Requirements is complete, we will have girls coming up the ladder with great Take Action experience prior to their Gold Award Project.  And the leaders will have had success with the experience as well.

I expect some great Gold Award projects in the future!