Quote: For this assignment, please submit a 3 page double spaced paper (1 inch margins 12pt. font, Times New Roman) analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a leader in your community. Please remember “community” has many interpretations when you are choosing a person for this paper. Do not just offer an overview of that person’s endeavors. Consider why this person is currently in the limelight and is this for positive reasons or negative reasons. With what leadership strengths and behaviors do they seem to fit? What could they be doing to improve their image, if needed? Do you feel the image portrayed is accurate? How do you perceive this leader? Use your knowledge from class material and other leadership courses complete an analysis for this paper.
Leadership through Scouting
XXXXAs we go through our daily lives, we are each eventually led to become a part of a community that will cause us to develop based on the lessons learned while participating. For some, it can be a community formed within their neighborhoods, for others it can be formed within their schools. Though the location may be different, there is one thing about these communities that will be similar, there is a leader that sticks out and helps to cultivate that community (and the individual) and guides their followers as they mature. I too was fortunate enough to be a part of a community known as the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and it served as one of the major foundations in evolving me into the adult that I am now. One quality that I’ve noticed within this community is the act of taking in boys of all ages and fostering leader-like ideals through the many activities that one can have offered to them.
XXXXWhile in this program, I acquired many role-models that displayed qualities of the type of leader that I wanted to be. While taking part in a BSA summer camp program, at the age of 15 (as a camper), I came in contact with a man that I would forever revere and see as the perfect example of whom I wanted to be when I grew up. His name is Carl Adkins and he would eventually become my boss for the eight years. I would like to make it known, usually applicants have to go through an interviewing process with other members of the summer camp, but I was fortunate enough to meet with Carl directly, in his main office. I learned from the very beginning that there are three qualities that Carl wants and desires from in all his “workers”:
1. Know your Job
2. Be courteous
3. Be on time
If you remember these points, Carl ensures that there will not be any problems while they are working there.
XXXXWithin the Scouting community, Carl serves as has served for nearly thirty years on different levels. Of those levels, his more beneficial (as well as well-known) levels of service are within the corporate level. He has served as the Director of Support Services for the Middle Tennessee Council. In this position, Carl deals mainly with connecting volunteers with areas of the scouting community where both he and they feel that they can be the most beneficial. He also deals with external support by means of keeping in contact with financial supporters. As volunteering is one of the main forms of support for Packs and Troops, his position is held with great importance. Once, I was given the opportunity to see his position in action and was asked to given a speech at a volunteer luncheon where it was my job to best display the importance of leadership through volunteering to me as a scout.
XXXXAside from his position on a corporate level, he also serves as Boxwell Reservation Director. Boxwell Scout Reservations is a large scale camping area that offers itself to members around the nation. It also serves as a location for major programs such as Summer Camp, Winter Camp, Fall Fellowship (Order of the Arrow society), and many other major events that provide support to scouts. Simply put, he is the boss and is charged with both micro-managing Boxwell as well as hiring competent individuals (both male and female) to assist him in running the different areas, be it instructors, assistant managers, and even cooks.
XXXXCarl Adkins serves in many positions within the scouting community. Though most of these positions are from a leader’s standpoint, he is modest enough to step down and take the follower position when someone else with greater knowledge on the subject appears. However, unless situations like these are an official function and the person present isn’t a well-known purpose, I’ve noticed that he doesn’t relinquish the baton of leadership completely. Simply put, sometimes he can come off as a little power-hungry at times and will allow someone to offer advice, but will not always take it.
XXXXAs an older member of the community (mid 50s), Carl has gained a lot of knowledge on his position as well as many other aspects of the BSA. One of the greatest strengths, which speak volumes, of any leader in the BSA is familiarity through having also been a cub scout or a boy scout and having gone through the program as a boy, as opposed to just as an adult leader (scoutmaster, executive, etc.). This is especially true if the person in question was in the program long enough to make Eagle Scout (highest rank in the BSA). Carl Adkins is one such person and has even gone as far as to also be involved in the other lesser known areas of Boy Scouts, such as Venturing and Sea Scouts. However, with this age also comes the weakness of sometimes being a little too attached to tradition as well as the occasional chance to compare his current employees to employees that he has had in the past, both for praise and for discontentment. Though he voices dislike in doing so, I’ve noticed that he is not afraid to break someone down through extreme criticism.
XXXXOn the other hand, when someone is being reported for not following directions or just being a nuisance to the program he has a gentle (though very well known) method of dealing with the situation. To us employees, we call it “Re-educationing.” In an attempt to provide some secrecy on the issue at hand, Carl will pull the person aside and go for a ride with them in his MASSIVE, white, camp truck and then talk with the person (not to the person) about what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, what they are supposed to be doing, and then getting right into the situation and finding out why they are doing what they are doing (both reason for being there and reason for acting out). Sometimes he will even bring the accuser along for the ride so that the issue can be confronted with both parties knowing that there won’t be another issue.
XXXXAmong the seven years that I have worked for Carl, I’ve also had to opportunity of working along with him in a “Key 3” position and the opportunity to witness his leadership style(s). These are positions [Key 3] within the summer camp that would be best compared to positions in a retail-type setting, such as an Assistant Manager (Camp Director), Associate Manager (Program Director), and Customer Service Supervisor (Camp Commissioner). In working these positions, one can see him when he’s not in the spotlight and witness a completely different aspect of his leadership style. Unless you work one of these positions, Carl Adkin’s leadership style can come off as a cross between an Autocratic and a Bureaucratic leader. He can be very “by the book” in how he handles situations and is quick to show his dominance in these situations, though gentle in how he approaches making this fact known (sometimes).
XXXXHowever, once you get to see him from the prospective of the Key 3 and work alongside him, you can find out that he’s also a Participative leader whom isn’t afraid to ask for the input of others, especially if it seems that they may know a little more on the subject at hand. Despite both situations, he can also be very charismatic and invigorating through his “compliment sandwich” approach towards each and every member that he speaks with, being sure that the compliments far outweigh the complaints.
In his many years of service, he has built the image of a man that can be trusted as a confidant in times of distress and discomfort as well as the image of a leader that can work from multiple outlooks on the situation. He has established that he knows what he is doing and knows how to help those under him know what they are doing through constantly preaching the three things that were mentioned previously: Know your Job, Be Courteous, and Be on Time.
XXXXThough I cannot attest for he was as a leader before I joined, when I did join, Carl was pretty much established in his image, showing both positive and negative aspects that didn’t serve against him, but served to his benefit by making him human. This is to say that he doesn’t come off as a super leader, but as a leader that has proven that he makes mistakes too. One aspect that wasn’t mentioned before was his honesty and that he is not afraid to apologize should he make a mistake and be caught and confronted on it, as long as the confrontation was genuine. However, even if the confrontation is a matter of misunderstanding, Carl is modest enough to accept where his accuser is coming from and will make amends to either explain himself (if necessary) and tells why he did/does the things that he does or did.
XXXXOverall, Carl Adkins is a great leader and great role-model to both me and the many lives that he has impacted both as an employer and fellow scouter. The image that he has built for himself is believable to the point of desired replication by most, if not all, that come in contact him and his style towards leadership.
 -InsertEgoHere- Liger · Tue Oct 08, 2013 @ 01:47pm · 0 Comments |
