By Gilcraft
If the single word "Leadership" connotes a very wide tract of
country, which it is impossible for me to explore fully. 1 can only give you a
series of rough sketches of various parts of that country which affect us
particularly in Scouting, and leave you to complete your own travel book for
yourselves.
Leadership comes naturally to but a few. Fortunately many more have some
natural ability in that direction which will become effective, if only it is
developed in the right kind of way. Leadership cannot be taught, but most of us
can benefit from the advice, experience and example of those who have proved
themselves good leaders, and, by striving to follow their lead, perhaps make
ourselves better leaders in our own turn. Diffidence will not help us; we must
make up our minds that we have in us something of the stuff of which leaders are
made, and set out determinedly to make ourselves more efficient.
Arctic and Antarctic exploration has produced many leaders, such as Amundsen,
Nansen, Scott, Shackleton, Watkins If you read the epic stories of their
endeavors you will see that while training, equipment, food and transport had to
be of the very best, and to be tried out beforehand in a long series of
experiments, yet these things alone could never achieve success. Two more
qualities were vitally necessary - the team spirit and comradeship of the party
and the leadership of its head. In all the stories of these explorations you
cannot but feel the tremendous power that came from the leader, who gave his
whole mind to the job of looking after the welfare of his party, and to the
attainment of the goal.
I will treat, first of all, with the leadership given in Scouting by boys. Of
the Sixer in the Pack there is little to say, not because he is of no
importance, but because he should not be asked to carry out his powers too soon.
There is real danger in giving a Cub too much to do on his own; there is real
danger in asking a Sixer to undertake the responsibility of leading his Six at
all times. He can lend a hand in various ways; he can show the way in a game or
in some simple test, but farther than that he should not go. Responsibility has
a sobering influence, and although we naturally want our Cubs and Sixers to be
sober, we do not want them to become dried-up old men before their time. Let
them remain children and let them enjoy their childhood without being "hudden
down," as we say in Scotland, with too much in the way of cares.
It is, however, a totally different kettle of fish when we come to the Troop
and its Patrol Leaders. They are older - though I hope not too old - and much
more can be, and is, demanded of them. As the Chief says on page 46 of Scouting
for Boys, "if the Scoutmaster gives his Patrol Leader real power, expects a
great deal from him and leaves him a free hand in carrying out his work, he will
have done more for that boy's character expansion than any amount of school
training could ever do." Remember these words were written over thirty
years ago, and that the comparison is not nearly so accurate as it was then. The
moral, however, remains the same. Boys of Scout age are old enough to be given
definite training in responsibility and in leadership.
What is the Scoutmaster going to do about it? Would it not be a good plan to
start with if he took to heart, and put in his own mouth, the Chief's
"Words to Patrol Leaders"? "I want you Patrol Leaders to go on
and train your Patrols in future entirely yourselves, because it is possible for
you to get hold of each boy in your Patrol and make a good fellow of him. It is
no use having one or two brilliant boys, and the rest no good at all. You should
try to make them all fairly good. The most important step to this is your own
example, because what you do yourselves your Scouts will do also. Show them that
you can obey orders whether they are given by word of mouth or are merely rules
that are printed or written, and that you carry them out whether your
Scoutmaster is present or not. Show them that you can get badges for proficiency
in different handcrafts, and your boys will with very little persuasion follow
your lead.
"But remember that you must give them the lead and not the push."
A Scout lives the greater part of his Scout life, and practices the vast
majority of his Scout activities, within the Patrol. It is impossible to
exaggerate the value of a good Patrol Leader, who must be the natural leader of
his Patrol if success is to be achieved. It takes a good leader of the whole
Troop to choose the right leader for the Patrol, or, better still, to allow the
Scouts to choose their right leader. Scouters frequently make mistakes in their
choice. Scouts seldom, for they know all that depends on the right choice, even
more than their Scoutmaster does. The Patrol Leader has to be the right fellow
for that particular Patrol so that its Scouts respect him, and at the same time
are on sufficiently good terms with him to be able to sit on his head, pull his
leg, or salt his tea. Even under such varying adverse circumstances the Patrol
Leader who is a leader will be able to say, "Now then, you chaps, we've had
enough ragging now. What about finishing off that raft, or helping Dick with the
spuds, or digging that trench?" He will then be the first to start lashing
the raft, scraping the potatoes, or wielding the shovel.
A good P.L. is one who inspires his Scouts to follow him because he is always
ahead of them, and never asks more of them than he is prepared to do himself.
How can a Scoutmaster achieve such leaders? First of all, by being one himself.
It is through being the Patrol Leader of his Court of Honor that he can set the
whole tone. A Scoutmaster who is always giving orders for others to carry out,
and who continually stands about, hands in pockets, watching the Scouts at work
rarely gets good P.Ls., and if he has them he certainly does not deserve them.
Perhaps it is they collectively who are the Scoutmaster, while he himself is a
mere passenger who hasn't even paid his fare. He is rather like the man who
always sat in the bus with his eyes closed, and when asked by a friend why he
did this, replied "I cannot bear to see the women standing."
But, mark you! a Scoutmaster must not work for his Scouts: he must work with
them. There is a deal of difference between the two prepositions, a difference
that divides bad Scoutmastership from good Scoutmastership.
Again, the Patrol Leader, young and irresponsible and rowdy as he may appear
to be, looks past all the Scoutmasters and Commissioners direct to the Chief
Scout, In so far as the Scoutmaster gives him the Chief's teaching direct from
Scouting for Boys or from others of his writings, in so far he will be a good
leader. I feel somehow that of late, unwittingly perhaps, we have tended to push
the Chief into the background of our Scouts' memories, and have failed to make
full use of the personal magnetism of his appeal to them. One has only to travel
abroad among Scouts, whether it be to Jamborees or otherwise, to realize that,
whether the Chief is present in person or not.
To return to the Court of Honor; there the Scoutmaster must act as the leader
of his P.L.s; there he must train them as his own Patrol. He cannot expect to
get water out of an empty jug; he cannot expect a Patrol Leader to teach
fire-lighting, tracking, map-making, and so on, if he has not got just that
little bit of extra knowledge which makes him better able to teach his Patrol,
but which does not make him conceited. The Scoutmaster must not be afraid to
trust his Patrol Leaders - distrust is fatal to all progress and all leadership.
He must allow them, and give them opportunity, to make mistakes, and there will
be plenty of these. He must frequently look the other way while the P.L. learns
to lead, and have patience to let things go slower and not so well while the
learning is in progress.
There is no better place for the training of a Patrol Leader than camp.
"Camp is the Scoutmaster's great opportunity" for this as well as for
his study of the Scouts' characters, and for the development of their Scouting.
To sum up - so far as Patrol Leadership is concerned - I quote from an
article in The Scouter "Every Scoutmaster has witnessed the improvement in
character which visits a boy so soon as he becomes Patrol Leader. That is the
value of leadership. That is why it is important to keep as many boys as
possible in the Troop to the age when they can become Patrol Leaders." (Do
not let that age be too great. Do not be afraid of young Leaders.) "There
is only one organization in the world which offers a boy such an opportunity for
enjoying leadership, and that organization is ours. It is a misunderstanding Scouter who throws that unique opportunity
away. If the saying that 'before we command we must obey' be true, I would say
that it is truer still that before we can obey we must command. The Leader who
goes from his Patrol, where he has given orders, to the outside world where he
must obey them, will the better understand why he must obey."
I have purposely devoted the greater part of my space to the Patrol and its
Leader, not only because of the importance in Scouting of that position, but
because the same idea can be applied to those older in Scouting. What is true of
the Patrol Leader is true of the Rover Mate, but to an intensified degree. As
boys grow older the hold of the gang diminishes, so that a man's intimate
associates are only one or two, and his more remote acquaintances many in
number. Younger men regard themselves as the equals of all; they are inclined to
resent superior authority and to invest it with an air of superiority which
makes them feel inferior themselves. They are prepared to follow one or two
whole-heartedly when they know them intimately, or to be swayed in company with
many others, by one or two whom they only know remotely. This last is mass-
suggestion, and in it lies many pitfalls and dangers, since in the main
mass-suggestion seems to influence more for bad than for good.
The Rover Mate is more on a level with the other members in the Crew. His
personality counts for more than his present knowledge. His leadership is more
of a temporary character, since leadership in the Crew should rightly change
frequently. He has, therefore, to be more tactful in his requirements, more
far-seeing in his objectives, which is an education in itself. He has to be
ready, too, to call on anyone with more knowledge to take his place temporarily
for some particular job or other, and to show no hesitation in doing so. In some
ways it might be said that a Rover Mate exists on sufferance, but he must not
let that worry him; it is more of a challenge to higher endeavor and to prove
his worth as a leader. During his term of office he will learn his own, and the
others', limitations. Even more, perhaps, than the Patrol Leader to his
Scoutmaster, he must give a complete loyalty to the Rover Scout Leader and to
the Crew as a whole. With the R.S.L. in the picture there is an association of
older and younger in a joint leadership - an association which is very valuable
for both. Experience and energy are welded together; common sense and enthusiasm
merge; the combination should be of real value to the Crew.
I have hinted at the leadership that Scouters should give in the various
sections of the Group, but there is a lot that we should hold in common.
Leadership is of the greatest importance in any voluntary organization, the very
existence and force of which depends on the inspiration of its leaders. The
basis of leadership is character. The road to leadership is through service, and
the higher one's ideals the greater will be the service rendered.
At the Norwich Conference the Chief stated the four essential points to look
for in a leader. I reproduce them for you:
- "He must have whole-hearted faith and belief in the rightness of his
cause so that his followers catch the contagion, and share his fanaticism.
- "He must have a cheery, energetic personality, with sympathy and
friendly understanding of his followers, and so secure their enthusiastic
co-operation.
- "He must have confidence in himself through knowing his job. He thus
gains the confidence of his men.
- "What he preaches he must himself practice, thereby giving personal
example to his team."
To these four points I am bold enough to add two more: the ability to look
ahead and to aim high without becoming oppressed with detail, and courage, the
moral courage to say "no," to change plans which have proved
unworkable or unsuccessful, to realize that the hurt to one man's feelings
cannot be allowed to injure the cause. These two points were expressed in
Gallieni's words to the then young Marechal Lyautey on the latter's appointment
as his Chief of Staff:
"I don't want to know anything about details. I want to keep my brain
free to conceive and direct. The end is my sole concern; the means are your
business. I have taken your measure. I believe things will go well. If they don't I shall drop you. I never let my
own feelings count once a question of duty is involved."
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