“The Power of Leadership”

This week we will feature a Guest author, Mick Koster.  Mick lives in the Detroit metro area of Michigan, in the USA, and works as a development consultant to Non-profit Organizations with his company Strategic Partners, Inc.  If you enjoy Mick’s “Thoughts” or are in Non-Profit leadership yourself, you should read his BLOG located at http://mickkoster.wordpress.com. 

“Ted the Boy Scout”

In the Boy Scouts, one of my fellow scouts – Ted – was one of the nicest guys, but he always seemed to drag behind.  When we went out hiking, Ted always had to be in the lead.  But he walked slowly, and everyone had to wait. When we did various craft projects, Ted was always the last one finished, which made everyone else slow down before we could move on to our next project. When we went canoeing, Ted would always get stuck on sandbars and tangled in tree branches that fell across the river. 

And the amazing thing, Ted never realized it.  Ted thought he was doing great.  He got his hiking merit badge, his arts and crafts badge and, believe it or not, his canoeing merit badge. 

While Ted was having a great time, the rest of us kids became increasingly frustrated.  Some fellow scouts even transferred to other troops.  And I’m quite sure that the troop leaders spent most of their time talking about “What are we gonna do about Ted?”  Then they’d give him another merit badge.

I’ve learned something since the Boy Scouts.  Every team, no matter how big or how small, seems to have at least one “Ted.”  He’s usually a great guy, everybody loves him, but no one wants to work with him.  “Ted’s” lack of production slows down the rest of the team, and the management of the team is disproportionately focused on “Ted’s” actions rather than on more productive and valuable members of the team.   

So, what do you do about Ted?  First, don’t give him more merit badges.  That just encourages the behavior.  He needs to meet the same standards as everyone else.  Second, give Ted tasks to accomplish which won’t result in slowing the rest of the team.  In other words, don’t put him in the front of the line during hikes!  Finally, make sure you’re not the “Ted” of your Boy Scout Troop.

“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those that are doing well to do even better.” –  Jim Rohn

Have a great day!

Shawn

Russ M. Miller, LLIF – Chairman & CEO
Performance Institute (Human Capital Development)
Global CEO Academy (Management Training)
Sunny Hong Zhang – Managing Partner – China
Shawn M. Miller – Managing Partner – USA

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