The First Competency Getting and Giving Information

Getting and Giving Information is probably the #1 competency required of leaders. If you cannot communicate effectively, then no other leadership skill will compensate for this lack. First and foremost, you must be able to exchange information effectively and accurately. There are three distinct aspects to communication, or getting and getting information: Getting it, retrieving it, and giving it. For complete information on the eleven leadership competencies, order Resources for Leadership.

Getting Information
When getting or receiving information, you may be watching for a variety of clues to gather meaning: not only verbal or written information, but nonverbal behavior as well. If you are not careful, facts will be forgotten or distorted. This is because both the individual sending and the person receiving the information may unintentionally obscure the message. There are two ways you can insure that the information you receive will not be forgotten or distorted:

Take notes. Always write down key information received. Repeat back what you think you heard the person say.

While you may think you understand what you think you heard, you may in fact have gotten it totally wrong. Clarify and verify! In a communication exchange, the sender controls what and how is said, or the content of the message. The recipient controls what is heard and the feedback given. To encourage good communication, you need to encourage others to speak freely.

Show interest by leaning forward, paying attention, nodding in agreement, taking notes, and so forth. Greet new ideas with interest. Give the individual your undivided attention. Maintain eye contact. Use the individual's name. Smile, relax, and be friendly.

Retrieving Information
Information received may have to be recalled at a later time. There are many different ways to store and retrieve information. Today, we naturally think of computers as a means for storing and retrieving

information. The medium is not as important as what your write and how you store the information. You can employ a variety of methods to help you remember details, including note-taking, repeating back, memorization, and mnemonic devices.

Giving Information
When giving information, use all five senses whenever possible. In addition,

Speak clearly. Use language that everyone understands. Vary your tone and pace. Move from the general to the specific. Use visuals charts, maps. and diagrams. Eyeball the listener.

Encourage two-way flowask questions and get them asking questions of you. Don't pass judgement on the question or the questioner. Use feedback and reflective listening to keep your verbal and nonverbal communication in sync. Take notes of the main ideas and review your notes soon afterwards to make sure they continue to make sense.

Understanding the Needs and Characteristics of the Group

When you come to camp, even if you come with friends, you'll be put into a group where you won't know anyone. Sound a little bit scarey? There's a reason for it!

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Everyone carries with them a little bit of history. At White Stag, none of that matters. Everyone has the same advantage and opportunities to be the best person they can be. There are no preconceptions or limitations on what you can accomplish.

What makes others tick

Everyone gets to learn about everyone else, their needs, their characteristics, what makes them "tick." We learn what excites people, what motivates them, what they need to succeed, and how to support and grow the group. We learn about how groups come together and commit to achieving tough goals. As your group plans and carries out activities, you learn more about yourself, your individual needs and characteristics. You learn how to balance individual needs against those of the entire group.

To understand others, we must first understand ourselves. This understanding can come naturally as we grow, and at White Stag we believe in giving indivdiuals direct encouragement to discover and improve on their skills and abilities.

Learn and grow as a person and with the group

Every group member needs to learn other members' needs and characteristics. Throughout life, as any group forms, members informally assess others' characteristics and needs. We bring the process out of the closet and use it to help everyone grow and prosper. We teach how to learn about and assess your own and other group members needs and characteristics in an open, trusting environment via specific learning activities and exercises. Everyone is accepted and their individual differences are valued, for the differences contribute to an environment calculated to encourage growth.

Knowing and Understanding the Resources of the Group

Sounds like a mouthful, and it is. "Resources of the Group." What are those? That's exactly where we want you to start thinking.

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Because we believe an imaginative leader thinks openly and creatively about resources. They aren't just limited to the physical resources, but include people's skills, attitudes, background. We help individuals learn about member's backgrounds and experiences is an effective technique for bringing a group together and creating commitment to common goals. We teach leaders that the group's ability to recognize and utilized diverse resources tremendously affects what the group can accomplish. When you use the group's resources, you can involve more people in active leadership by giving each a part according to his or her resources. All groups go through the process of uncovering their resources. It's often informal and unstated. We help individuals improve as leaders by bringing this skills to the forefront.

Helping members learn about group resources

This competency enhances the accidental, serendipitous encounter. It provides an informal but recognized stage where group leaders and members can learn about more each other. Our process increases the intensity of the exchanges, promoting honesty and trust. It accelerates the rate at which

the group begins to coalesce and develop commitment to a common purpose. Greater productivity and increased quality are the results. As a leader, it is a good idea to introduce activities that help the individuals in the group to become acquainted with one another's skills, knowledge, and abilities. Showing off a school transcript or resume is not what we mean. We challenge individuals and the group to draw on each other for resources and assistance. In this way they get a hands-on experience about exactly what resources are and how to use them!

Controlling the Team

This competency enables a learner to:

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Identify two forces influencing control of the group. List three actions a leader can take that influence the behavior of the group. List three factors influencing a leader's ability to control the group.

List three methods a leader can use to recognize and reward member's contributions to the group's tasks and goals. List three methods a leader can use to correct members who are not contributing to the group's tasks and goals. List three methods a leader can use to influence group member's attitudes List three characteristics of a good group facilitator. Name two methods a leader can use to control large groups, or groups of groups,

About Controlling the Group

A group exists for a purpose. Control is the throttle on the group's enginethe energy that gives it direction. As a leader exerts control, he balances getting the job done and keeping the team together. To effectively control the team, a leader: 1. Sets the pace. The most effective leader is out in front, demonstrating their willingness to do anything asked of team members. An effective leaders always sets an excellent example. 2. Observes. Observes the team, communicates with the members, is available, but does not dominate. Give suggestions for improvement rather than orders. 3. Instructs. Communicate clearly. As a Manager of Learning, allow members to use their own initiative. Correct mistakes with respect and without passing judgement. If the work is going well, do not intrude. If required, provide direct assistance and additonal instruction.

4. Counsels. Be ready to help individuals with specific needs. Encourages all members to give their best. 5. Inspects. Keeps a positive attitude and does not criticize. Praises good work, quietly offers suggestions to correct errors. 6. Reacts. Recognizes that responsibility for failure is on the leader, while the responsibility for success rests on the memers. Remains humble and continually strives to serve the team. Controlling Team Performance is a close companion of the competency Setting the Example. Coordinating individual efforts for collective purpose is externally and internally controlledby the leader and each individual. Setting the Example is a personal, internal manner of control that we hope others will model (when it's positive and appropriate). Control is most often an overt behavior of the leader. There are specific actions a leader can take to exert influence over a team. The leader in a team deploys the people in his patrol in a manner to promote control, breaking up destructive cliques, to encourage greater participation, etc. He stands at certain times to maintain or assert control. He counsels an individual to help him "set a better example

Counseling
This competency enables the learner to:

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List five elementary counseling skills. List three reasons to counsel with people. List three ways you know someone might need to talk. List two environmental settings that support a counseling session. Name one reason you should not offer advice.

List two circumstances when you must report a person's problems to someone in authority.

About Counseling
Counseling is a private talk with someone that helps the individual with a personal problem.

Takes away minor aches and painscommon sense stuff. What to do until the doctor arriveshelp the person tell you "where it hurts" and send for help.

As a leader, people will come to you with problems. Because you are a leader, you will spot people with problems. You can't turn them away or just let them suffer, because the ignored problem, if serious, will almost inevitably become a group problem.

Counseling is considered pretty difficult. Professional counselors, like lawyers, bankers, clergymen, vocational counselors, teachers, psychiatrists and others, sometimes spend years learning how to counsel in their fields. People often pay large amounts of money to be counseled.

Setting the Example

This competency enables the learner to:

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List three reasons why Setting the Example is important for leaders. List two reasons why it is important for group members to set a good example.

List 3 reasons why it is essential for a leader to set a positive example. Name one key factor that does not determine the kind of example you set. List seven key rules for setting the example.

About Setting the Example

Setting the Example is your personal behavior independent of external influences. While a very simple competency on the face of it, none is more important. Fail to demonstrate this competency to members of your group, and you are doomed to negative results. No matter how good a line you talk, if you don't match it with your behavior, you will enjoy no respect and find it increasingly difficult to get the group to work with you. It may be more difficult under some circumstances to set a positive example, but that doesn't stop you! Setting the Example is where your backbone shows. If you have character, if your character has integrity--that is, if who you are on the outside is lined up with who you are on the inside--you will accomplish far more than you might imagine possible. For this kind of leader, as long as he takes care of his follower's needs, enjoys their respect, loyalty, and even love.

Representing the Group

This competency enables the learner to:

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List four things you can do to represent a group effectively. List three reasons representing a group is important. List three competencies important to representing a group.

List three things you can do to assess individuals feelings Identify who can perform as a representative of the group.

About Representing the Group

Representing the Group is accurately communicating to non-group members the sum of group members' feelings, ideas, etc., and vice versa. A leader must represent his team on a great variety of issues. Some of these issues and the need for a decision representing group interests will be known in advance; others will not be. Under any circumstances, to faithfully represent the group, you must:

Fully understand the nature of the problem. Know how the decision (if any) was reached and be able to communicate it to others. Accurately and responsibly communicate from and back to the original group.

Realize that other groups may derive their entire picture of another group through you, the representative. You mPlanning This competency, sometimes also called problemsolving, enables the learner to:1

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List the seven steps of planning. Define each step of the planning process. List three competencies that influence planning. List five resources to be considered when planning. Describe why considering alternatives is an important step. Draw a diagram of the planning process. List four things to consider when reaching a decision. Describe four reasons to write down your plan. List four standard questions for evaluating a written plan. Name two ways that planning contributes to group success.

The basic outline for this competency has not changed in over 30 years. Additional information is added, layers of complexity are introduced, but the basic scheme remains: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate.

About Problem-Solving
Problem-Solving has six "phases":

1. Consider the Task

What is the task? Legitimize it. How does it feel? What's the real problem? What's the best/worst/most probable result likely if we solve this problem? Who has ownership? State as a question. Problem as given/Problem as understood (PAG/PAU). Lasso. Is/Is not. Diagram.

2. Analysis

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Why is it a problem? (Basic questions). Break it down/component parts. Force Field analysis (forces for sustaining the problem/forces against/restraining the problem). Generalize/exemplify. Ask the Expert. Win/Win (consensus) Both/And Build up/synthesize Straw voting Negative voting Focus on Agreements Back off Concurrent evaluation. Sharing leadership. Keeping group together. Getting the job done. Strengths/Weaknesses. Improvements. Feed-forward.

3. Generate Alternatives

4. Implementation

5. Evaluation Feedback.

Problem-solving includes:

Using specified skills to identify the nature of a given situation or task. Alternative methods for determining the appropriate solution Applying guidelines for analyzing a task or problem in order to solve it.

Along with Evaluation and Manager of Learning, this competency is one of the most critical and complex in leadership development. Skilled use of this competency positively influences the leader's ability to get the job done and keep the group together in all kinds of situations.

ust be consistent, possess integrity, and be fair to all parties.

Evaluation
This competency enables the learner to: For complete information on the eleven leadership competencies, order Resources for Leadership.

List the three essential steps of evaluation. List three reasons evaluation is important. Described three characteristics of effective evaluation. List five criteria for writing clearly stated objectives. List three characteristics of goals. List five characteristics of a vision statement. List four things to consider when evaluating the task. List four things to consider when evaluating the group. List five ways to evaluate alternatives. List two blocks to effective evaluation.

Evaluation is the constant companion of the White Stag learner and staff member. We constantly strive to improve ourselves, so we continually evaluate how we are doing. We call this the "Evaluation Attitude." This attitude, it turns out, is one of the five founding principles of the White Stag program. (See Follow the White Stag, Chapter 2 - "Program Principles" for a description of these concepts.) In almost any situation, except when responding to purely mechanical systems, we must consider the task and the people.

About Evaluation
Ask a Patrol Member Development candidate at the end of the summer camp, "When do you evaluate?" and he'll tell you, "Always." Ask another candidate from Patrol Leader Development "what do you look for when you evaluate?" and he'll say, "The strong and the weak points, possible improvements, and things to keep." Ask a third candidate, a young woman from Troop Leader Development, bowed under a large pack, "What is evaluation?" and he'll tell you everything the others have said and add, "We evaluate how well the group is keeping itself together and how well we're getting the job done." Evaluation is a continual process, either informal or formal, of judging a situation against a standard. Evaluation is, in essence, two things:

An attitude of continuous striving for higher goals. A process for judging an individual's or group's completion of a task against previously identified standards.

Our desire is to improve our evaluation skills so that we evaluate in the same manner a eagle soars on the winds: constantly testing, consciously and unconsciously, wind current, flow, our altitude, strength, time, direction, position relative to our target, etc., all the elements that affect our reaching and surpassing the next mountSharing Leadership
This competency enables the learner to: For complete information on the eleven leadership competencies, order Resources for Leadership.

Develop a concept of leadership for a group which permits different functions of leadership being shared or distributed among

group members according to the situation and member's strengths.

Gain knowledge of the forces acting on the leader and the group, and inherent in the situation which makes for appropriateness of leadership styles. Distinguish between situations in which certain styles of leadership are appropriate. Relate styles of leadership to the twin factors of getting the job done and maintaining group integrity and morale. Develop attitudes of using appropriate styles of leadership to fit needs of the group to meet situations and accomplish short-and long-range goals.

About Sharing Leadership

Sharing Leadership translates on one level into "styles" of leadership. Depending on the job and the group, certain ways for the leader to work with the group will be more appropriate than others. It also identifies some of the generic roles groups have that can be distributed among all members. Sharing leadership is a key function of a leader. The ability to extend herself, to accomplish jobs greater than one person alone can handle, is one of the key elements of our society's success today. Never has a society been so productive. ain peak.