Girl Scouts Leadership Lesson #1
I didn’t last long as a girl scout when I was a kid. But I was involved with my daughter’s troop for several years. I learned a lot and these lessons have translated into my work life.
Most of the time, my work with the girls was uneventful. Boring even. But, there were times when my patience was tried, my poker face cracked, and I was at my wits end.
There was one camping trip where I almost lost my mind. My daughter was probably 11 or 12 at the time. The group behaved as young middle school girls will, lots of drama, complaining and crying.
The trip did not start out well. The leader was an old pro at camping with the scouts, having led the troop for her three older girls. She had a lot of camping stuff. I mean a lot. Her entire full sized van was filled to the brim with cast iron frying pans, crafts, and the like. It took a half hour just to unload. That should have been my first clue. Load after load came out of the van, and I kept thinking that we were only there for 2 days. How much stuff did we actually need? Hah!
It was a warm late spring weekend and the girls were intent on finding the swimming pool. That was mishap number one. The pool was closed for lifeguard training, and when the girls found that out, they just fell out. Oh the drama! Cue the eye roll.
“It’s too hot!”
“You said we could swim!”
“I want to go home!”
“I want to go home” became an instant theme. We decided that since no one was going home and the pool wasn’t an option, we’d take a walk through the woods. There was a creek to follow. Surely the creek would be enough to cool everyone off, right? Not so much.
I’ll admit, it was hot. And humid. Cranky kids only made the situation worse. But the pièce de résistance? Ticks. The woods were full of them. Seemingly thousands of them. Ticks that immediately began to attach themselves to all of the girls. Yikes.
I hate ticks. So, this leadership lesson? As a leader, you have to be the one who’s calm, who exhibits grace under fire. Even when it’s hard. I was completely skeeved out, you know, since I hate ticks. Picking them off the girls without tweezers was challenging. Picking them off without expressing how grossed out I was, was a herculean task.
But that’s what leaders do right? Be the voice of reason, the calm center of the storm? Even when seemingly thousands of ticks are attacking your kid? Leadership is hard. If you know a good one, thank them for their efforts.
Oh this trip isn’t over, but more about that next time. I mean we haven’t gotten to cooking, threatening weather, bedtime stories for weird girls and mice. Stay tuned.
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