Leadership and S’mores
I just spent a great weekend camping with my son and his Boy Scout troop, and reflected on the perception of Boy Scouts from a hiring perspective. I was never a scout, but I always had a very specific set of things that came to mind when I heard about Boy Scouts or Eagle Scouts. As a person who hires a lot of people, when I met folks that were Eagle Scouts, I had a set of common expectations that would spring to mind immediately - loyal, trustworthy, respectful, friendly, etc. But there is one aspect of Scouting that I did not fully appreciate - leadership.
If you are unfamiliar with the details of the Boy Scout program, you likely know they do a lot of outdoor activities, tie a lot of knots, and probably were not the most popular kids in high school. We also know a lot about recent news involving some well deserved heat that the national organization has had about some horrible things that happened in the past. But what you likely don't know is how at the foundation of this activity, youth are not just learning outdoor skills but how to teach and lead fellow youth in this learning journey. As I enjoyed being in the woods with the troop of adults and youth, I watched as high school kids spent a lot of time helping the younger middle school kids learn new skills. I reflected back on my childhood and I don't think I had very many chances to learn how to teach like this. Learning how to patiently encourage somebody to do something they don't know, and imparting the confidence and support to help someone is a very important life skill.
I was so impressed that in this age of teenagers mostly focused on digital interaction with computers, that this opportunity for them to collaborate together, to guide others, and to lead was special. I spoke with some parents that described how their kids had matured through their scouting journey and thought about what these young folks will take with them to their college career, and their first job.
The title of Eagle Scout is still quite revered in college admission offices and companies that hire new college graduates, and I suspect this aspect of leadership experience is certainly a part of it. I know, for me, it gives me some new insight into this characteristic of young people (now including women by the way) that have taken this journey. In order to become an Eagle Scout these young people have spent time figuring out how to lead, how to collaborate effectively, how to get the best out of a team of people. They have probably learned tough lessons of struggling to get the attention of a young scout that just wants to run off and throw rocks instead of working on a bowline knot. They have faced a group of hungry scouts waiting for dinner while they teach someone to cook for the first time. They have been faced with how to provide feedback to scouts that are not helping out at camp and need to help clean up messy cooking gear. These are great life skills.
I've worked with many adults that still don't know how to get the most out of a team of people. Leading is not as much about having the map and compass and pointing the direction, as much as it is about getting every member of the team to contribute the best of their talents and enthusiasm and shaping all of that to accomplish a goal. And when that goal is an awesome camp fire for a group of anxious kids that just want S'mores - that's a great start. I am not saying Scouting is the only way or even necessarily the best way to learn these skills for every kid, but it was an interesting insight for me when I think about professionals that have this specific background.