You may have been a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout in your youth.\u00a0 Certainly you are aware of the top rank in each \u2013 the Gold Award for girls and the Eagle badge for boys.\u00a0 Scouting teaches leadership and even if we were not members in our youth, there are lessons for us all.<\/p>\n
For example, the Boy Scouts of America motto is \u201cBe prepared.\u201d\u00a0 And from that comes training in first aid, disaster preparation, and outdoor skills, planning for events and outings, and any number of simulations or practice runs at rescue training \u2013 from snake bites to earthquakes to fires to broken limbs to heart attacks in the wilderness.\u00a0 We could learn from this simple oath taken by boys from ten to eighteen.\u00a0 Simply learning to ask \u201cWhat if?\u201d of our direct reports is a good first step toward reducing exposure to bad outcomes, whether attempting to plan for handling a natural disaster or workplace calamity.<\/p>\n
[Email readers, continue here…]<\/span> \u00a0<\/em>Every Scout memorizes the twelve points of the Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent<\/em>.\u00a0 That may seem an overwhelming list of aspirations, but would it not be a better world if each of us practiced most, if not all, of these?<\/p>\n By the time a boy reaches Eagle Scout, he has internalized the Scout Oath and Scout Law to a degree many employers later recognize makes him a better candidate for a job merely by that attainment in his youth.\u00a0\u00a0 After all, only two percent of all Boy Scouts do reach Eagle rank.<\/p>\n We adults cannot revisit our youth to live seven years of our lives with these principles always in close sight.\u00a0 But we can aspire to act like an Eagle Scout, an adult who recognizes the values and attempts to practice them in business and personal life for the betterment of ourselves and our companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may have been a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout in your youth.\u00a0 Certainly you are aware of the top rank in each \u2013 the Gold Award for girls and the Eagle badge for boys.\u00a0 Scouting teaches leadership and … Continue reading