Monday, September 18, 2006
Leadereship Skills Training
Chapter 1 - The Fundamentals
1. The Basics
1.1. Respect for others
1.2. Positive attitude
1.3. Integrity
1.4. Self-discipline
1.5. Be able to Listen
The Basics is the foundation that every person must have to be a leader. These five personal qualities are like the legs of a stool on which you stand throughout your life as a leader of your family, your community and your country. Some, or all, of these personal qualities may be a natural part of your character and some must be learned through study and exercise. Study and exercise are the primary tools used throughout this training manual to develop the characteristics of a leader.
2. The Learning Environment
2.1. The Family
2.2. Friends and Fun
2.3. Your Community
2.4. The Classroom
2.5. Working
The Learning Environment provides the most influence in your learning experience. The family has the most influence because you are in that environment more than any of the others especially during the early formative years. After becoming an adult working becomes a major contributor to your learning experience because much of your time is spent providing for your livelihood. As a young person Family, The Classroom, and Friends and Fun are places where the learning experience has the most influence. This leadership training course concentrates on The Classroom and Friends and Fun as the environment of choice to teach leadership skills.
The learning experience is everywhere. You make a choice of what you learn by participating. It should be noted that learning is a continuous process no matter where you are, who you are with, or what you are doing. Using what you learn is entirely a different matter. Learning and using leadership skills is the focus of this training course and should be constantly reinforced throughout your life.
3. Participation
3.1. Family
3.2. Community
3.3. School
3.4. Friends
3.5. Working
Participating in life is a must when learning or implementing leadership skills. Leadership involves other people. It is a necessary ingredient that determines your capabilities and will determine whether or not you are a bad leader, a good leader or just an average leader. This leadership training course requires you to participate by interacting with other people in many different ways. The first step in the leadership skills training course is to learn to follow. You can not be a leader if you do not first learn to be a follower.
4. Levels of Leadership
4.1. Follower
4.2. Leader of a small group
4.3. Leader of bigger groups
4.4. Leader of your family
4.5. Leader in your community
4.6. Leader of our nation
Levels of Leadership are important to understand from the beginning because it can help determine where you want to go and how fast you need to get there. It should also be understood from the beginning that your level of learning and participation will be determined by each person and by circumstances that you may or may not have any control. Be aware that there are many more followers than there are leaders but the focus of this leadership skills training course is to provide you with an opportunity to obtain the highest level you want and can manage.
5. Leadership Skills Training Facilities
5.1. Your Family
5.2. The Classroom
5.3. Your Community
5.4. Our Nation
Leadership Skills Training Facilities are everywhere. It’s like the environment in which we live. If you are alert to the clues of your natural surroundings you can find information that will help determine how well you learn and how fast you learn as well as what you learn. The Family is the first and most important of these “facilities”. Taking directions from your parents and following them is the first step. Learn to follow before you can lead. The Classroom is where listening and following direction outside the influence of The Family starts to take shape. The Classroom can be in many different places, not just the schools we all attend. The Classroom is the first place where participation in a group becomes important and is one of the building blocks to developing leadership. For example, how you treat your fellow classmates can help identify natural abilities from those that need training. While The Community and Our Nation are the same as The Classroom in many respects they are on a much larger scale and they also bring on more serious consequences for the lack of leadership. The focus of this Leadership Skills Training course is to prepare you to be the best you can be at whatever level you can manage. We will concentrate on The Classroom as the training facility for this training course.
6. The Classroom Lessons
6.1. Self-Management
6.2. Study Habits
6.3. Reading Skills
The Classroom Lessons are identified here to help prepare each “leader in training” of what is needed from each person during the process of learning the leadership’s skills being taught.
Self-Management is perhaps the most important aspect of any leader for without self-management none of the other lessons will take its intended effect. Manage your resources such as your time, you energy, and your health. Each of these fundamentals of your life contributes substantially to your ability to your success. Study habits and reading skills are two necessary aspects of learning to master in order for the messages of learning to take affect.
7. The Classroom Environment
7.1. The Military Standard
7.2. The Business Standard
7.3. Chain or Command
7.4. Customs and Courtesies
7.5. Uniforms and Personal Dress
7.6. Drill and Ceremonies
The Classroom Environment is important to establish and understand its purpose which is to set the stage and the standard to learn the skills needed to become a leader. Establishing who the leader is and who the follower is in the classroom is necessary simply because the leader is the teacher while the follower is the student. Establishing the military or business standard is also important because there are major differences between them. Learning leadership skills is easier to establish and understand using the military standard because of its specific structure that is used to make the point of what constitutes leadership. The Business Standard varies depending on many factors that impact how business operates. Leadership skills that are learned using the military standard can also be used very effectively in the business world. The Military Standard makes clear what the chain of command means, what its function and how it’s to be used. All societies have customs and courtesies that involve how people are treated, which is a basic requirement, while the dress code is a reflection of what you think of yourself. Drill and ceremonies is an exercise that reinforces what a leader and a follower has learned and how the lessons are put into action. The actions used during drill and ceremonies are an outgrowth of the learning experience and is part of the learning process.
Chapter 2 – The Basics
1. Respect for Others
Respect for Others and your leaders (teachers) must be established before beginning your trainings as a follower (student). Without the respect for others the learning environment can not take place. The process for establishing respect for others has several parts; (1) Listen to what is being taught by the classroom leader; (2) When asking questions avoid confrontation, be positive in both thought and deed; (3) Pay attention to the others in the classroom (students) and provide assistance as necessary to complete the learning experience; (4) The interaction between you and your classmates is one of the training exercises needed by the student to form leadership skills. Forming relationships provides you with the knowledge of acting and reacting with other people. Treating others as you want to be treated allows for a positive relationship to begin and is the foundation of Respect for Others.
2. Positive Attitude
Positive Attitude is a key to understanding. Having a positive attitude allows your mind to receive and accept the ideas and information being taught by your teacher. Even if you may disagree or even reject certain requests asked of the teacher, having a positive attitude keeps your mind open and clears the path for continued learning. Disagreement may in itself be positive because it allows a thinking mind to question, which is very important in problem solving, and is another important requirement of a leader.
3. Integrity
Integrity is all about you, personally. Integrity is about your character, your honor. Do you believe and practice good ethics, justice and rightness and apply it to your own conduct first. Integrity includes honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty and dependability as well as morality. These qualities are part of your character and will separate you from everyone else. It separates the average leader from the good leader.
4. Self-Discipline
Self-Discipline is all about you controlling your actions both mentally and physically. There are several type of discipline, such as, task, group and imposed disciplines. Self-Discipline is of the highest order of all of these and determines the value you place on yourself to accomplish all the others. If you can be self-disciplined enough to control you’re mental and physical actions the more accomplished you will be as a leader.
5. Be Able to Listen
Be Able to Listen is important because it lays the foundation for all the others. There is a difference between hearing and listening. Listening involves concentration and understanding that provides a person with the ability to comprehend meaning. Information is transmitted in many different ways and media such as the written word, pictures and sound. Our life depends mostly on our ability to understand and even respond to these channels of communications. To listen and comprehend information are the keys to learning and being able to listen is how it is accomplished.
Chapter 3 - The Learning Environment
1. The Family
The Family is the first and primary unit of our civilization. The mother and father with a child complete the family unit and form the environment in which humankind has progressed throughout history. Both parents are the initial teachers of the child therefore are the major influence in the early life of a child. The influence can be positive or negative. The child is always a child of parents and the learning process never ends. The parents may continue to influence their child throughout their life even if the meaningful relationship changes. The duty of the parents is to establish the positive environment for the child to learn the ways to live to its full potential. It’s the duty of the child to listen and follow the leadership of the parents. The parent is the first level of leadership.
2. Friends and Fun
Friends and Fun starts on the playground. This playground could be with your own family such as vacations, birthday parties and just living with brothers and sisters. The neighborhood or school ball team as well as school activities outside the classroom are but a few places where interaction with other people, primarily of your own age group will form your personality away from the family unit. The friends and fun activities will contribute heavily to how you act and react to other people and may conflict with those being taught by the family. “Peer pressure” is a real challenge to many young impressionable boys and girls and will impact your relationship with the family’s code of conduct being taught at home. Who to believe and learn from becomes important to your future and your ability to be a leader. Friends and Fun is the second level of leadership skills training.
3. Your Community
Your Community is the next level of our society where learning continues to progress. The community by its nature includes more people, different types of religions, color, creeds, and ethnicities. As a future leader, it is important to live and interact with other people in order to learn essential skills necessary to be a leader. Your involvement in your community, or any community, will enhance your capabilities to communicate with others in such a way that allows your leadership skills to take its desired affect. There are many community groups such as churches, community centers, fund raisers, charity drives, etc that all require someone to be a leader that plans and organizes and followers that carries out the activities. The community is the third level of leadership skills training.
4. The Classroom
The Classroom is another form of “Your Community” but with a different purpose. The differences are specific to the learning process. The classroom’s purpose, unlike the community, has been planned in advance with an agenda that imparts knowledge from a teacher to students of the classroom. The classroom usually has specific written materials to study and exercise in order for the student to grasp for the purpose of advancing skill level. The classroom is typically provided by a learning center or school and usually conducted inside a building but is not necessary. Many times the classroom is an outside activity and conducted only in an outside environment. Testing skill level is another major difference between the community and the classroom. Testing your knowledge can be written, oral and physical and determines the degree to which you have learned the required knowledge before progressing to another higher level. The classroom is the more familiar setting used to teach and is the forum this training course will use both for inside and outside environments. The classroom is the fourth level of leadership skills training.
5. Working
Working is the environment most people find themselves throughout their lifetime. The workplace involves a constant change in people, places and things. As you become older your responsibilities will become more complex and will challenge your knowledge and skills to cope with life in general. The more prepared you are the more effective you become at understanding changes and you will learn the skills needed to keep improving your life and way of living. Taking on more responsibility becomes a measure of your leadership skills during this process. The workplace is the fifth level of leadership skills training.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Educate Our Youth Operations Manual
Leadership Skills Training
Table of Contents
Purpose
Objective
Mission Statement
Code of Ethics
Air Force Association
Civil Air Patrol
Experimental Aircraft Association
The Partnership
Mentoring
Leadership Skill Training
How to Participate
Purpose
The purpose of “Educating Our Youth in Leadership Skills” is to provide a foundation by which the youth of America can best use their God given talents to live a more productive life for their family, community and country.
Objective
The objective of this program is to ensure the future of our country’s citizens live to their full potential.
Mission Statement
The mission of this program is to develop a method that will serve us in our pursuit to educate the American youth in skills required to be a leader, a leader of their family, of their community and our nation
Code of Ethics
Air Force Association
The Air Force Association (AFA) organization was founded in 1947 for the purpose of supporting the Air Force family and has grown into one that is an advocate for educating the public about aerospace needs and support for a strong national defense. You can find out more about AFA on their website at http://www.afa.org/.
Civil Air Patrol
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) organization was founded in 1941 by Gill Robb Wilson, who foresaw aviation's role in war and general aviation's potential to supplement America's military operations that established the beginnings of CAP with the help of the mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia. You can find out more about CAP on their website at http://www.cap.gov/.
Experimental Aircraft Association
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) organization is national in scope with chapters throughout America. Its primary focus is supporting the “home built” aviator. These guys and gals build their own planes and then fly them. You had better know your stuff if you do that! The EAA also has a “Young Eagles” program that is designed to introduce the younger generation to the art of flying. You can find out more about EAA on their website at http://www.eaa.org/.
The Partnership
The partnership that is established between these three organizations of AFA, CAP & EAA has two common themes; they are aviation and educating our youth. AFA provides the leadership management portion, CAP provides the operational training portion and EAA provides the element of “hands-on” flying. All three are necessary and fundamental to the development and training of our youth in leadership skills.
Mentoring
Mentoring is an essential ingredient in developing well-rounded, professional, and competent future leaders. It is the relationship in which a person with experience and wisdom guides another person to develop both personally and professionally. Mentoring is also an informal relationship because it fosters free communication between the youth and the adult.
There many mentoring organizations in the public arena. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and Big Brother Big Sister are just two good examples. There is also an organization on the internet called “The National Mentoring Partnership” which I have found that provides a lot of useful information and I have provided a link to their "tookit" for your review. Any of these useful ideas are helpful to establish the ground rules on how mentoring is accomplished.
The Civil Air Patrol has a document, CAP Pamphlet 52-6(E), which covers the details of their mentoring program. I have provided a link to CAP Mentoring for your review. The CAP mentoring program is the one I have chosen to use because it more closely matches the needs required for the leadership program that is used to “Educate the Youth in Leadership Skills” training, which is the focus of the AFA Mentoring Program.
Leadership Training
The “must haves” of (1) Integrity, (2) Discipline, (3) Dedication and (4) Sensitivity are the four tenets of a successful leader and are the foundation on which leadership skill training is taught.
(1) Integrity is nothing more than being honest, honest with other people no matter who they are or how they relate to you whether it is in you home, in your community or in the workplace.
(2) Discipline is moderation and self-control and are the keys to personal growth. Strive for a proper balance.
(3) Dedication is one of the tenets that will separate the good leader from the average leader. Hard work and careful planning are some of the elements that will contribute to becoming a good leader.
(4) Sensitivity means you care about other people. Leaders must deal with other people, which is how one becomes a leader. Being sensitivity to people’s needs is a critical measure of a leader’s leadership skills. Quality treatment begets quality performance.
In addition to these tenets, the following are a short list of ideas to keep in mind when learning the skills of a leader.
1. How to listen
2. How to take direction
3. How to give direction
4. How to plan your time
5. Problem solving
How to Participate
Volunteerism is the path to your participation and like any volunteer group you stay as long as you want as long as you meet the standards that are set to work by.
Being involved with young boys and girls that may not be your children is a daunting task especially in the world of lawsuits in which we live today. For this reason the path that I have chosen to implement the “Educate Our Youth in Leadership Skills” program is built around the standard set forth by CAP. This standard provides a method of checks and balances to ensure everything and everyone operates above reproach. Integrity is the key element here.
Once you have agreed to meet the standards by following the guidelines set forth, that’s all that is necessary.