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Okay, So It’s Boy Lead, How Do You Choose Him?

It’s seems obvious to say that good leadership is critical to success.  Look at any historical event, any great discovery, or any epic tale of adventure and you’ll find a great leader.  One of the challenges in Royal Rangers is that the advancement system requires that all boys spend time in a leadership position.  Commanders feel like they are in a bit of a conundrum.  ”I want good leaders but I also need to give every boy a chance”.  So how do you help every young man along the advancement trail and still maintain a high preforming Outpost?

Identifying Your Top Leaders

• Someone who knows the code.
• Someone who refuses to blame. Blamers aren’t changers.
• Someone who is a learner. Good followers make great leaders.
• Someone who walks his talk.
• Readers are leaders. Is he in the Word.

Never compromise your top roles.  You’ll never pull a young man up to his potential by setting him up for failure and giving a young man a leadership position he is not ready for is a road to failure.

Use All Available Positions

1. Senior Patrol Leader
2. Assistant Senior Patrol Leader
3. Group Communications Specialist
4. Group Gear Manager
5. Group Historian
6. Chaplain Aide
7. Outpost Scout
8. Junior Group Leader
9. Patrol Leader
10. Assistant Patrol Leader
11. Patrol Communications Specialist
12. Patrol Gear Manager
13. Event Planner
14. Spirit Leader

Within Rangers there are many leadership positions that can be a perfect fit for any type of leader.

Cultivate The Heart Of A Leader

To be a great leader you must learn what is means to have a well-guarded heart, and this is something that must me mentored to our future men.

Proverbs 4:23  Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

“Above all else, guard your heart” (Prov. 4: 23). We usually hear this with a sense of “keep an eye on that heart of yours,” in the way you’d warn a deputy watching over some dangerous outlaw, or a bad dog the neighbors let run. “Don’t let him out of your sight.” Having so long believed our hearts are evil, we assume the warning is to keep us out of trouble. So we lock up our hearts and throw away the key, and then try to get on with our living. But that isn’t the spirit of the command at all. It doesn’t say guard your heart because it’s criminal; it says guard your heart because it is the wellspring of your life, because it is a treasure, because everything else depends on it. How kind of God to give us this warning, like someone’s entrusting to a friend something precious to him, with the words: “Be careful with this— it means a lot to me.” Above all else? Good grief— we don’t even do it once in a while. We might as well leave our life savings on the seat of the car with the windows rolled down— we’re that careless with our hearts. “If not for my careless heart,” sang Roy Orbison, and it might be the anthem for our lives. Things would be different. I would be farther along. My faith would be much deeper. My relationships so much better. My life would be on the path God meant for me . . . if not for my careless heart. We live completely backward. “All else” is above our hearts. I’ll wager that caring for your heart isn’t even a category you think in. “Let’s see— I’ve got to get the kids to soccer, the car needs to be dropped off at the shop, and I need to take a couple of hours for my heart this week.” It probably sounds unbiblical, even after all we’ve covered.  Eldredge, John. Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive (pp. 207-208). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

As a Commander/Facilitator one of your most important jobs is to keep getting the best team out on the court and ready for the competition.  Choosing your leaders carefully and mentoring them in that role can make or break and Outpost and be the most important foundational support towards “boy lead”.