Becoming a Person of Influence - Takeaway Lesson 2: Nurturing

[dame_margarete]

Becoming a Person of Influence - Takeaway Lesson 2: Nurturing

The previous post on this subject talked about integrity and thoughts on how it applies to Peerage in the SCA.  This post will introduce the next section of the book which addresses the role of nurturing, faith, listening and understanding in becoming a person of influence.  If you will

Comments

[beckishadow]

Amazon offers a 3-in-1 edition that includes this book. I just ordered it, so will share my thoughts on the other 2 books - particularly Developing the Leaders Around You.

[dame_margarete]

Yes - he has written a number of good books that I have in my "to read" pile!

[dame_margarete]

To paraphrase a quote: If you are "leading" and no one is following then all you are doing is taking a walk. Forcing one to follow doesn't usually work out well, so we need to learn to lead in such a way that people WANT to follow us. That means that they have to want to go where we are going and, at the very least, accept the path that the leader has chosen.
How many people really *want* to work at an event? Yet a huge part of being a successful event steward is having a great staff. Being a good leader is finding ways to make following you beneficial, rewarding and (dare I say) fun.
The more often you successfully lead people (going back to the integrity post a bit with themes of consistencyand trust) the more likely they are to come back for more.

[redkcolumbus]

Availability is tough. If we do the things you describe, we will be much in demand. The key there becomes prioritization and deliberation. Prioritization - I don't do much SCA anymore. The deciding factor for every event I attend is who I will see there, and the most important deciding factor (whether they know it or not) is whether my current or former protoges will be there. They come first. The person I was protogeed to and that household is second. Everyone else is third

[dame_margarete]

The book sounds great - I'll put it on my wish list :-)

A subsequent section of Maxwell's book addresses how to chose people to mentor, recognizing that we can't actively mentor everyone. I view that section as basically a how-to on choosing students. Prioritization is definitely a key to making this whole thing work.

[thlmakai]

This reminds me of a quote our leader here in this office often uses by Colin Powell, "Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." No mention of authority there.

[elvensunhame]

Marvelous quote by the way. I realize the SCA leadership I want to follow cares that I want to help and thanks me. Nothing more. It showed that they cared.

[complexated]

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