6. Support each other

Part 6 of my series on developing great leadership skills based on Girlguiding’s article here:

12 steps to becoming a great leader

“Sometimes, guiding means leading from behind the scenes, providing support and reassurance. On those occasions, try to listen carefully and respectfully, give constructive feedback, facilitate rather than direct, and provide pep talks when needed. Enabling others – both fellow volunteers and young group members – to take on responsibility is an important part of being a great leader.”

In our unit we have two Adult Leaders and four Young Leaders. Technically one becomes an Adult Leader in Training this month, and another later this year. Three of these four have been with us now for four years, and one has been with us nearly two. Supporting these young people through their Young Leadership has been a difficult task for me but I try my best to offer them every opportunity to complete it.

Each term we have one session where the Brownies give us their list of activities they’d like to do this term. Following that the whole leadership team sits down and discusses how we turn that into a termly plan, and at this point I offer out evenings for the Young Leaders to take over. As Young Leaders they need to complete one activity on the promise, and another couple on the Brownie programme. I make sure they pick activities that are from a different aspect to what they have already done, but aside from that they choose whatever they wish to do.

As they do one activity a term it takes them about two years to complete everything in their qualification. I try to set aside time during term to sit with each Young Leader and check how things are going, and try to help them plan what they should do next towards their qualification.

This year our two eldest Young Leaders completed their awards and I am so happy for them. They worked so hard for it both in the unit and at home.

Again, this is an aspect of leading I find difficult, it doesn’t come naturally to me to mentor these girls through this. I’m unsure if I come across as pushy or demanding, or expecting too much from them. But they have also proved very capable of leading successful activities.

You may look at our numbers and think having four Young Leaders is a lot. In all honesty when the fourth came to us and asked if she could join I felt it difficult to say ‘no’ to a young person wishing to volunteer. But actually having four Young Leaders works in both our favour and the young leaders. It allows them time in the unit to sit out and write up some aspects of the award. They take it in turns to use a meeting to plan their own upcoming meeting. It is rare that all four are able to join us for trips and holiday, but we know it is likely we will have one or two supporting us.

I’ve since had two more Guides wishing to join as Brownie Helpers and it is such a shame we cannot take them. They are directed to the right people to make more enquiries but I think for many joining the group that meets before their own is much easier on them and their parents.

I think moving forward with this I will try to make the arrival time at Brownies, except when speaking with parents, as a time to check in with the Young Leaders.

5. Aim for the Sky

Part 5 of my series on developing great leadership skills based on Girlguiding’s article here:

12 steps to becoming a great leader

“Young or old, there really is no age limit on learning – and we offer plenty of opportunities to help expand personal horizons. Want to improve on safeguarding or first aid? You could try one of our e–learning modules or find out about courses run locally.”

I could work a little harder on this of recent. I cannot actually recall the last training session I attended, probably the county training the year before last. There are so many opportunities in Guiding but sometimes fitting them into your diary can be difficult.

The County I run my Brownies in runs lots of training on first aid, safeguarding, being our best, games, outdoors, etc. I suppose what makes it a little more difficult for me is that I don’t live in that County. A Saturday morning three hour training takes five hours out of my day accounting for travel. I realise this is my own fault but it does put me off trying more things.

The upside is there is lots of e-learning on the Girlguiding website. I have done the Brownie training, the Senior Section training – to prepare me for helping our Young Leaders progress – and the branding training – to ensure our unit website was consistent.

Perhaps I shall make a commitment to complete every online training – to be as prepared as possible. I will update on my progress as I complete more training.

I am in fact signed up for one County training in a few weeks which looks at PR. I would like to be better at getting the word out about Girlguiding in local newspapers, I tried this once before and it wasn’t successful. This is completely new to me so I am very excited for it!

4. Work Together

Part 4 of my series on developing great leadership skills based on Girlguiding’s article here:

12 steps to becoming a great leader

“Being a great leader isn’t about taking on everything yourself – which is a relief! Knowing when to delegate a job to is a valuable skill. For example, you could ask your team to help you identify others’ strengths, and decide who is best suited to a task. By tackling things together, our lives can feel easier and more fulfilled.”

Star Quest District Event

For the Big Brownie Birthday in 2014 I was so inspired by the ‘Star Quest’ resource I wanted to run one for the district! It was hard work but it was made easier by the district team. The District Commissioner organised a venue, the Guide leaders arranged for their Guides to lead a ‘Future’ themed activity, and all the leaders in the district lead the activities I had planned. We had star headband boppers, a newspaper tower competition and  funfair side show games. Another leader then led the campfire songs at the end of the afternoon. It was  fab session that Brownies from 4 different units all attended and enjoyed. Without a team around the session would not have been such a success.

Brownie Holiday

Getting through a Brownie Holiday weekend depends on the team working together and taking on different roles. As the licence holiday I do most of the planning and organising leading up to the event. My fellow leaders tackle the first aid and medication side of things, making sure we have all the health forms, administering medicine at required times. They also lead on the food, preparing each meal with the help of the Brownies and ensuring we take breaks for drinks and snacks. The young leader team are on hand to help with activities, helping dish out meals and also lead the ‘midnight feast’ with the girls on the last night. Having a team of people makes the weekend run very smoothly.

I think for the future I should try to offer my assistance at more district level events, perhaps offering to lead on organising another fun day.

 

3. Open your arms to everyone

Part 3 of my series on developing great leadership skills based on Girlguiding’s article here:

12 steps to becoming a great leader

“An effective leader brings people together, regardless of their background – so we need to provide young members and fellow volunteers with plenty of opportunities to learn about different cultures and beliefs. In meetings with other Leaders, for example, we can use inclusive language and adapt activities for those with extra needs.”

Adapting Guiding for those with extra needs

Over the years of being a Brownie leader we have had Brownies requiring different levels of additional help. We have had one Brownie who needed to have quick access to toilet facilities, one Brownie with Cerebral Palsy who used a walking frame and wheelchair to move around, one Brownie who was very nervous of everything. It takes some additional thought when planning meetings and activities but doesn’t mean the unit misses out on anything.

For example, I would never offer a trip knowing a particular Brownie could not attend due to medical reasons. Every trip is well thought out before even being offered to check for accessible travel (which is difficult in London but not impossible) with toilet stops also considered.

To help our nervous Brownie I started emailing the parent each week with a detailed explanation of what we would be doing. The parent had explained that the varied programme we offered made it difficult for her daughter to relax at meetings.

Using the ‘Including All’ resource was a great help in situations like these.

However, this topic overall is a tricky one to plan ahead for. How can you market your unit towards girls who wouldn’t normally take on these opportunities – how do you find them? In all the above cases we were unaware of any additional help required before they joined us, and one current one until two weeks in! I suppose the only way to continue this work is just to welcome anyone who enquires, and ensure everyone has equal opportunities.  I believe Girlguiding’s varied programme makes it is rather easy to welcome all.

Why I love and hate the end of ‘The Missing’ – Series One

Huge major spoilers for Series One of ‘The Missing’.

I’m late to this TV show, I think it is about 2-3 years old but was just introduced to it through my brother’s DVD of it. James and I watched all 8 episodes within a week.

The end of the series hit me so hard. But thinking about it as a whole, and especially the set up in the final episode, the genius of this series is the way it makes you go through the same emotions as the father, Tony.

The way I watched ‘The Missing’, I was sure we would discover Olivier alive. And the final episode opened with a confusing scene in Russia, but we saw on the glass the stick figure drawing Oliver had made on the day he vanished and in the basement of the house he was kept in. I saw no option but to believe he was in Russia.

This meant the rest of the episode was quite confusing. As we listened to Alain explain the series of events that took place, starting with hitting him with the car, we knew that incident couldn’t have killed him as we know he would later create the drawing and be seen on film in the empty house.

So this was Alain falsely believing Oliver was killed, and his brother arranged for someone to dispose of the body. Finding the boy alive, this man then killed Oliver to complete his task, the boy had seen his face so he couldn’t let him go.

At this point I was still optimistic as we knew he was in Russia, and there was the whole side plot of something being smuggled to Russia, so I couldn’t even invest in that moment with Tony and Emily learning their son was actually killed and his brutal final moments. I looked at the clock and knew there was still time to fine him.

As the time passed though I started to groan, ‘oh Series Two will be them tracking him down in Russia, I want the reunion now!’.

Then we saw that scene, Tony in Russia following children around and pestering them with the photo.

(And on a side note, if Tony was trying to find his son who hadn’t seen him in 8 years, why have that beard? Even I didn’t recognise him right away and he’d been on the screen a minute previous!)

Anyway, was this going to be that reunion moment? No, the police arrived and took Tony away, explaining to the boy that he had been pestering other boys too.

End.

Then everything hit me. What the programme had tried, and in my case, been successful at making us feel. I went through this whole programme with Tony. Clutching at evidence, discussing theories, without a body on a TV show you have to assume the character is still alive. And so did Tony. And within that final few seconds after the programme finished I realised that Oliver did die. He was killed in that house, why else would the cleaning company be there but to clear up the blood we saw. There were no more theories, the story is complete.

I started this post thinking the programme was intending to make you understand Tony, but perhaps in the end you’re either a Tony or an Emily. You believe that boy in Russia is Oliver and keep hope he is alive, or you believe Oliver was dead as you were told, and feel relief you know what happened.

I think this is why this programme was great. I’ll watch Series Two at some point to see what new story it brings, but I for one did appreciate the ending of this one.