Autonomy Vs Guided Discovery

One of the ventures mentioned this during the MSN chat we had the night before. They wanted more independence in running the venture unit, just like their predecessors. This is nothing new to me. It has always been a struggle for me to decide what sort of leadership role I should adopt for the ventures.

Full autonomy may not be possible as they did not have the necessary skills to run it. However, at the same time, scouting is about self discovery, experimentation and learning by doing. How do one define the competency of the ventures? What is benchmark for competency? Any tangible guides for us to monitor? I doubt so. Many a times, we get too impatient and skeptical to get out of the way and let the youth leaders lead (extracted from The scoutmaster’s other handbook by Mark Ray). At times, I tend to fall into this stage. We are always in a dilemma as to when we should start to step in so as to provide avenue for the youth to develop and learn from his/her mistakes.

The concept of guided discovery may not be applicable for the ventures either. They are now at a stage where they will want to explore and experiment more than when they were scouts. If it becomes an adult leader centered kind of leadership, we may stifle their creativity and to some extent, kill their passion.

I guess there is no right and wrong about how one should run the unit. Autonomy should be given, and it will have to come with regular guidance/coaching from the adult leaders. As long as I put in my best in running it, I will leave without regrets when the time comes. Just like my PSA, I have no idea how I should go about doing it. But my vision of getting it eventually led me to achieving it. I guess the same goes for the unit as we already draft up the objectives to be achieved by the end of senior batch’s term of office.

People, please feel free to feedback =)

All the way Melissa 必胜！

All the best for the selection camp for the next few days. Just wanna let you know that I have all the faith in you that you will clear with flying colours. We've been together for so long and my faith in you is still the same as 9 years ago when I knew you. Do not allow external factors to pull you down. You are a strong girl and I always believe that. Keep the faith and persevere. You will emerge a winner on Sunday. Love you lots!

In the nick of time

Finally..... Got enrolled into the 4 star kayaking course this month in the nick of time... in fact, am 2 days late for the enrolment. Will like to thank Uncle Liew from OBS for taking his precious time to get me enroll into the course and Jun Bin, my all time mentor and fellow coach, to vouch for me. Finally after 4 years of coaching and paddling, the time has came for me to upgrade myself in terms of personal paddling skills. Although the course burnt a big hole in my pocket (whopping 520 bucks!) and starvation is imminent, I guess the money spent is worth it. Waited for 4 years already. Wondering who will I be going up with….

‘Hello, may I enquiry about the 4 star kayaking course up in Ramunia this month’, I asked the OBS phone operator over at the other side of the phone.

‘Please hold on…. UNCLE LIEW…..!’

- Transferring to Mr Liew’s extension-

‘hello, this is Mr liew, how may I help you?’, a deep and firm voice followed after the melodious pause.

‘Hi Uncle Liew, I am yong kok here. Am enquiring about the 4 star course coming up this month. I know that the deadline is over and wondering if you can slot me into the course…..’

‘hmmm… you called me Uncle Liew, do I know you?’

‘Nope…… the rest is not important anymore’

This incident has made me wonder how important first impression and building rapport really is. Although some may argue that Uncle Liew may be a nice person to begin with and thus help me to get enrolled into the course, I still feel that building rapport with people is important, especially during the first contact. The brief and causal first contact has transformed the enquiry into somewhat like a conversation. It makes me reflect on how I used to think that I am the best and I want the whole world to know that. This, however does not allow me to build rapport with strangers/ acquaintances as I am introducing differences between us. I did not make the conscious effort to relate to the rest, especially those with no prior or minimal experience. It may make me look good on the outside but deep within, I am feeling lost. Fortunately, over the years of reading and mentoring from leaders, I am able to change my perspectives about such insensitivities. I am still learning and hope that one day I will be like John Maxwell =)

Went down to SCF and realized that it was closed for the day. Argh…. It’s 4:30pm and it was not even anywhere near to the closing time. Called up SCF office and Peter came to the line. He explained that April was sick and thus the office was closed for the day. Still feeling frustrated for making a wasted trip. The more I thought of it, the more frustrated I got. Just as my blood was boiling, I did an attitude check and started asking myself why did I feel that way. I began to shift my feelings of frustration to that of gratitude. This feeling of gratitude came from the appreciating the fact that I ‘met’ a kind soul like Uncle Liew earlier in the day. This 180 degree change had uplifted my mood at that point of time and allow me to dump away the frustration. It is amazing how the mind works. How you perceive things and events will affect how you feel and you can programme your mind to feel the way you want it to. In one of the Arbinger Institute literatures, the book titled Leadership and Self-Deception has explained how one perspective can be distorted by the way we perceive things. It talks about how we tend to play down our flaws and inflate others. Profound concepts and I am still trying to grasp it. My life has changed after reading the book and I have became a even more happier person than I used to be.

I guess that’s it for the day. 2 more weeks to school reopens! Mixed feeling..

 

2 trips during the December Holidays Part 2

Klang Gate Ridge (27-301207)

Went on a trekking trip with NUS ODAC. Saw a few familiar faces- shawn, bing ying and wei san. Took public transport for most of the trip. Not really convenient but I guess you get what you pay. The Klang Gate Ridge trek was a satisfying one. The view was superb although we went up to about 400m AMSL. Not very high up on altitude but the city view and mountain ranges to our sides were magnificent. We could see Genting from the ridge itself. It was an easy trek. We took about 2 hours up and 1.5 hours down. This includes the numerous rest points and photography sessions along the way. The trek officially concluded around noon time and we headed back to the guesthouse for a quick bath before our R&R around KL.

The third day was spent at Camp5- a rock climbing centre in KL. I was amazed by the premises. Some of us attend the basic wall course to learn the basics of rock climbing. As I did abseiling before, most of the course content was already known to me. I spent some time evaluating and learning the coaching method employed by the rock climbing instructor. I am not saying that I am that good to evaluate but I always make it a point to learn the different coaching methods employed by different coaches from different disciplines. Initially, I was put off by his rigidity in running the course. His Australian ‘’Hi mate’’ monotonous voice had a hypnosis effect. But my professionalism and discipline kept me away from the temptation of drifting into the slumber. After a while, I thought about it, high risk sports may require a more regimental way of coaching as any flaws in the process may lead to a fatality. After the course, learnt a few techniques from Bing Ying and he invited me to join him on his weekly session of rock climbing at SAFRA Yishun. Before attending the course, I thought rock climbing is a boring sport and have the “just climb lo” attitude. Now, the skills and techniques that I have just acquired add in an additional dimension to the sport. I am willing to explore further if time permits me to in the near future.

That concludes the Klang Trip!

2 trips during the December Holidays

This holidays have been a fulfilling one. Went on 2 trips and the rest of the holidays were spent mostly on scouting, something that i am passionate about. Let's leave the scouting issue to another day. Shall share about the 2 overseas trip that I went.

Mount Kinabalu (05-091207)

 

It was trip just after my exams. It was really a good transition into the holidays as I was disappointed with my last physics paper. The trip had indeed lifted my spirit; it started off my holidays on a high note. As I was one of the leaders tagging along for the trip, I had the responsibility to take care of the junior scouts. My primary aim for this trip was to foster closer ties with the ventures ( 16-18 yrs old) and I believed that I had achieved that.

Something that left me pondering on how I should manage my expectations for these young people. I used to think that as ventures, they should be as garang as how we used to be when we were ventures. We tend to neglect the fact that they were brought up in a different environment as we were before and thus the way they perceived things are different. Disappointment, the feeling I initially felt, in their performance during the trip. This was due to the fact that not all of them made it up to the summit whereas the rest of the group consists of just scouts, who are younger, made it up. This is because I believe that ventures are the crème of the crop and their performance should exceed those of the scouts. Nevertheless, there was the other side that I am pleased about. They took the extra effort in taking care of the boys and the only female venture who went along motivated the boys during the trek up to the summit. It was commendable as this was her maiden trip with us and mount K is not an easy mountain to conquer. It takes more than strength to motivate the people when you are tired yourself. It takes leadership and a positive attitude to do it.

After the trip, we had supper at the coffee shop opposite my place. We were talking about rovering (scouts between 19-26). It was brought up during the last Scout AGM that we will like to bring back the rover unit back to GESS. During the AGM itself I talked about why rover unit should be set up to ensure the continual survival of dragon scouts and how the rover unit is going to benefit the young adults. Little did I consider the inputs from the young leaders, who are going to be rovers. They then turned to HL about their discontentment on why they should be the ones to start the rover unit and why not the junior batch. From this episode, I derived a few lessons. First, communication is a two way process and we should hear what both sides got to say. Next, according to John Maxwell, in his book - the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership – Law of timing, the right action at the wrong timing will bring about resistance. The AGM may not be a right time to introduce the rover unit as there were insufficient time to discuss the details and allow 2 way communications from both sides. It was just me and IM talking about the rover unit without their inputs as I have said earlier on.