Skills of Leadership: The Art of Communication

The art of communication also known as the acting of getting, retrieving, and giving information is the process by which a person in a position of leaderships acts to receive, process, and give information. Each one of these parts are equally important because without all three components effective and accurate communication would not be possible. But exactly what do we mean when we say effective and accurate communication that is the question to answer. Effective communication is communication that uses the right channel for situation you in to send the message, while accurate communication is communication that gets the point across that you are trying to get across. From this we can determine that their is one negative way to communicate, two partially positive ways, and one fully positive way to communicate. The negative way that I am referring to is communication that is not effective and at the same time is not accurate. Obviously this method does not accomplish your goal which is to exchange information between two interdependent parties. Next comes the first partial positive communication method which is communication that is effective but is not accurate. Basically this kind of communication keeps the relationship with the other concerned party going good but even though the relationship was damaged or hindered there was still a problem because there was a misintrepretation of the facts by the receiver. Who is to blame in this situation it is more than likely whether or not you want to hear it will be sender not the receiver. Another partial positive way to communicate is to have communication that is not effective but is accurate. Obviously this is still good communication because you accomplished the goal of communication which is to successfully exchange information but you failed to remember that a important part of communication is exchanging information in a way that not only "saves face" but also does not hinder or damage the relationship. Finally comes the last way of communication which is that of communicating in a way that is both effective and accurate. Creating instances of truly effective and truly accurate communication are hard to come by but show to the world that you are truly a competent communicator. On average, the average person after objective and thoughtful evaluation will realize that in truth that we are only truly competent about 20% of the time. This is not something to despair or fret about it is just a statistic that is worth mentioning because it just goes to show that we all have work to do in regards to our communication skills.

Trust me communication is more complex than what I have simplified it down to in the post above but as usual in order to better understand such a vital skill you must first start with baby steps. Over the next several posts in the days and weeks to come I will continue my discussion on communication.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leadeer/Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Pack 100
Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff WSJ '07
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM Philmont AA '08\

Physical Fitness

Today during a hike that my Troop went on I started thinking about a subject that hadn't really crept into my mind for a fair length of time. That subject happens to be physical fitness as the title of this blog post says. Physical fitness it seems to be and has been for a long time a word most americans through around but truthfully do not know how to use properly. For many physical fitness that you must be a athlete and a star athlete at that but for the majority of us this is automatically setting ourselves up for failure. Lets first think through this by ourselves and then use the troublesome tool called the dictionary. If we don't have to be athletes but also can't be bums and super lazy people then there obviously a middle ground that gives us the ability to effectively meet the physical demands of our environment without having over exert ourselves but again this doesn't mean we have to be the best, we just have to perform to a satisfactory. Many of you would say to this that then a video gamer is in shape, so there has to be more to this definition than just being able to meet the physical demands of our environment. To this I would say the following, take a kid of average age, physical characteristics, and nature and then apply this information as baseline for who determines what qualifies as being in shape.

But this definition is a little cumbersome and still does not factor in all of the necessary factors. One definition that comes close is physical fitness is the state of being that allows a person to efficiently and effectively participate in the activities that he wants to participate in without causing due harm to ones body or to someone else. Now lets look at what the dictionary says physical fitness is being in shape or in condition. Obviously this seems simple enough to understand but these six words have a deeper more profound meaning than is originally evident.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leadeer/Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Pack 100
Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff WSJ '07
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM Philmont AA '08

Scouting Background and News Update

Hello all, I know that it has been almost 1 year to the date since I last published a post, hopefully this will not happen again or at least if I need to take a extended leave of absence from writing posts I will keep you guys informed. I was absent for many different reasons but it primarily came down to the fact that over the summer and into the fall I spent a fair amount of time in the hospital. I am now doing much better medically and I am sure glad I was able to get a lot of medical issues resolved. The other reason was because I became very involved and busy with school and homework. Even though I start summer school in a few weeks I continue on planning to write posts through that time while I am in class.

First off in order to get this update up and running in the right direction I figured I probably should reevaluate and further explain my Scouting Background. My home council is currently Great Alaska Council and I have been with this council since April 2007. The other Scout Council that I have had the privilege to be with is that of Denver Area Council. Years involved in Scouting as a youth and a adult now number close to 15 years or since I was in the first grade. I am an Eagle Scout, who earned his Eagle in the Fall of 2006 with Troop 780 from Castle Rock, Colorado. I am a brotherhood member of the Order of Arrow. The OA lodge that I am attached to is Nanuk Lodge. Another lodge that I have served in is that of Tahosa Lodge. Currently I serve as a Assistant Den Leader for Pack 100 in Anchorage, Alaska, and as a Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 1316 in anchorage alaska for Troop 1616 in soldotna, alaska which in the near future will be renumbered as Troop 669. I attended the 2005 National Scout Jamboree, served as staff for the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, and attended the 2007 World Scout Jamboree. I hope sometime in the near future I can serve on the district level of scouting.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leadeer/Assistant Scoutmaster

Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Pack 100
Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff WSJ '07
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM Philmont AA '08