My Journey From Wood Badge Participant to Staff

When I first walked into Wood Badge 137 as a participant, I was overwhelmed. I walked out still overwhelmed—but empowered. I completed my ticket, kept growing, and continued along my Scouting journey. Life moved, opportunities shifted, and suddenly I found myself with an opportunity staff Wood Badge 148.

And once again, I walked in overwhelmed… but for a completely different reason.

This time, I thought I knew the material. I knew it would take time and effort, but I didn’t realize how much of both. And now I wasn’t just learning—I was being entrusted with training a new generation of leaders. I was being asked to share a message, trust that it would land, and then let those leaders go out and strengthen their units, their communities, and Scouting as a whole.

No big deal, right?
HA.

SEEING WOOD BADGE FROM THE OTHER SIDE.

Being on staff is a completely different world. You get humbled the moment you walk into that first staff meeting. You realize your experiences—no matter how meaningful, or how many—are just one small piece of a much bigger picture. You see how much others have done, how much they’ve given, and how much heart they bring.

And then something amazing happens:
You realize you’re among servant leaders with the heart of a teacher.
You realize you belong there too.

I was surrounded by an incredible group of Troop Guides—strangers who became teammates, teammates who became friends.

I could write an entire post about them alone, but for now I’ll simply say this:

THANK YOU.
For helping me tie a woggle (and everything else).
For making gifts and memories for the participants as well as the staff.
For the smiles, the energy, the encouragement.
For showing up as your full, authentic selves.
And yes… for reminding me, “Eyes up here.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING ON STAFF.

You may not feel ready to staff a course when you first say yes. But ready or not, the moment you commit, it’s game on. Every meeting, every assignment, every late-night prep session shapes you into the leader the course needs.

You may start out knowing only one or two people. You may recognize a face or a name. But by the end, you’ve laughed, cried, learned, and grown together. You’ve shared stories and jokes that would make no sense to anyone outside that room. You’ve seen whistle is the loudest. You’ve discovered that the questions you had… they had too. The doubts you carried… they carried too. And somehow, you sync up so quickly it feels like you’ve known each other forever.

WHAT YOU CARRY FORWARD.

The jokes.
The gratitude.
The late-night planning.
The realization that you are not alone as the only non-coffee person in the room.
The moments of “Are we really doing this?”
The moments of “I can’t believe we GET to do this.”
The camaraderie that only comes from shared service.

It all stays with you.

SEE ONE. DO ONE. TEACH ONE.

Ready or not, you may get thrown into the deep end—but you rise, because others believed you could. And because, deep down, you wanted to become the kind of leader who lifts others higher.

As a good friend once said:
People put you not where you see yourself, but where they see you need to be.

What is Wood Badge?

So the other day I posted about LEGACY. I mentioned that the word has been on my mind lately since I came back from Philmont Leadership Challenge (PLC). I will tell you more about that but first I have to mention the precursor to PLC: Wood Badge. What is Wood Badge? It’s so many things wrapped together in a straight forward, easy to digest way. There is nothing that you can’t get from reading a few books. HA. If you know anything about Wood Badge, I bet you smiled at that statement.

Wood Badge is so many things it’s difficult to explain. I might as well try. Wood Badge is corporate level leadership training through the guise of Scouting. It not only addresses challenges in Scouting, but in life as well. It teaches you about yourself, how to communicate with others, how to motivate others and how to delegate, for starters.

WOOD BADGE TEACHINGS: (just to name a few)

• Drive, Vision, Mission and Values

• Know Yourself

• Communicate Effectively

• Manage Conversations

• Coach and Mentor

• Inspire the Heart

See, just those topics alone: aren’t those worthwhile skills for everyone? Knowing your Drive, Vision, Mission and Values. Sound familiar? Knowing Yourself. Isn’t that a good skill for everyone? Communicate Effectively. Tell me that couldn’t be usefull in whatever position you hold. See, those things are just the tip of the iceberg. I can’t explain it all, you just have to do it. It’s worth the price of admission, and then some, but only if you’re strong enough and ready for it.

“Invest in yourself. You get OUT what you put IN.” — Emily Ley

That quote couldn’t be more true. If you go into Wood Badge with an open mind, you will get so much more out of it. I went because a few people told me I should. (One of those legacy people. One that I can’t say no to, who has shaped my life in so many ways. One of those people that everything I do in Scouting now has her hands all over it.) I really had no idea what I was getting into. An extra few nights camping? I’m in.

Really though, one of the few experiences I’ve had that I can say is life changing. How I interact with people, how I see things, all changed because of not only this class, but the people as well. It’s hard to make friends when you become an adult, but Scouting helps makes that a little easier.

Do yourself a favor. If you are in Scouts, sign up for Wood Badge. If you aren’t in Scouts, sign up for something similar. You, and those you interact with, will be glad you did.

Legacy

Some time ago I was on a Scouting Leadership trip (PLC) and we were discussing the term of legacy, among other things. I went into the week not really knowing much about what we were going to be doing. The agenda of the week was purposely kept a secret. Not in a bad way, but just to make sure that we went in with an open mind. That I did. I went in thinking one thing, and came out thinking an entirely different thing (or two).

LEGACY is defined by Merriam-Webster as: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.

That definintion has new meaning to me now. While at PLC I realized what legacy really is. It means that we ALL have been helped by someone along the way. Whether it’s a parent, a coach, a mentor, a teacher, etc. As the Beatles once said: “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends”. (With a Little Help from My Friends) None of us have gotten where we are without a little help from our friends. In some cases, it has been a lot of help. That’s ok.

Being at Philmont, away from my friends (making new ones along the way) it hit me. I have been helped along the way, particularly in my Scouting journey. There have been people who have really influnced the path I have taken. Some of them are still influencing my decisions today. I have a hard time saying no when they “suggest” that I should do something. They know who they are and they know how important they are to me. There are also people who have come into my life, who are no longer here. It’s those people that I really started thinking about at PLC. Some of them, never got the chance to do things that I have done. Yeah, realizing that hit me hard. It came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks. I broke down in front of complete strangers. I’d known them for a few days and we had bonded a bit, but trust me, they were strangers and it was weird to be that vulnerable. That’s why they say PLC is “changing lives”.

My legacy is building on the legacy of those who helped me. My legacy is not what I can teach others and pass on to them. It’s what we can teach them. It’s what we can pass along? It’s our collective experiences that will shape and mold the next generation. We can only do our best to teach them that everyone is connected: the past, the present and the future. Everything we do, particularly in Scouting but in life as well, is for us, them, and everyone.

"The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The faces of young people are the faces of our past, our present and our future. No segment in the society can match with the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of the young people.” — Kailash Satyarthi

Leadership

When I think of Leadership, I can’t help but think of the Key and Peele skit. It’s about the adventures of a substitute teacher. Chances are pretty good that you’ve seen it. It’s pretty funny. Anyways, at one point the students are talking about the ‘clubs’ they are in at the school. One of them says she is in the “Future Leaders of America Club”. He asks how she knows she’s going to be a leader, in the future? Needless to say it makes me laugh.

No one really knows if they are going to be a leader or not. Sure you can learn to be a manager, but it’s harder to become a leader. You can learn, but it’s also within you. Usually, it’s not something that you decide either. Someone else has to decide that they agree with you enough that they want to join you. That they want to follow you. That they want you as their leader. Same as you didn’t decide to become a leader, you don’t get to decide if you aren’t one anymore either.

Don’t set out with the intention to be a leader. Set out with the intention of doing the right thing. Lead by example. People will notice. People will follow. It may take awhile, but consistently showing up for others, over and over, and doing it with authenticity and integrity, will get you noticed.

“A leader's job is not to do the work for others, it's to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.” — Simon Sinek

I would say that I am a leader and I have been now for awhile. Notice I didn’t say if I was a good leader or not. Notice I didn’t say what I am a leader of (men, women, adults, youth). Within Scouting, I have been a leader several times. I was a Den Leader when my son started. Right there in the title, I was told what I was and showed it to everyone else. I was in charge.

“Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen.” — Ron Burgundy

That’s how I felt sometimes. People looked at me as a Den Leader and just waited to hear what I had to say. I said do this, they did it. (youth and parents alike). Is that really being a leader though? Or is that just being in charge and being a manager? Speaking of being a manager, that’s kind of what I am now. I moved into the position of CubMaster this time last year. Now I am “in charge” of the Den Leaders. I make sure that they have what they need. But I try to do more than that. I try to lead them. I try to share my vision, my experiences with them. I like to get their input, and work together. I want them to know where I’m coming from, and where I want us to head, together. Only time will tell how it goes.