Leadership the Outward Bound Way

Our newest title from Mountaineers Books.
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Outward Bound has been teaching leadership internationally for more than sixty years.

Now anyone can benefit from Outward Bound USA's collective wisdom and experience, as articulated by its top leadership experts.

Leadership the Outward Bound Way introduces readers to the fundamentals of good leadership: communicating effectively, building trust, building teams, overcoming fear, taking risks, and making decisions. The book explores how these leadership basics can be applied in different areas of life-in outdoor travel and recreation, in the office or the boardroom, and in community work or volunteerism.

Below is an exerpt from the book.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO SERVE?
By Joan Welsh; Outward Bound USA

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
—E. B. White, in The New York Times

We read in newspapers and on the Web about human and environmental disasters and places where volunteer help is needed; we see the images on television. But how do we discern when and how to act? How do we choose between saving and savoring the world? How do any of us move out of our inertia, the habits of our daily lives that focus on our own personal daily needs, desires, and obligations?
Listen to Your Inner Callings
Leadership demands inner knowledge and awareness. This does not mean that you mustn’t act until you feel wise and all-knowing. If this were the case, nothing would ever get done! In fact, much of what we learn and teach at Outward Bound is to step out and take risks, even when we’re not too sure of what the outcome will be.
You can never respond to all the needs that exist in your family, your community, and the world at large. It would be a mistake to jump into every opportunity you see. Therefore, it is important to know yourself and learn about what within you responds to the needs you see around you. Finding ways to be a leader through service in your community and world comes from being aware of what inspires you and paying attention to your inner voice.
In her book The Measure of Our Success, Marian Wright Edelman writes: “Listen for the ‘sound of the genuine’ within yourself and others . . . There is,’ Howard Thurman told Spelman College students in 1981, ‘something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.’ It is ‘the only true guide you’ll ever have.’ “ Edelman advocates learning how to be quiet within yourself, to be by yourself, to meditate, pray, or just have times of silence to discern your true needs, desires, and inspirations.
This is hard to do in our society, filled as it is with music, news, and busy-ness. Yet it is important to pay attention to your inner callings and understand what personally leads you to feel good about yourself and your actions.
What do you do in your daily life that provides this opportunity? Do you walk or run each day by yourself? Do you find time to be alone? Finding quietness and attending to your inner voice takes commitment.
Being a Good Samaritan
Sometimes inspiration comes from an immediate and demanding situation. The Good Samaritan happened upon a person on the road who needed help right then, and the Good Samaritan responded with openness and willingness. Our society today often emphasizes privacy and not interfering in others’ affairs, as well as the fear of lawsuits. Yet we have “Good Samaritan” laws that protect those who respond to an immediate need, acknowledging the importance of such actions.
Having an ethic of service means that when you are needed, you help. This isn’t something that one has to learn; it is something that comes from within. Much about leadership is about how we respond intuitively.
Acting on Your Intuition
Everyone has intuition. Yet having the confidence to trust your intuition and then the courage to act on its messages comes with practice and with increasing your awareness that you always can do something, even if it is to find someone else to participate. What is learned is the consciousness of having the responsibility to act.
Some things you just know you should do. You know you should return the proper change in the grocery store if the clerk gives you more than is due. You know you should help an elderly or disabled person by opening a door. In an emergency, do you feel able to act to help? Would you help organize the people who might gather at the place of an emergency? It helps to think about these questions so that if there is a time when you are faced with an emergency, you will at least have given your actions some forethought.
Responding to an Emergency
Michael Lindsay, Colorado Outward Bound’s program director in the 1980s, taught the staff to mentally brew a cup of tea when confronted with an emergency. Of course, he didn’t mean this literally; what he meant was that we should take the time to think and not panic, to stay calm.
Often, leadership in emergency situations means being a good follower. In a medical emergency, if a doctor or other trained medical person is present, he or she may organize the immediate care necessary; your important actions are to follow his or her requests and to help others gathered there do the same.
This is situational leadership: The nature of the emergency itself and what resources and knowledge are at hand determine how you can be of service. You must assess the situation and determine what will make your service most successful. Mentally brew a cup of tea for a moment before you act.
Helping others, being inspired to help others, is something that gets passed on. Frequently we feel that we must repay someone who helps us, yet repayment is usually impossible. But “passing it forward” is very possible and perhaps the best repayment. These acts, both small and large, of helping others inspire others to also be of service. You, yourself, are inspiration for someone else.

Joan Welsh has been a leader in Outward Bound since the early 1980s and is currently the deputy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. This article is an excerpt from the section on “Taking Leadership Into Your Community”, which Welsh authored for Leadership the Outward Bound Way, ©2007, published by The Mountaineers Books. Order your copy of Leadership the Outward Bound Way at www.amazon.com.


 

 

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