Leadership.

This has been a very difficult column for me to write. As I was initially preparing to write it, we received news of the tragedy that claimed Morry Stein's life. Writing about staffing issues for camps seemed unimportant in light of the loss to the Stein family and to that larger family we call the camp community. In the intervening three weeks, the National Board of Directors met in Indianapolis and I took several days off after that meeting for some time to recuperate. As a result, I had time for reflection and decided to refocus what I want to talk about. This column is particularly meant for camp directors and those directly involved in hiring and supervising the camp staff.

Staffing issues cannot be addressed without looking at the single most important ingredient to good staffing leadership. Much has been written about leadership, in fact it is one of the hottest topics today in management literature. Experts have all identified that leadership is one of the most critical factors in the success of any organization. It has been said that, "You can't manage men out of the foxholes in battle, you must lead them out."

I know that many of you knew Morry far better than I, but as someone who has only recently come into this field, I was deeply influenced by him. Morry was the first ACA representative that I ever met. He was part of the initial interview team I met with in 1988 when I was considering this position. ACA could not have picked a better representative. Even though it is unfair to judge an entire organization on one's impression of a single member, I was certain that ACA was the kind of organization I would enjoy working for because of the quality of leadership Morry so obviously displayed. Here was a man that most would, and many did, willingly follow.

Staffing issues for camps can be the same. I have often heard that when you are interviewing candidates for a position, the candidate is also interviewing your organization through you. This is particularly true if you are trying to attract the very best in staff. Are you the type of person whom others willingly follow?

What characteristics make for great leaders? It would be very simple if there were a single characteristic that we could identify that makes an individual a great leader, but there are many types of leaders and all types can be effective in different situations. There are leaders who inspire their followers through fear and intimidation, through example, through oratory and rhetoric, through charisma and personality. Several years ago I heard a quote from Confucious on what made a great leader. The core idea of this quote was that the greatest leaders were those who left their followers with a sense that they had accomplished what was needed on their own; that each of their contributions was equally important to the success that had been achieved. As a camp director you need to be that type of leader. You need the ability to persuade people to join you and then to give them the opportunity to succeed. This is merely recognizing other human beings who work with us as human, not as interchangeable cogs in a wheel.

One of my favorite management books is The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management by Jerry Harvey, Professor of Management Science at George Washington University. A chapter in the book called "Organizations as Phrog Farms" is particularly enlightening. It describes the typical organization as a "phrog farm" or, in reality, a swamp. The behavior of the creatures inhabiting that swamp is much like the behaviors exhibited by many of us in the organizations we work for. In the section entitled, "Alternatives to Life On The Phrog Farm," Harvey gives some advice to those of us who would have our organizations be something other than a swamp.

One key, he offers, is to develop a "non-zero-sum" organization. A non-zero-sum organization is one where the interactions between people in the organization is not zero. In other words, there are no winners and losers in how the organization operates. To quote Harvey, "People with non-zero-sum attitudes believe that the outcome of any human encounter can be other than zero; that is, we can both win, and if we do, under certain conditions, it is not one plus one equals two, but rather, through synergy, three."

Camps should be non-zero-sum organizations. As leaders, the camp director should actively work to create a climate where the interactions between staff and with campers produce win-win results. When I was at the memorial service for Morry, there were at least 1,500 people in attendance because he had an ability to make all interactions "non-zero-sum." Everyone in attendance felt that they had lost a true friend. Leadership should be like that. When people are looking to you as a leader, they expect that following you will produce positive results for them. That is the mark of a true leader. The followers benefit as much from the relationship as the leader.

As you look at your staffing issues this year, keep in mind that you are the camp's leader. In that capacity, you have a significant responsibility to make your camp as positive an experience for your staff as for the campers!

Reference

Harvey, Jerry B. (1988). The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books.

John A. Miller is executive vice president of the American Camping Association, headquartered in Martinsviile, Ind.