Leadership
Having the opportunity to serve as a leader to a large and diverse team has taught me a great deal. The dynamics of balancing the strengths and developmental needs of a team of over 40 (25 in my division) can be challenging, but, it has been my experience that members of a team (big or small) perform best when they feel respected and understand the importance of their role.
The Menu
In 2016 when I joined the team in Seneca Waterways Council, I found that everyone was working hard to help units succeed in membership recruitment, but with declining results annually. The strategy had been to throw the kitchen sink at the problem, but there was little coordination and units actually resented the council telling them what to do to bring on new families. Working with the team, we quickly developed a new approach to allow our units to choose from a "menu" of promotional strategies which were supported by the council. This gave units the authority to decide their own promotional strategy, and allowed us to give individualized coaching to each unit on the strategies which we knew from analysis were most likely to help them succeed. The results have been a significant increase in the number of new youth recruited (17% increase over the prior 3 year average) with several other councils adopting the strategy across the area and region.
The format of the menu changes annually and the content is updated based on the effectiveness of each item the previous year. A customized unit order form shows what the results from the prior 3 years have been along with the strategies used. This helps guide discussion towards the actions that will help the unit get the most out of their recruitment efforts.