Mentoring for Leadership: Encourage Members to Become Leaders

We are now in the second half of our Program Year. In the first half of our Program Year, you were encouraged to focus on Mentoring inside and outside Auxiliary business meetings, to host training sessions, to share knowledge and were provided with online tools to build a strong foundation and serve our mission.

In the second half of our Program Year, lets encourage new leaders to lead. Elections are right around the corner. Have you started to recognize who would be a great leader? If you have not done so, now is a great time to start.

Use the steps below and refer to suggestions provided in my last blog to set your Auxiliary, District and Department up to be successful.

Encourage Members to Become Leaders

Never use fear to get leaders in your Auxiliary, District or Department. We need leaders to step up. We also need mentor leaders to promote new leaders. By mentoring through three focus areas this year, you can use some of the following examples to encourage those to become leaders.

• Set the example: All levels of leadership must lead by example through education, communication and following the National Bylaws and Ritual.
• Recognize Abilities: All our members have strengths and abilities. Being a successful leader is not doing everything yourself but recognizing members’ strengths and asking them to showcase their abilities. Most people want to show what they can do.
• Inclusion in decision making: A sure way to encourage leadership is to include others in decision making. When you include others to make important decisions you are showing them that they can be a leader and trusted with important decisions for the good of the organization. This is also a way to share responsibilities and lead by example. How does it make you feel when you are trusted? Maybe it makes you feel like you can take on the world. Okay, maybe not the whole world, but that new task of leadership.
• Train: Sharing knowledge, asking mentors to sit with new officers and being transparent about leadership encourages members to take on new roles. Members feel engaged knowing that there will be training to help take on new tasks. No one likes to take on a role without knowing what is expected of them.
• Respect, praise, and appreciate: Leaders should always show respect to their members, praise their accomplishments and say “thank you” often. When we feel respected and appreciated, we do not hesitate to take on new things, like leadership.

Mentoring for Leadership resource materials located at vfwauxiliary.org/resources.

• 2020-2021 National Program Book
• Mentoring at VFW Auxiliary: Relationship Building for the Future
• Building on the VFW Auxiliary Foundation

Have you been showing off your R.O.C.K. Mentor/Leader skills this year?

Reliable | Outgoing | Consistent Communicator | Knowledgeable

Your Department Mentoring for Leadership Chairman has been using their R.O.C.K. Mentor/Leader skills. They have helped members engage in new ways of learning, thinking and communicating through this pandemic. By encouraging use of the Building on the VFW Auxiliary Foundation Guidebooks they are creating successful leaders. Along with the National Bylaws and Ritual, and the suggestions/examples from the guidebooks, your R.O.C.K. Mentor/Leaders are helping Officers, Chairmen and members understand their duties.