Leadership, group dynamics in a post shtf world

Re 5 and 6
Someone said
Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand. "Teach it and you will not forget it."

My father always said
It's stuff you use and people you look after. Not the other way around.

A good leader takes care of his troops and they take care of him. - It builds solid loyalty.

Mountainman.

Gravlore,

Physical presence is only good if the leader walks the walk and talks the talk, otherwise it is only leadership through intimidation = Bullying. That may scare others to listen to your face, while they plot your assassination behind your back. Good leaders lead from the front by the example they want to be followed, not yelling threats from the rear.

Of course, I could be way wrong and out of line,

Mountainman.

I dont want to be a leader, but I do want veto power. I'm the type of guy that needs work to do, I'm a fixer, designer, tinker, sometimes medic, other times an ear to listen to a problem that the person usually figures out themself. I will help with building something for someone but will not do it all myself. I wear many a hat, and most time I'm showing people how to do something to help themselves. Never willing to lead, but will always be there to guide. 🙂

Leadership in simplest terms... is responsibility. Yes as Leader you get to make decisions.. you have a certain level of power that is granted to you by the group.. That said.. you are FULLY responsible for the outcomes.. good or bad... A VERY heavy load.

Just another thought about leadership from a Project Management perspective.

The Project Manager is not necessarily a subject matter expert in anything except the managing of resources. In fact, they are almost always not experts in the matters at hand.

They are the ones who can manage the resources best. This means managing emotions and feelings as well as skills, time, and physical supplies. They have the wisdom to seek counsel from the experts where it is needed and the humility to know when they need to seek that counsel.

A prepper village will be filled with a bunch of snarling alpha dogs snapping at each other under the pressure. Some of us will have natural fear and suspicion of anyone trying to issue orders as they have not had enjoyable experiences with politicians or bureaucrats. A leader of any village should be known and accepted before shtf if possible. If it is not possible and we are dealing with a hodgepodge of whomever could reach the landing zone; then I would hope those individuals can work together to choose a leader (rather than having a politician rise amongst the survivors offering to be one).

-Dang

Leadership Principle #7 - Develop the leadership potential of your followers.

Leadership Principle #8 - Make sound and timely decisions.

Just another thought about leadership from a Project Management perspective.

The Project Manager is not necessarily a subject matter expert in anything except the managing of resources. In fact, they are almost always not experts in the matters at hand.

They are the ones who can manage the resources best. This means managing emotions and feelings as well as skills, time, and physical supplies. They have the wisdom to seek counsel from the experts where it is needed and the humility to know when they need to seek that counsel.

-Dang

In the military you have just described the role of the those at the rank of General. The General ensures the resources are at the correct location, at the correct time; to ensure the objective is achieved.

Mountainman. 😎

Generals, how many men died becuase they thought that they knew everything. 👿

leadership Principle #9 - Train your people as a team and employ them up to their capabilities.

Generals, how many men died becuase they thought that they knew everything. 👿

Ranger,

I never said it was right and I will never agree with the striking away of the lives of the men with the stroke of the pen, as it seems Generals so easily do. I was just trying to say, that in the big picture, it is the General's job to ensure men, equipment, arty, air support, rations, medical, fuel and the weather, are there for when the Colonel's lead the troops to victory!

Of course, it is usually the LT's and Captain's who are actually with the troops on the battle field. But I digress.

In the structured military world, each layer of leadership has a job to do. If, everyone does their job to the best of their abilities, then the whole beast works well. But, as leadership fails at the different levels, the beast stumbles. And if, someone does not get the leadership in line, the beast may not recover. And you are defeated. Team work and leadership, both are needed.

It was posted about the challenge of being in charge of a prepper community because in general, there are a lot of Alpha Males. The solution, IMHO, is to have the most capable leader as the top dog, and give all the other Alpha's there own unit to command. Then give taskings to the each unit to keep them busy. Under-employing and laying idle, causes grieve. If they are good at hunting send them out on the hunt. If they are good at scavenging send them to find items needed by the community. If they like to shoot, put them in charge of the defensive patrols around the community. The list goes on and on. You got them in your community, use them at what they are good at. When you form your prepper community take resumes and develop skills lists. Ensure open communications between your group so you can sort your people into workable units. Team cohesion is more important than individual skill sets. A good team can learn skills, but highly skilled individuals cannot be forced to be a team.

I will stop now.

Mountainman.

PS - I am not looking to be a leader, but I would make a good 2 I.C. (Small Unit Ops)

Leadership Principle #10 - keep your followers informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture.

I'm pretty sure that by now, all of the military and ex-military out there have figured out where these ten leadership principles come from. To this day, I still carry that card in my wallet.

Don't you think there will be groups that end up with leaders that are due to fear?

We already have that today, just look at any military dictatorship. Especially what is going on in the Arab countries like Syria at the moment.

There are always natural laws at work in any group of people, despite their beliefs and hopes for how society should work. One can only hope that it all works out for good, and speak up instead of remaining silent. If all the inmates of each of the Nazi concentration camps during WWII had worked together to storm the gates, the Nazis could not have held them. But their will was broken by the time they arrived and they were unable to organize because all of the natural "leaders" amongst them had been tapped for special privileges if they kept order in each barracks (these inmates were known as Kapos). The Nazis (catastrophically for so many innocent people) knew the rules of leadership well.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" George Santayana

Bone up on your history, because the cycles are endless. There is nothing new under the sun, and everything has happened before. People who were surprised by the economic downturn were too young to remember similar past events from the 80s and 30s. Learn to recognize patterns and don't be complacent.

"Leadership principles" are all well and good, but if the wrong person is in charge, watch out.

I've been in leadership roles before and one thing I've learned - a good leader takes responsability, a bad leader assigns blame. I try to be a good leader, even though sometimes it hurts. Hopefully, in the future, if in a leadership role, I could still be a good leader.

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The question of leadership can be debated and pondered and discussed all we want. It has been debated and pondered and discussed for centuries. When it comes right down to it though, it has been long settled. In any group there only two ways that someone assumes the role of leadership. The first is to be appointed leader by a higher authority, ie: by popular vote or by someone even higher up the food chain. The other is naturally. By that I mean that in any group where a leader isn't appointed, one will naturally arise as people begin to look more and more to that individual for decisions. Even in a group of alpha males, one will always emerge as the top dog. A natural leader has the type of presence that inspires others to have confidence in him/her.
My group has chosen me as leader because I have the most experience in prepping, because I've had leadership training and because I've had leadership experience. Also, because if TSHTF, they know that I am the one providing them with a sanctuary. However, as the group settles and becomes more of a community a new leader may emerge. Eventually someone among the group may arise as the one they look to more and more, as the leader. That person will be my leader (unless I choose to leave).
Basically, all of our debate and discussion won't decide leadership issues. Those issues will resolve themselves in their own way.