The Extraordinary Blog

Eagle Scouts Make Good Team Players

A few careers ago, I was on a panel to interview and select officers into the U.S. Coast Guard Direct Commission Program. A rather grueling process, we went through an applicant’s file and interviewed him (or her), trying to elicit stories of past behavior that would meet our specific criteria for selection…lifted directly from the CG Performance Appraisal Form.

After a few years of grading these candidates, I noticed an interesting pattern in the results: The Board scored Eagle Scouts exceptionally well – and those candidates who received their commission, did very well as a Reserve Officer.

Only 5 percent of Scouts achieve Eagle rank by age 18, when Scouting ends – and usually, it’s only one or two from a troop.

When I read the Washington Post today about ELEVEN members of Troop 681′s Viking Patrol achieving their Eagle Scout at the same time…that’s a testament to teamwork.

Question: What is every member on your team collectively striving to achieve?

This entry was posted January 20, 2008 in Diversity, Participation, Roles. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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