This is part 3 in my series on initiation. If you are joining us late, please see part 1 and part 2 first… The next step in initiation, after putting boys through an experience that shows them Life is Hard and They are not that Important, is to open their eyes to the world around them. We in the western [...]

I’ve been thinking about Initiative lately. How do you teach initiative? I don’t think you can, you can only encourage and allow initiative. As leaders, we must allow initiative, let people stretch, encourage them to try new ways (“…but that’s not the way it’s been done before” can’t be in your vocabulary), and then reward the successes and learn from, not punish, the failures. And as leaders, we can’t spend our lives just reacting to events around, we must be proactive… pushing forward, testing new concepts, breaking new ground.