Why I teach -- Since 1985 I have been privileged to serve as a leadership / management / supervision instructor for park and land managing agencies around the United States. I retired in 2004 after more than 36 years with the U.S. Government, about 25 them in some management capacity with the National Park Service. Call it "supervision", "management" or "leadership," being in charge is one tough job. I became an instructor desperately trying to learn how to do my job better. I have stayed with it out of a desire to help others as well. And, because what I draw from to teach with, comes from the same hard experiences shared by the people in my classes. I also happen to believe that laughing brains are absorbent brains. In addition to learning, I believe effective training is fun. No matter how high you rise up into the organization, the hardest part of the job for most of us will continue to be dealing with people: I don't think anyone can rise to a position that is above it. It's too bad most of our organizations don't do a very good job of preparing us for the task. The irony is that today, we are calling on more and more people, lower and lower into the organization, to act as leaders, often informally and with little idea how to do it. The sad part is, if you've ever worked under a "bad boss", you know what a high price is paid by everyone around him or her. The good news is that with a little knowledge and training, being a boss can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. -------- Art Eck |