MW Cameron M. Bailey

Leadership

In my last post I talked about how important it is for a leader to both hold and communicate a vision to those around him. You can read that post here.

In this post I'll be writing about one of the ways in which a leader can lose this essential vision, even without realizing that it is being lost.

As leaders we badly run the risk of losing our vision if we get overly caught up in the details of the day to day operations of our Lodge or other organization. This is because in order to properly utilize vision, it must be held at the forefront of our minds. If however we are so focused on side issues and little details, those things move to the front of our minds, and vision gets lost somewhere in the back, with all the clutter.

At the Lodge level, if we are Worshipful Master, I suggest that we don't need to be intimately involved with our charity and scholarship funds, rather we can let 'Bob' know what our vision is for those funds, and trust him to take care of things. We don't need to plan our annual camping trip/retreat, rather we can let 'Alan' know what our vision is for that weekend and let him plan it.

These are just a couple quick examples, but the principal holds true across all activities of the Lodge.

We need to communicate our vision for the Lodge to our Brothers, and then step back and let them help us achieve that vision. If we can't step back and feel that we must control everything, well then we will lose that vision because we will become consumed by meaningless details.

We see this I think in Grand Lines as well. A new fellow gets elected and has a vision of where he would like to see our Fraternity go. Very quickly though that vision is consumed by meaningless details. He's spending countless hours a week on the highway, sitting in meetings discussing property the Grand Lodge owns, sitting in other meetings talking about the stock market. Still more meetings discussing charitable efforts. Eventually he becomes Grand Master and whatever vision for the future, whatever help he was going to provide our Fraternity is dead and buried, buried under a mountain of details because he never was able to trust his Brothers enough to let go. Or, he didn't feel that he could let go given the expectations of the Masons of his Jurisdiction.

To be successful leaders we must have a vision, we must be able to hold that vision first in our minds, and we must be able to communicate that vision. If we can't do all three of those things we will fail in our duty to lead. Therefore, we must guard against putting too much focus on those things that would tend to overwhelm our vision. If we can do this, we can have a great year in the East.

#Leadership #Lodge #Vision #GrandLine

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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As Freemasons those of us who desire leadership have that opportunity. We can have the tremendous honor of becoming a leader of men by becoming Worshipful Master of our Lodges.

Title and position however, no matter how lofty, do not make a man a leader. Position is simply a place, title is only words.

What actually makes a man a leader is having at least one other person who is willing to follow where he leads. It is impossible to be a leader without having followers in turn.

It is I think important to ask, what makes a leader? What makes a man become someone who other men want to follow?

I argue that the answer to that question is vision.

In order to lead, a leader must hold a vision of where he wants his Lodge to be in the future, and of equal importance, he must be able to communicate that vision to the members of his Lodge.

If he either lacks vision, or can't communicate that vision, then the members of his Lodge can't follow him, if for no other reason than the fact that they won't know where they are headed, or where their efforts should be directed.

What this means for those of us who lead our Lodges, or who plan on leading a Lodge is that we must spend some time figuring out exactly where we think our Lodge should be in the future, and plot out at least a few initial steps that can be taken to get the Lodge there.

What it also means is that we can't just bounce from our Installation to our first Stated Meeting as Worshipful Master. Rather we must sit down with the members of our Lodge, at the very least the key members of our Lodge, and we must explain our vision for the Lodge to them in the most complete manner possible.

By doing so, the members of our Lodge can help us to achieve our vision.

By neglecting to do so, we have little to no chance of success during our time in the East.

Standing in the East we have no greater duty than to hold a vision for our Lodge, and communicate that vision to our members.

Why?

Because a single bad year can and does decimate a Lodge when it happens.

A Lodge can go along very well for years, improving a bit with each passing year until it is ticking along at a superb level. Providing education, providing fellowship, growing. That is the work of years, the next year all of that work can be destroyed.

I've unfortunately experienced that exact thing in one of my Lodges. If you've been a Mason long enough, you probably have seen it too. You have probably also seen that it takes years of good leadership to repair the damage done during a single bad year.

This cycle can be crushing to a Lodge.

The good news is that the cycle can be prevented. We prevent it by holding a vision for our Lodge's future, and communicating that vision to our members. If we do that, we are actually leading our Lodge, and we will be assured of a good year in the East, for our Brothers will be there to assist us. With the help and support of the members of our Lodge, we can not fail.

#Leadership #Lodge #Vision

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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The Secretary of my home Lodge (Sultan-Monroe 160) called me and let me know that today is my 'Masonic Birthday.' It seems that I was Raised a Master Mason exactly ten years ago today.

What a great ten years they have been!

I've been blessed to have met and formed strong friendships with great men from every corner of the State, friends from the tiniest of towns to the largest of cities. Travel has allowed that to extend further as I've been able to get to know some amazing Freemasons from all over North America.

Likewise, my wife has been welcomed with open arms, no matter where we have traveled, and she too has grown some great and strong friendships.

I've had the opportunity and great honor of leading my local Lodge (Centralia 63) as Worshipful Master, the fightin' 17th Masonic District as DDGM, and for the third year now the F&AM of Washington. Given the nature of our obligations, and the men involved with our fraternity, these are truly the greatest honors a man can receive.

I've gotten to learn, and to study. Freemasonry is what we make of it. Some view it as simply a social endeavor, others as largely a charitable endeavor. Neither of those things are wrong. I view it largely as an opportunity to learn. The Scottish Rite touts itself as the University of Freemasonry, and it makes the tremendous educational resources it holds available to all. That learning has added so very much to my life, and as yet, I've only just scratched the surface. Freemasonry truly is a lifetime study for those who seek that.

Lastly, and most importantly, Freemasonry has helped me to improve myself. I am not the man I was ten years ago. In that way, it has fulfilled its promise to me, the same promise it makes to each of its Initiates.

I wrote about that some years ago for an article in our magazine, the Masonic Tribune, and it still holds true today.

Freemasonry, if you allow its lessons to penetrate into your heart, will make you into a better man.

I don't often like writing about intensely personal things, but I'll give an example here to let you know just one of the ways that can happen.

My wife and I travel on a fairly regular basis around Mexico. We've been to a myriad of interesting places there, from a tiny mountain town of perhaps 125 people and no electricity where we stayed, to the 21.2 million person greater City of Mexico.

Where we never go, refuse to go, is to any resort built for tourists from the United States.

Traveling as we do through Mexico (ever spend 14 hours on a bus because your geography was bad and you misjudged just how far it is from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta?) we see quite a bit of poverty. It has been improving over the past few decades, but poverty is still rampant in Mexico. Rampant but quiet. Pushy panhandling is not something encountered there, rather most often a silent plea, or a very young child working for pennies.

When we travel in Mexico, I dress just as I do here. Always in a Masonic shirt, always with a couple big Masonic rings. By and large Mexican Masons are much more circumspect with such things, but by wearing the things I do I've been able to meet a great many local Brothers as they come up and introduce themselves.

One of our trips, shortly after I'd become a Mason, I remember this quite vividly. It was night and my wife and I were walking a pedestrian walkway, back to our hotel. It was well lighted, and we walked passed an elderly lady, sitting silently, but with a cup for alms close at hand.

I remember walking right on by.

Later that night, that bothered me. It bothered me a great deal, and it still bothers me to this day. I shamed myself.

You see, it bothered me because that lady saw a hand, emblazoned with a big Masonic ring, indifferently pass right by her, giving no thought to her plight.

Remembering the things I'd encountered in Lodge, I learned that night that my inaction wasn't right. It wasn't right for me, and it certainly wasn't right for the Fraternity I was representing.

Since that time, whenever we are traveling through Mexico my wife and I will make it a point to carry a lot of small currency, giving it to those we see in need.

This is just one small example of the myriad of ways Freemasonry has worked within me, to improve me.

#MasterMason #Friendship #Leadership #SelfImprovement #Charity

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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