I’ve been meeting with a number of scouts in Scoutmaster Conferences. These are always fun for me, to get to know – you – the scout a little better. I’d like to do them more often so we have time to be more relaxed and less rushed about it. I’ll be looking for ways to do this.

One of the questions I ask each scout is ‘How can I do better as a Scoutmaster?’. This is a serious question. I’m not looking simply for a quick ’Nothing, you’re doing great’. I am sincerely asking ‘In your opinion, how can I do better’? One scout this past time asked me to ‘make the scoutmaster minutes more personal.

So, while I explore what that means to me, let me talk about some things that I’ve been dealing with in my life lately. I run a software development company and things from time to time get stressful and overwhelming. The everyday sales, marketing, operations and doing your own work can get overwhelming in their own right. Over the past couple weeks and for many weeks to come, my office is moving to a new location. Now while that IS exciting, it comes with plenty of stress. All the details that are involved are immense and many times these things get in the way of accomplishing my obligations to clients, and helping an employee or colleague, or the phone rings.

I find myself ready to jump down someone’s throat, or to throw the phone away, or simply close a door and lock myself away. This is how I feel a number of times throughout the day.

How can I keep up?? What ball am I dropping? Can I handle it?

It takes me a bit to follow the advice that I found myself giving a scout the other day who had taken on a new role which I’m sure was overwhelming. So much to do, and not knowing which ball was being dropped, if any. I told him that I was there if he needed me. That he was doing a great job! And that if a ball did get dropped, we can figure out how to pick it back up and get moving again.

I have friends and colleagues that are there for me too, just like I am here for you if you are feeling this way.

Stop, take a breath, seek help, and keep moving forward. In the end, things will work out ok. These challenges are what help us grow and develop as leaders. We will face many more of these challenges. And, it isn’t the challenge that makes us, it is how we deal with the challenge that helps us to grow as a leader.