Short form:
Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees.
Long form:
Good service leaders, together with
sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are at all levels indispensable
for our future functioning and safety. The primary world service leadership
once exercised by the founders of AA must necessarily be assumed by the Trustees
of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Questions in service
·
When I start a service assignment, do I seek
guidance from the previous incumbent?
·
When I complete a service assignment, do I do a
full handover to the next incumbent, where relevant with a full write-up of my experience?
·
Do I make myself available to others who come
after me in service to answer questions and provide sponsorship?
·
Does my group, Intergroup, etc. take care due
care in how representatives and officers are selected?
·
Within the service structure, I do take
responsibility for encouraging representation where there is none?
·
Do I exercise leadership by originating plans,
policies, and ideas for the improvement of our Fellowship and its services?
·
Do I exercise leadership by consulting widely
before taking decisions and actions?
·
Do I look past the manner in which ideas are
presented to their substance?
Questions in service and life
·
Do I seek leadership out of personal ambition?
·
Do I lead to be served or to serve?
·
In each area of service and life, do I act with
care and selfless good spirit?
·
Do I seek advice when necessary?
·
Do I listen for God's will from unexpected
sources?
·
Do I stand on principle where necessary, even
when it is unpopular?
·
Do I ever block progress or a good idea because
of pride or resentment?
·
Do I suffer from black-and-white thinking?
·
Do I compromise cheerfully if it brings a little
progress?
·
Do I listen to constructive and destructive
criticism with an equally open mind, admit where I am wrong, and adjust where
necessary?
·
Am I defensive—what does that defensiveness
teach me?
·
Do I detach from (i.e. stop identifying with) my
thoughts and actions so I can hear criticism without taking it personally?
·
Do I forgive and ignore unwarranted criticism with
good nature?
·
Do I disagree without being disagreeable?
·
Do I actively seek a vision of God's will for
the future?
·
Do I avoid my responsibility for seeking a
vision of God's will by citing 'one day at a time'?
·
Do I consider the effects of my decisions on the
medium- and long-term as well as the short-term?
·
Do I consider the effects of my decisions on
those distant from me as well as on those close to me?
·
Do I get lost in vision and fail, consequently,
to deliver?
Ideas
Five aspects of leadership:
·
Seeking advice
·
Accepting criticism and disagreement
·
Compromising
·
Taking tough stands
·
Developing vision
Quotations
From Bill W.'s essays on the Twelve Concepts:
'With leadership we shall have a continuous problem. Good
leadership can be here today and gone tomorrow.'
'When making their choices of GSRs, the AA groups should
therefore have such facts well in mind. It ought to be remembered that it is
only the GSRs who, in Group Assembly meetings (or in caucus), can name
Committee Members and finally name the Delegates. Hence great care needs to be
taken by the groups as they choose these Representatives. Hit-or-miss methods
should be avoided. Groups who name no GSRs should be encouraged to do so. In
this area a degree of weakness tends to persist. The needed improvement seems
to be a matter of increased care, responsibility, and education.'
'Our Area Assemblies need only to continue to act with care
and in selfless good spirit.'
'We are apt to warp the traditional idea of "principles
before personalities" around to such a point that there would be no
"personality" in leadership whatever. This would imply rather
faceless automatons trying to please everybody, regardless. … At other times we
are quite apt to demand that AA's leaders must necessarily be people of the most
sterling judgement, morals, and inspiration—big doers, prime examples to all,
and practically infallible. … Real leadership, of course, has to function in
between these entirely imaginary poles of hoped-for excellence. In AA,
certainly, no leader is faceless and neither is any leader perfect.'
'Our leaders do not drive by mandate, they lead by example.'
'A leader in AA service is therefore a man (or a woman) who
can personally put principles, plans, and policies into such dedicated and
effective action that the rest of us want to back him up and help him with his
job.'
'Good leadership originates plans, policies, and ideas for
the improvement of our Fellowship and its services. But in new and important
matters, it will nevertheless consult widely before taking decisions and actions.'
'Good leadership will also remember that a fine plan or idea
can come from anybody, anywhere. Consequently, good leadership will often
discard its own cherished plans for others that are better, and it will give
credit to the source.'
'A "politico" is an individual who is forever
trying to "get the people what they want." A statesman is an individual
who can carefully discriminate when and when not to do this. He recognises that
even large majorities, when badly disturbed or uninformed, can, once in a
while, be dead wrong. When such an occasional situation arises, and something
very vital is at stake, it is always the duty of leadership, even when in a
small minority, to take a stand against the storm—using its every ability of
authority and persuasion to effect a change.'
'Nothing, however, can be more fatal to leadership than
opposition for opposition's sake. It never can be, "Let's have it our way
or no way at all." This sort of opposition is often powered by a
visionless pride or a gripe that makes us want to block something or somebody.
Then there is the opposition that casts its vote saying "No, we don't like
it." No real reasons are ever given. This won't do. When called upon,
leadership must always give its reasons, and good ones.'
'Then too a leader must realize that even very prideful or
angry people can sometimes be dead right, when the calm and more humble are
quite mistaken.'
'Another qualification for leadership is "give and
take"—the ability to compromise cheerfully whenever a proper compromise
can cause a situation to progress in what appears to be the right direction.
Compromise comes hard to us "all-or-nothing drunks." Nevertheless, we
must never lose sight of the fact that progress is nearly always characterized
by a series of improving compromises. We cannot, however, compromise always.
Now and then it is truly necessary to stick flatfooted to one's conviction
about an issue until it is settled.'
'Leadership is often called upon to face heavy and sometimes
long-continued criticism. This is an acid test. There are always the
constructive critics, our friends indeed. We ought never fail to give them a
careful hearing. We should be willing to let them modify our opinions or change
them completely. Often, too, we shall have to disagree and then stand fast
without losing their friendship.'
'To begin with, we ought to listen very carefully to what [destructive
criticism] say. Sometimes they are telling the whole truth; at other times, a
little truth. More often, though, they are just rationalizing themselves into
nonsense. If we are within range, the whole truth, the half truth, or even no
truth at all, can equally hurt us. That is why we have to listen so carefully.
If they've got the whole truth, or even a little truth, then we'd better thank
them and get on with our respective inventories, admitting we were wrong,
regardless. If it's nonsense, we can ignore them. Or we can lay all the cards
on the table and try to persuade them. Failing this, we can be sorry they are
too sick to listen and we can try to forget the whole business. We can think of
few better means of self-survey, of developing genuine patience, than these
usually well-meaning but erratic brother members can afford us. This is always
a large order, and we shall sometimes fail to make good on it ourselves. But we
must keep trying.'
'Now comes that all-important attribute of vision. Vision
is, I think, the ability to make good estimates, both for the immediate and for
the more distant future. Some might feel this sort of striving to be a sort of
heresy because we AAs are constantly telling ourselves, "One day at a
time." But that valued maxim really refers to our emotional lives and
means only those we are not to repine over the past nor wishfully fantasise or
day-dream about our future. As individuals and as a Fellowship, we shall surely
suffer if we cast the whole job of planning for tomorrow onto a kind of
Providence. God has endowed us human beings with considerable capability for
foresight and he evidently expects us to use it. Therefore, we must distinguish
between wishful dreaming for a happy tomorrow and today's use of our powers of
thoughtful estimate—estimate of the kind which we trust will bring future
progress rather than unforeseen woe.'