SARS BEMP 505 Alanna Orr

3 Competencies Leadership skills Planning Skills Teamwork

Leadership Skills Situation As a head Guard, my leadership role is to make sure all the other guards are doing their jobs properly. This includes rotating every 15 minutes when life guarding, having the right amount of guards on one pool depending on the number of people in the pool, no buddy guarding, remembering to record how many people are in each pool, doing pool tests, making sure people are signing in when entering the pool etc.. One day, I happened to see two other lifeguards buddy guarding with each other and at this time there was well over capacity in the pool. As a head life guard it is my duty to enforce the rules when others are not following them properly.

Action The action I took was using my skills as a head life guard and approaching the other two lifeguards to enforce the rule of “no buddy guarding”. As I approached them, I asked them to separate each other – and told them one must always be sitting on the lifeguard chair and the other on the other side of the pool, standing at the edge. Before each of the guards shifts were done, I pulled them aside one at a time and talk to them about how I was not happy with seeing them buddy guard and reminded them that the patrons who are in the pool swimming, safety is very important and we must be scanning the pool at all times and reminded them of what the consequences were for doing it

Result Both of the lifeguards apologized and recognized what they had done wrong. As a result, I have not seen either of them buddy guarding together. They have both always been keeping their eyes on the pool and ensuring the safety of everyone swimming.

Planning Skills Situation I was a camp counselor at an outdoor nature camp called Camp Naorca. My role as a counselor was to brainstorm, plan and execute activities and events for the campers in our group. My role was to help campers gain awareness and appreciation for nature and the environment by being apart of programs held during the day.

Action Every Friday our staff would have a meeting regarding planned activities and games for the children. I had to come up with one or two activities I thought would be an appropriate game for children ages One activity I thought would be fun was having a dodge ball contest between another section of the camp. I had to be creative in my ideas and come up with games I think the children would participate in.

Result Most of the children participated in my games during camp time. If their was a child who was not interested I would ask them for suggestions on what sort of games we could play the next week and organize some of my creative ideas around that.

Team Work Situation Once a year at work we put on an event called “The Mini Mighty Games” where children come to the pool and participate in fun games as well as have a kids fun lunch after the games. These games are run by myself and other lifeguards

ACTION As lifeguard we had to work as a team to organize games and keep the children entertained and involved. For example, when in the tad pool all the guards had to play with the children and come up with games using the small balls that covered the top of the pool. All three guards in the tad pool had to think fast and work with the children in a team setting. When one guard would come up with one idea, the other guards had to also throw in their ideas to make the games interesting and different.

Result Mini Mighty game were a success. Children had fun playing games in the water with the counselors who worked together to make it fun for the children.