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Anyone can read, recite, and eventually understand a rules book. But you guys are correct that ability to state the rules and to do well on the Part II test is not what makes a good official.
People skills (leadership) is what separates the policemen from the exceptional official.
If I made an estimate I would suggest that a great official is 80 percent people skills and 20 percent rulebook learning. This is why so many of us have difficulty advancing - applying ourselves to the rulebook is easy. It is there for us to read and memorize. But the best we can achieve is 20 percent of the full requirement. Developing personality and leadership skills is much more difficult. There is no rulebook and in general it takes a mentor and some powerfully strong examples. Those don't automatically come when we pay our association dues. To develop the 80 percent you have to go out and find that stuff.
Paying attention in this forum is a good way to get started AND we all need a personal mentor.
Happy searching... and may we all find exemplary mentors.
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"There are no superstar calls. We don't root for certain teams. We don't cheat. But sometimes we just miss calls." - Joe Crawford
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