Leadership

Many people wonder what a leader is and how one person can be so important to a group. To put it simply, a leader is someone that can motivate a group to want to be their best even when against the odds. However, a leader is actually important to a group when they do not just motivate but they also become the prime example for the group in all things. Most importantly a great leader challenges their team by pushing them to the limit and by encouraging each team member to participate in planning, for hope that at least one member will be inspire to become a leader. The hardest yet most significant job of a leader is the responsibility of giving each member of his or her team the opportunity of becoming a leader. My worst leadership experience involves this concept. James Madison High School offers this course, called JROTC, which is a leadership class. This program has inspired many leadership skills out of me but is has also challenged me to be the best leader I can be. I was almost pushed to my limits at a JROTC leadership summer camp program. This summer camp program gathers specific leaders to be in charge of 13 groups of about 20 peers. My school designated me to be one of the leaders in charge of a group of 20 people. It became very difficult to lead when I figured out that I was going to have to lead a group of leaders. In this experience, I became unsure of myself as a leader due to many people in my group undermining me constantly. Some example would be as I gave instructions another person would go and give different ones thinking that they were more correct or as I tried to take back control of my group, I felt exhausted by trying to be the only leader. I fully understand the saying “too many chefs in the kitchen” after this experience, it opened my eyes to specific skills that I needed to develop. Some of the skills that I had to learn were how to swallow my pride and allow a member of my team to sometimes participate in the leadership of the group. On the other hand, I also learned to be more assertive and more confident about being a leader. All in all my worst leadership experience may have been bad but I learned so much from the experience that in the end it became the most significant experience I have had. A significant experience for me generally involves me learning something from it. My best leadership experience is also very significant for me because it confirmed my perspective on how to be a leader. My best leadership experience occurred in 10th grade when I became captain of my school’s flag guard team for me it was so grand because I became captain only after one year on the team. My first year I had no idea what I was doing and was very new to the idea of what flag guard even was. Even though I was new and inexperienced, I pushed myself to be the best I could and to learn as much as possible. I gave myself goals of tricks and stunts I wanted to accomplish by next year. I never quit went to every practice and achieved my goals before my set date. Eventually the coach noticed that even though I was not in a leadership role I was hard working and disciplined like a leader. The next year with a lot of practice and determination, I tried out to be the captain of color guard. After all the tryouts, the coach announced who the captain was; she announced that I was going to be captain. Going through my junior year, I am still the captain of Madison flag guard team and hope to continue to be through my senior year. Overall, this was my best leadership experience because it proves my belief that a leader is someone that sets an example hoping that others will follow. I was determined, disciplined, and hardworking, and in the end, even without a lot of experience, I became captain because I was a good example for the others on my team. Every leader has their good and bad moments. However it is not the moments that define a leader, it is the lessons they learn from their moments. Even with bad experiences, as long as a leader can develop them for it then it is beneficial in the end.