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...