During my senior year of high school, I was the captain of my color guard. At the time of tryouts, I did not believe how hard it was going to be. I thought I was just going to call the shots of discipline for my guard. For instance, when someone was goofing off, I thought I just simply had to tell them to be quiet. While the job did entail the discipline description, I encountered the hardships of my first leadership experience.
Girls are chatty. Girls in high school are dramatic and chatty. Trouble was always on the rise among chatty and dramatic girls. As a leader, I had to get the girls back on track about what was important: having fun, working hard and winning a competition. It was crucial to hear both sides of one story and then work through the problem. I could not dismiss their feelings because they would lose focus and remain angry. At the time, I was at the beginning of my leadership journey and when I think back to it, there were things I could have done better. However, I appreciate the chance to learn and go through the experience because leaders have to start off somewhere.
One of the most important things about my experience as a guard captain was learning to say I was wrong. Everyone makes mistakes. I felt the pressure to always know the right thing but I am not a robot! I do not have the intelligence or wisdom at the age of 17. I also found that my guard had more respect for me when I apologized for my mistakes.
At the end of my journey, I knew that I would not change it for the world and cherish the people I grew close too. Plus, we received straight superiors at our last competition!
Hi Emma,
ReplyDeleteI can relate with you experience of being a leader. I as well was a captain. I was the captain of my lacrosse team. It was a big responsibility for me because our team was very bad and we never won a game for three semesters straight. But my senior year as captain I lead my team to a 50% winning percentage by leading them to winning half our games that season. Throughout that season leading them I knew I wasn't the best. I acknowledged that and ensured I took my teammates view points into consideration. This helped me a lot. Through our leadership roles we learned a lot and can apply it to business entrepreneurship.