Young Age, I Have Not Had Very

¶ … young age, I have not had very many chances to demonstrate my leadership skills. However, early leadership experiences can be significant shapers of character and builders of confidence. As captain of my high school varsity swim team, I was able to develop and hone my skills as a leader. I gleaned from my experience as a varsity captain some mature and adult traits like decisiveness, good humour, and compassion.

Forced to practice mediation, conflict resolution, and advanced problem solving without direct training in leadership, I learned directly from my interactions with coaches and team members. I will probably always hearken back to this early leadership experience, even if subconsciously, throughout my entire life. However, I wasn't necessarily a natural-born leader. As a tenth grader in high school I worked on a science project with a group of four other students.

I was selected at random to be the leader of the study group; it was the first time I can remember having to exhibit calm qualities of leadership. It proved to be a difficult experience for me and I did not fare as well as I did when I became captain of the swim team. However, I did learn from that experience and hopefully will remember that defensiveness does not bring positive results when dealing with others.

With the egos and personal interests of several people at stake, it can be hard to put things in perspective. Since encountering these leadership experiences, I don't shy away from positions of power. Instead, I am able to balance my position as leader with the needs and goals of the team. Because of my particular skills as a swimmer, I was picked as varsity team captain. I relished the opportunity, but as time went on, I realized that being captain would be a humbling experience in many ways.

Although it boosted my confidence, being captain placed me in the unfortunate position of having to mediate between the egotistical coach and the discontented students. This particular coach demanded too much from the team and acted arrogantly. The power trip was a turn-off for my teammates and most of the students wanted to quit because of it. However, I encouraged them to deal with the situation in a mature, calm manner.

Not reacting to the instincts of the mass majority, which insisted on ditching the team because of this coach, I became more solution-oriented. Because swimming meant a lot to me and to the rest of the team, I was able to use humour to overcome anger. Instead of reacting to the emotions generated by the coach's overactive ego, I emboldened my teammates. Rallying in unity for our sport, the team stuck together. The students claimed that were it not for me, they definitely would have quit.

Team spirit soared, not just for excelling at our sport but also for mutual support. We all ended up close friends because of this experience. I felt a great sense of personal accomplishment and healthy pride after receiving such positive feedback. The entire experience, although trying at times, ended up being one of the most rewarding times of my high school years. My sophomore class science project did not have such a happy ending. The biology class was divided into groups of four or five students.

Each group selected a leader at random, by placing our names in a hat. My name was picked; it was my first encounter with leading a group. From the very first day the group was hard to work with. Only two of the girls were friends, and they tended to gang up on the rest of us. Besides the two girls, none of us knew each other as friends, so it made it difficult to get together and talk on the phone.

Furthermore, each student in the group had a different level of academic motivation. The two girls didn't care much about the project and expected everyone else to do most of the work. They were standoffish on the phone and after school and it was hard to arrange study groups with them. One of the other students, a male, was a little too serious and coveted my position as leader. He and I clashed frequently. Too many egos spoiled any fun we could have had with our project.

I did my best to remain calm, but I lost my temper several times. The biggest shortcoming I exhibited during this project was my defensiveness. I had too much of my ego invested as leader and took criticisms and suggestions too personally. I became argumentative, too, and at times was reluctant to make compromises or concessions to others. When another student made a suggestion, sometimes I would dismiss it merely because I had the power to do so.

Cooperation was a lofty ideal at that point; it was too easy to fall into the traps of leadership, like allowing a desire for power over others to override a healthy, balanced display of leadership. By the time the project was over, most of our differences were ironed out, but none of us really remained friends. I took myself too seriously at that time and was.