To me leadership is about making your team the best it can be and teaching them to work at their full potential and with each other to the best of their ability. On the year 9 OLP I had so many chances and opportunities to be a leader. There were so many things that needed to be done and we didn’t have any real guidance from adults. This meant that members of the group sometimes had to step up and be a leader to get the group moving or organise something.

Taking Initiative

Leadership doesn’t require forceful control but rather guiding people to utilize their strengths.  An example of when I had to use my leadership skills was after coming back from hikes or activities some of my group members visibly and audibly hungry. Rather then joining in by voicing my concerns, I took the initiative to delegate tasks so we could efficiently cook some food. For example, I made the executive decision to give the chopping job to someone who was more experienced and comfortable with knives. However, since I didn’t feel comfortable using knives, I looked after the pot to ensure the food didn’t burn. Rather then doing all the jobs myself, by delegating, I allowed people to work to their strengths, getting tasks done quickly. By splitting the jobs, it encouraged everyone to get involved.

Cooperation

Being a leader isn’t a position, its about the actions you take, as it requires the cooperation of all team members. For example, each day our camp group had different leaders who would coordinate when we woke up, slept, cooked and left for different activities. In order for the leader to be successful it requires the team members to cooperate. Just by listening to the leaders and giving constructive suggestions, I was being a leader to other people in my group and showing what it means to be a team player. It became apparent, the success of the leader relies on the participation and unity of the other members.  By being cooperative, I helped our group work better as a team as instead of everyone fighting and everyone’s ideas clashing I helped to make sure everyone listened to out leaders.

Overall, camp was a very valuable experience, forcing and teaching us to work with people we wouldn’t normally work with and learn to lead others. This helped set us up for projects we will have to do in school and also for later life such as getting a job and working with other people.