Teamwork and leadership are two valuable traits to have in life. I had the opportunity to develop these traits during year nine OLP, at camp Kalbarri. Having leadership qualities such as respect, integrity and clear focus can propel you to success, as well as help other people reach their goals. Whilst having the ability to be a good leader is important, it is meaningless if you cannot cooperate and work as part of a team. Teamwork is the ability to work with others, understanding different people strengths and weaknesses and unifying to achieve a common goal. Teamwork is essential for completing larger tasks as there are many different components, and the skillset of one individual may not be enough. Over the week, I had the opportunity to be both a leader and part of a team.
Teamwork was vital for a successful camp. We stayed within the same group, pictured below, for the entire camp- and had lots of duties that needed to be fulfilled. We needed to carry our personal belongings, tent equipment, group gear, equipment for cooking and all our food that needed to be transported. Working as a team and cooperating was imperative to the success of this camp- an example of which was in our cooking groups.
Our cooking group was a smaller group within our camp group. Each cooking group had four members, so the work needed to be distributed between them. We shared roles by having two people designated to cut the ingredients, the other two members would cook once the ingredients were prepared. This system made us more efficient and meant that every night we had more time to enjoy our delicious meal. Despite having these set roles in place, my cooking group also taught me about adaptability. Being adaptable, or flexible, is a key part of teamwork and I had to opportunity to demonstrate my ability to adapt to situations while cooking. This was because if someone didn’t know how to do a certain job, or they were highly skilled in a different area we would adjust roles to cater to their skillset. Working in a cooking group strengthened my teamwork skills as I had to communicate, adapt and cooperate.
During camp, I was also given opportunities to show my leadership skills. Year nine camp had a much larger emphasis on students taking charge, which was evidenced by the number of tasks we had to complete. Due to this increased responsibility, everyone in our group had to step up and become a leader. I volunteered to organize the food we were taking on the hike. To complete this task, I first instructed my group members on what food to collect and their quantities. After that, we laid all the food out on the table and I double-checked to make sure we had collected everything. During this process, I learned an important part of being a leader, putting the group’s needs and wants first. This helped me grow as a leader as I began to understand the needs and wants of my group members, allowing me to find solutions that catered to everyone. I learnt that sometimes my first choice isn’t the best solution for the whole group. Through this experience, I developed essential leadership qualities, such as empathy, consideration and selflessness.
Overall, year nine camp has helped me strengthen my teamwork and leadership skills greatly. It has helped me acquire traits that I can implement in my daily life to become better at working in teams and leading groups.