Personal Narrative: My Crucible Experience

A crucible is by definition “a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity”. After much reflection, I chose to discuss my first assignment as a platoon leader in the radio company in the of Transmission. Through my modest career I had enjoyed a variety of leadership positions within the Army; and I learned a lot from each position and gained a lot of experience that shaped my leadership personality, however, my first assignment was the most significant experience that I had which had the big effect on me and my career as an officer. In this essay, I will first describe my crucible experience and explain why it had a great effect on me. I will then explain how the experience challenged …show more content…
It had changed the way that I looked to what was expected of me as an officer. I was thinking that all I have to do is giving orders according to the organizational regulations and norms. But I learned that being a leader is far beyond that narrow concept. Be a leader is about having the ability to influence, inspire and motivate people. This experience challenged me at the time I didn’t have any experience in leadership. It had a great effect on shaping my leadership style and helped me to know myself better and how to use emotional power in order to build trust and cohesive teams within my unit. This experience will have a positive effect on me as an organizational leader because it taught me how to better prepare myself for the challenges in the future as a senior Army leader. The crucible no doubt contributed in helping me to understand myself better and break the narrow concept that I have of what to be a leader is. Although, situation and conditions may change, the experience that I went through showed me that the use of a combination of emotional and positional power is the key success for leading change, building trust, and developing military organizations. Overall, the experience that I went through as a newly promoted Lieutenant has made me more committed than ever to be a successful organizational