“Kevin Marx will be next year’s Science Bowl captain,” the club advisor announced. It was a cold February afternoon and our Science Bowl team was returning from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where the competition was hosted. Although our team did not make it past the third round, everyone knew they did their best and were excitedly discussing our last-minute victory over a competing school. As soon as Ms. Stephen -- our advisor -- finished her statement, the bus erupted with applause and words of congratulations floated through the air. This came as a shock to me, but I was proud of my achievement. The captain controls weekly practices and team creation for next year’s competition, a decision that has great influence over the success
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One example was my reforms for team development; instead of following what previous captains have done and make teams early on, I opted to focus more on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses first. For years, captains have made teams based on test scores and swapped people between teams to improve. Instead of doing this, I believed it is important to include information on how individual members perform and waited to make teams. Before taking any novel action, I gave the members a chance to provide feedback and see if I have any room for improvement, and my new plans were accepted. I again reached out to the members to determine if the preliminary teams were acceptable, and again there were no complaints. Instead of making me more confident of my decisions as a leader, I began to wonder why nobody could think of any improvements. I knew that I would not always make the right choices and relied on the members for advice. If nobody offered suggestions for improvements, I interpreted it as people not caring enough to participate. Challenges are a valuable way for me to improve both myself and the team as a whole.
This year, I transitioned from being declared leader to actually taking the role and effecting change. In doing so, I realized the stress leadership positions place on those that take them. Although I have not experienced it myself, I can imagine the
One example was my reforms for team development; instead of following what previous captains have done and make teams early on, I opted to focus more on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses first. For years, captains have made teams based on test scores and swapped people between teams to improve. Instead of doing this, I believed it is important to include information on how individual members perform and waited to make teams. Before taking any novel action, I gave the members a chance to provide feedback and see if I have any room for improvement, and my new plans were accepted. I again reached out to the members to determine if the preliminary teams were acceptable, and again there were no complaints. Instead of making me more confident of my decisions as a leader, I began to wonder why nobody could think of any improvements. I knew that I would not always make the right choices and relied on the members for advice. If nobody offered suggestions for improvements, I interpreted it as people not caring enough to participate. Challenges are a valuable way for me to improve both myself and the team as a whole.
This year, I transitioned from being declared leader to actually taking the role and effecting change. In doing so, I realized the stress leadership positions place on those that take them. Although I have not experienced it myself, I can imagine the