William ​​​Tamas-Cao​

MY EXPERIENCE IN ATTAINING LEADERSHIP

Having been involved in a high school leadership camp, I entered believing the course would be of almost of no use to me, as I know I am generally quiet in groups of people and saw myself simply as a follower of the crowd. By the first obstacles of the day it had been established by Emu Gully staff that the team I was placed in was deemed very quiet, having no individual step forward to lead the group unlike the other groups on the camp. On the second day an obstacle within the course began to stop incorporating help from staff and as a result forced students to collaborate together without the use of verbal communication. It was at this point I identified my group was getting nowhere and without a volunteer to guide the people holding someone on a stretcher, we could have been there all night. But it was by being exposed to an environment in which for the first time everyone had acted as followers as I did all my life, I said to myself, "Fine, I'll guide them through this maze". By the end of that course alone, my team no longer had staff members to rely upon, and had turned to me. To my own disbelief, from then on, I was leading and guiding the team all the way until the end of the entire camp, and having a blast doing so. It was this single moment of this course alone, I am extremly happy I took the opportunity to step up, unlocking a sense of leadership I didn't know I had in me.

 

It is because of this leadership camp I am proud, and extremly thankful for the opportunity to have been exposed in the environments this course forced upon us, and am proud to have recieved the Certificate of completion within the Emu Gully Leadership Course as seen in my Achievments section of my CV. Although, with this experience in mind, it has been identified that I tend to only step up in environments that require a leader, rather than if someone is already managing/guiding a group.

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