My First Experience as a Leader

It wasn’t until my freshman year in college that I truly began understanding the importance of leadership. I was attending Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, ME and was a member of the academy’s regiment of midshipmen. I was enrolled in the academy’s marine transportation program and looked forward to a career sailing around the world in the commercial shipping industry.

Any student pursuing a course of study at the academy leading to a merchant marine officer’s license was required to participate in the quasi-military structure that formed the basis of the regimental branch of the school.

Although not as severe as the “boot camps” enlisted men and women endure during their indoctrination into military service, freshman midshipmen (or MUGs as they are more affectionately known) receive their fair share of yelling, marching around, strict discipline, and other physical challenges. Essentially, the Regiment of Midshipmen was a tool for building leadership skills, confidence, and character.

I was nearing the end of my 6 week “indoctrination” period when one of my upper class training officers asked my “company” for volunteers for an upcoming Girl Scout Conference/Retreat the academy was hosting the following weekend.

These events had become a tradition at the academy because of the schools picturesque location on the Mid Coast of Maine, state of the art facilities, and plenty of “volunteers” to assist in running the event.

On this particular year, 150-200 Girl Scouts were expected to converge on the academy to participate in a variety of activities ranging from sailing and boating, oceanography, the solar system (the academy has a planetarium), crafts, and cooking.

I figured I had nothing to lose since I was stuck at school anyway, and since I hadn’t been a standout midshipman during the indoctrination period, I thought it might be a way to win back a little respect from the upperclassmen who supervised us.

Besides, I still wasn’t allowed to leave campus due to the restrictions imposed on new regimental members (being isolated to the academy, away from friends and family, helped simulate the isolation of being stuck on an ocean going vessel for months on end).

“I’ll do it” I said.

And with those three words I was penciled in along with a fellow MUG to teach a group of 8-10 year old Girl Scouts all about the life of a student at the academy and the importance of our quasi-military student structure.

In the few days leading up to my big gig, I wondered how I would hold the attention of my audience with such a “boring” subject. After all, the other activities these girls would be participating in (boating, oceanography, etc) where infinitively more attractive than learning about the life of a student of the regiment.

I drafted a quick outline of what I would say…I would talk about my daily routine of waking up early, reporting to cleaning stations, ironing my clothes, polishing my shoes, mustering in the field house, marching to class, marching from class, mustering in the field house again, etc. etc.. And after a few dry runs of my presentation, I figured I was ready to face the girls; or so I thought…

There I was standing, in front of my first group of 30 Girl Scouts the following morning. The session started off great with some very enthusiastic “Hellos” from the group. Unfortunately, the upbeat start to the morning was quickly squashed as I began my boring diatribe about the lowly life of a first year participant in the academy’s regimental program.

Finally, one of the girls spoke up and said “That’s silly, why do you all of that stuff when you could of gone to a “real” school?”

I was caught off guard and I didn’t really have a good answer for her. I knew what I wanted to say. I knew that the regiment instilled discipline, leadership skills, teamwork, and confidence, but I didn’t exactly know how let alone explain it to an 8 year old.

After another 10 minutes or so of babbling about my structured student life, the girls moved on to their next training session, and I felt like I had let them down.

I could see the next group of girls walking down the hill towards my location and knew I had to change my routine fast if I was going to avoid repeating the failure of my previous presentation. Then out of the blue, I had an idea. Instead of telling them about how the academy builds leadership and teamwork, I would actually show them.

As the next group of Girl Scouts assembled at my station I was once again greeted by some very enthusiastic “Hellos”, only this time I was going to keep this level of enthusiasm up throughout the entire presentation.

I asked the girls if they knew what leadership was. Although they were a bit timid, one of them eventually spoke up and said “it was telling people what to do”. I told here she was close but not exactly right. I explained to the group that leadership was about moving a group of people together towards a desired goal.

It was time to put my new idea into action.

“Today we are going to learn how to march” I said.

“The scout leaders had suspicious looks on their faces as if to say, “Hey, we didn’t sign our girls up for this”.

I avoided being harsh (as my upper class training officers had been with me), but I encouraged the girls to form three rows of 10 people each. Once I had them spaced out evenly I started them off with the simple exercise of marching in place, instep with one another, to my cadence.

“Left…left…left, right, left…” I kept repeating this line until all the girls where marching together, and instep.

Next was the task of getting the girls to stop marching at the same time. This was a little tricky, but after a few trial runs we were able to get our timing right to stop on the same foot at the same time.

I continued instructing the girls in about faces (turning around), and keeping their distance while they marched all over campus; we even came up with a “Girl Scout Company” cheer.

To my surprise, the girls really enjoyed learning to march in step with one another. As they mastered each element of the exercise you could see the sense of accomplishment in their voices and facial expressions. They really enjoyed working together as a team and marching around campus to show off their teamwork. They were proud.

So why was learning to march such a big deal? Every one of these girls knew how to walk, stop, turnaround, and cheer, but it was my expertise and leadership I had gained marching around under the direction of upperclassman that brought the Girl Scouts together as one. Although it may sound foolish to some, this exercise in teamwork is exactly what leadership is all about.

As word spread among the other Girl Scout Groups about how great the “leadership session” was, the troop leader from the first group of girls (the ones I had failed earlier in the morning) asked me why I didn’t march her girls around the campus.

I apologized and told her I originally thought marching was a tool the academy used to discipline freshman and instill a sense of respect for their upperclassman. However, after the excellent questions asked by a scout in her group I realized that marching (as well as the other “disciplinary” tasks freshman were responsible for) served a much greater purpose.

It provided a laboratory for the upperclassman to polish their leadership skills and instill a sense of accomplishment and confidence among my classmates and me.

The scout leader accepted my apology, and also accepted my invitation to take her girls marching around campus at the end of the day before they went home!

Not only had I instilled a sense of accomplishment in the girls, I had created a valuable learning experience for myself. It has been my goal ever since to replicate the experience in every task I undertake. Sometime I am successful, other times I am not.

Tagged as: influence, leadership stories, opportunity, personal growth, Teamwork