[BRAVESaj25bd8]

I agree with just about everything in Bharat's post. The only thing I differ with him in opinion would be that he said leaders are elected or assigned. I think that the true team leader will be obvious before any election or assignment. I like the fact that he said that team leaders are not any better than the rest of the people on the team. Team leaders are not better than anyone, just better suited to lead. Team leaders do not have to be the best at anything accept their ability to be leaders. When I was team captain last year, I kept in mind the fact that I was not the best programmer, animator, or builder. I yielded to them in any questions about their aspects of the team.

However, the part I enjoyed most about being the team captain was motivating the team. Captains/leaders must be the most optimistic realist on their team at all times. You never want to say you can run a 1 minute mile but you never want to say that a 4 minute mile would be impossible either. A good leader will tell people not what is necessarily the complete truth, not ever a lie, but always what a person/group of people needs to hear in a given situation.

One of my favorite examples of good leadership is in the movie "Remember the Titans." In the championship game, the coach was trying to motivate one of his players and said he once had 13 brothers and sisters depending on him and he was the youngest one. If he could do that, the player could definitely lead the team now. After the player left, another coach asked the ehad coach "You had 13 brothers and sisters?" The head coach responded "Eight". The other coach then said "yeah, 13 sounds better." I like that so much because that speech motivated the player. He may have embellished a little but he said what his player needed to hear in order to succeed. As a team leader, you will always be the one that everyone is depending on in order to fire them up. take advantage of that and make the experience as great as possible for them.