Important Question - Leadership

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by BARKer

...For now, who they know (and the only one 90% of them know,) is ME. So as much as it matters to the mentors, it's me or nada. While on the other hand, I am not even sure whether I should want to be a captain.

I never really quite understood what a captain\leadership job is, in the progress. I think that in general, if a person is efficient in the field - let him stay in the field. According of what I've heard from you and others, of the expectation from the captain or his vice, it's way too much to handle, and it probably doesn't leave much time for real-work. Why not to pass the org issues to someone else, which is not as hardworking or dedicated?

Part of being an effictive leader is knowing your own personal limits. As much as a lot of us would like to try to do as much as possible for our teams, we learn that there is a limit to how much work a single person can do. We cannot clone ourselves. We cannot freeze time. We cannot travel back in time in order to get more things done. We are human, and we all have limits to how much each of us can accomplish.

And that is why we everything in life needs effective leaders - people who can just get things done. Sure, you may be able to machine a part twice as fast as one of the "newbies" on the team, but that is because you have a few extra years of experience. Which is all the more reason to use your knowledge to teach the new students what you know. You will not be a student forever, and if you do not pass all your knowledge onto the next wave of participants in your FIRST team, it will be lost forever. (Or at least until a lot of painful and possibly expensive trial-and-error relearns it all.)

If you'd like my advice, it's go for it. Take the lead, and steer your team in a new and more positive direction. Use the mistakes of the previous team captain to your advantage, in the fact that you know what happened and how to avoid situations like that in the future. The failures of yesterday form the cornerstone for the successes of tomorrow.

Good luck,
- Art

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

We are human, and we all have limits to how much each of us can accomplish.

I was going to post a witty comment to the effect of 'speak for yourself', but the more I read it, the more I found myself agreeing that this is the essence of leadership.

As a supervisor, I can certainly do everything any of my team does, and in most cases, better & faster. But, I have them do it, because in this way I can have the effect of ten of me. When they have a problem, I help and teach, but otherwise my daily work is getting them what they need to do THEIR work.

On a FIRST team, it is much the same way. Barker, you are correct in your understanding that being the team captain leaves little or no time for doing the 'fun' work - building robots. But, there needs to be someone who oversees the whole operation, and makes sure that things stay moving. You need to keep wandering around, seeing what everyone is up to, and when there's a probelm, putitng your head in there to get it solved - reallocate resources, broker an agreement, maybe even make a decision (often based on incomplete data).

Just like in business. Or government.

From what you have written so far, you'dd make a good leader. it IS a sacrifice - just ask our two CEOs so far. they didn't get to do what they wanted, but they had to do what was needed. Of course, they were supported by mentors & teachers. But, both finished the year with a new skill - leadership. Unselfish giving for the team.

If you really really want to work on the robot, then you might want to stay away from a leadership position. Or, resign yourself to doing the fun stuff for a set period (like one evening) each week. Or, do it at home, outside FIRST. But, leadership can be immensely rewarding, and a very valuable skill in the future. Remember: Lots of kids learn how to build a robot, but only a lucky few learn Leadership.

Don

[d.schneid@1719]

Although being a leader takes away time from building the robot, it is possible to be the leader and work as a regular student. My team was mentor run so I had some time to work as a regular student. Our team was planning on having the students become more and more involved in organization, but since we were a rookie team, being mentor run worked well.

The other thing you could do is either have a co-captain, or simply assign each student a small task such as checking chief delphi, or ordering the team's pizza. Although these types of things are minor, if every student on your team does one thing besides working on the robot, it could help a whole lot and thus allow the team captain more time to do the fun stuff.