How to lead a team

[Brandon Holley]

First question is do you have any (more) experienced mentors?
-If so, look to them for guidance on a lot of competition related, and season related questions

What you need to do as a leader is to create excitement about your robot, about your team, about your competitions, about your outreach, about everything that has to do with FIRST.

A lot of good leaders, aren't necessarily the people who know the most about a subject (they may, but its certainly not a requirement to be a good leader). The good leaders are ones who can have a team rally around them, one who earns the respect of your teammates, and can think with a fairly straight head on their shoulders.

There are plenty of people on here who can answer technical questions, so you don't necessarily need to worry about being the one on the team who knows the most about everything. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't look for information. Look at pictures from past events, match results, videos. Talk to the thousands of people out there who do this year after year, and try and find the quick hints at running a quick event.

You can do dozens of CD searches and find out what you should bring to event in terms of tools, spare parts, personnel, etc. The information is out there, as a leader you just need to figure out how to get it.


Like I said above, just make sure you can rally the troops, create excitement, and earn the respect of your teammates. Doing these things will make you a leader...to become a good one, you just need to make some well thought out decisions.

Hope it helps,
Brando