I'm Team Captain!

[DrewMatic]

Thanks guys for all of your help! I appreciate it

[BenGuy]

Best Advice I can give from experience is to help out the new guys with the learning curve. We can all agree that FIRST has a HUGE learning curve and there are many people that have to be helped along with getting into it or else your team won't grow. Also, when people aren't doing anything, either get them doing something or have them sit over the shoulder of someone who is doing something that they don't yet know how to do so that they can watch / ask questions, and as a result, learn how to do it so that the next time they are asked, they can do that job. Keep everyone interested and getting better above all else.

And congratulations on the position!

[Caleb McCune]

Don't forget confidence, without confidence you will get no where.

[Som.Rocks]

So, a couple of things...

I am a newly introduced co-captain; however, this previous year I led the build team and picked up a couple of ideas that may be of some assistance.

1) Be extremely organized. Though this has been stated, it cannot be emphasized enough. When you know what you are doing, the job for the rest of the team becomes just that much easier.

2) Inform the team of everything. At 4607, we have weekly LGMs, Large Group Meetings, where the team gathers throughout the year on Wednesdays. This greatly improves the communication on the team (I will touch on communication in a minute) and makes everyone accountable for knowing important information about the team. These meetings are usually a half-hour long with a short presentation highlighting the important information for the team to know.

3) Though communication has already been talked about, it cannot be over-stated. One important thing to note is that it is better to over communicate than to under communicate. In other words, even if you think you may have told someone about an upcoming event or reminded them of a deadline, it doesn't hurt to bring it up again to ensure understanding. A great way to communicate is through Group text messages or mass e-mails.

4) Along with the LGMs, a weekly leader meeting is also very helpful. We usually hold these meetings a day before the LGMs, so all of the leaders of their respective squadrons (build, marketing, Public Relations, programming, etc.) can bring up any changes that they need and the captain, or co-captains, can bring them up at the LGMs or individually. This, again, increases responsibility for team members to stay updated on their squadrons.

5) Finally, (I'm almost done...) have the squad leaders take notes throughout the season and have them submit them when something significant happens within the squad. This helps to keep track of the progress of the team and is definitely a very helpful reference for the following year.

Good luck on the following year! I hope this information is helpful and make sure to enjoy being the captain, it's a great accomplishment!

[zcoops97]

Make sure people respect you enough and you are capable of telling someone they need to be better or are slacking. The biggest fault you can commit is not practicing continuous improvement. Even if a team member is performing well, you must be able to tell them to become better. I was president of my team this past year and I was lucky enough to be in a class of seniors that all had that drive to be better and we performed well because of it. Nobody needed to tell us to continuously improve. My biggest piece of advice is to help other students find ways to be better at what they do. Dont be afraid to question or call out upperclassmen or other students and always be thinking of ways to improve efficiency and performance.

[31Josh61]

really good ideas

[rockinthespecs]

I was a freshman this year and I think it would be really cool if you had a mentorship program with the younger and older students. I came into the team knowing nothing, and I felt intimidated. If you have a program where underclassman can learn from the older students, it might help new team members feel more welcome and less intimidated.

[Hgree56]

One thing I've learned as President of our team this past year is that you have to be at your top ability at all times. How can you expect everyone else to excel if you don't?

[Jeffy]

Here is a nice excerpt from the Dwight D Einsenhower WikiQuotes.

"Character in many ways is everything in leadership. It is made up of many things, but I would say character is really integrity. When you delegate something to a subordinate, for example, it is absolutely your responsibility, and he must understand this. You as a leader must take complete responsibility for what the subordinate does. I once said, as a sort of wisecrack, that leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."

Good luck! Very good of you to get an early start.

[GeeTwo]

Every team dynamic is different, and some teams change style from year to year. The big thing to remember is that you've moved along the continuum of being a team member who builds a robot to a leader who builds the team. Have a good talk with your head coach/lead mentor about expectations - how much effort should you be putting into leadership vs mentoring vs robot building. Review the captains of your previous year(s) - what did they do right? What did they do wrong?

And always learn from your mistakes, or better yet, from the good examples and mistakes of others.