Leading as a Captain

My first experience leading a group of people came in high school, when I was named captain of the soccer team my senior year. This was especially important to me as I went to an international high school, and was chosen to represent our very diverse and special team. This is another moment in my life in which I knew I wanted to work with people and alongside people. In a position of authority, some can abuse the power of being captain, but for me, I saw it as an opportunity to apply my knowledge of the game to the team, and give constructive advice on the individual and group level to improve our chemistry, and our overall performance. In addition, I saw many opportunities to grow closer as a group, which is what I truly wanted for myself, and for everybody else involved. Some things I ended up implementing were team meals before every game, organized pool parties at a local members house, and fantasy soccer and football leagues for bragging rights. I also emphasized the importance of accepting criticism from each other, because it will always come from a place of love, not hate. I learned that a happy group is a better performing group, and when morale can be boosted, it always should be. This experience in high school will stay with me for the rest of my life, as I learned how important it is to connect as humans, rather than just some soccer players. This is what I believe allowed us to go all the way to the semi-finals, as we all knew each other very well after that year, and we all had each others backs through any situation in any game. There was no bickering or resentment, just a lot of love and fluid collaboration.