When I was a participant at RYLA (the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), our first activity was a group challenge where everyone needed to form a circle.
Sounds simple I know. But the facilitator provided no structure and intentionally let the group try to manage itself.
As time passed, the group created chaos rather than a circle.
When people started yelling over one another, I thought the best approach would be to remain calm and let things play out. I felt like I couldn’t influence the group unless I also yelled, and that didn’t seem like an effective strategy. So I simply waited, hoping the mood would calm.
The group never formed a complete circle.
After this effort, the facilitator asked the group why things didn’t work. Many thought like me that trying to influence the whole group in that environment wouldn’t work, so it was best to step back.
The facilitator then offered advice that has influenced my application of leadership ever since.
You can be a leader in every moment.
You don’t need to be nominated as a leader to effectively contribute. In the group task, it was true you wouldn’t be able to influence the whole group by shouting instructions. But you could have influenced the two people standing next to you to do their part to make the circle. And they in turn could have influenced the next person to do their part, and so on.
It was an eye-opening experience for me and one that I was very grateful for. Choosing to step back in that exercise resulted in the same outcome as trying to yell.
In every situation and every environment, you have a choice to contribute in the most effective way you can.
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