The leader Within

Chapter 1: The Choir

When I was in middle school, in grade 5, the school management decided to make a choir. The choir was required to sing in any special event held in the school such as sports day, award giving day, open house etc. The choir was put together by two music teachers. According to the teachers, there were thirty spots in the choir. People could audition for special positions too which would allow them to sing a chorus alone.

The auditions were opened to all the students in school. I liked singing and auditioned for the choir by singing "I believe I can fly". I was required to sing only eight lines of the song and was told two days after my audition that I was selected. I had to work with a bunch of other members of the choir and prepare a song for the final event. This required for us to decide a song, memorize it, organize the way we will stand and meet up for practice. The first ever event the choir was supposed to perform at was the award giving day.

This task required for us to practice together to be in sync while performing. We also had a choir leader who was selected by the teacher. She set a clear plan for us and communicated clearly with us. She gave clear directions such as who would start the song or sing the chorus. We also had to show dedication towards the choir as we were required to practice with our group every lunch. This required for the members to show responsibility and dedication since they had to keep their commitment every lunch. We also had to collaborate with each other to make sure we are all on the same page, so we won't mess up our final performance. The first performance went well. This experience taught me that to successfully attain a goal, all the team needs to work well together for a positive outcome. This is because the whole choir needed to be in sync and working with each other to enhance our performance as a whole. The leader of our choir taught me how an effective leader acts which helped me develop as a leader myself. She used situational leadership style. She would be supporting and motivating to the members who were shy which helped them develop and come out of their shell at the beginning. However, as the deadline of our performance came closer, she was stern and gave strict deadlines to memorize our song and to meet up. She changed the way she acted according to the task at hand which developed the members too as they were getting a push to work harder and this also helped us reach our goal successfully. This also developed me as a leader because looking at her, I realized that a leader needs to change themselves according to the needs of their members and the task at hand. When I must be a leader myself, I can make sure that I am displaying these characteristics myself, so I can be successful in reaching my goal effectively.