Leader

A Personal Impact: An Experience of Value When you have an impact on not only yourself but on others as well, it is truly a reward in itself. The experience can be incredibly valuable, and can be taken in stride and used for future experiences as well.
I was leader of my university basketball team for the past two years. I earnestly enjoyed playing the leadership role, but perhaps, however, I never truly understood exactly what it was to be a leader until the time I helped lead my team to a win during an important team match game. The game was in the final round of 2000 C. U. B. A. – one of the most critical of all.
During the game, we had been steadily falling further and further behind our opponents, and as their score continued to rise with ours to no avail, the spirit of the team began to drop. It was painfully obvious that the mood was changing from one of hope and passion to that of upset and frustration.
I knew that we could not give up, and began to push my team. I tried to raise spirits, and get everyone motivated, using my personal motivation to inspire the others. I knew how critical this game was, and this is what drove me most of all. I knew I had to step it up myself before anyone else would, and so I began playing harder and stronger. I became more aggressive, and my actions wore off on the others; they saw how motivated I was, and how unwilling I was to just give up, and it seemed to give them that enthusiasm which they had needed so crucially. I was actually surprised at how quickly the effects were seen, it was as though immediately the mood changed, and the team began playing better. As an end result, we won at last.
A leader is literally considered to be ” a person who rules or guides or inspires others.” (” Wordnet”, n. d.). I believe that on this occasion not only did I rule, guide, and inspire others, but I also earnestly learned what it meant to be a leader. Not only myself, but my entire team, benefited in several ways from my actions; we won the game, but we also learned that pulling together and acting as a team is even more important than winning. I learned a lot from this experience. I learned lessons that I will keep with me for the rest of my life; such as that it only takes one person to stand up and change the mood of an entire group of people, and that in the same way it can take only one person to bring the group down. I understand now how incredibly important the game face you put on is, and how truly influencing leaders can be.
This experience was incredibly valuable to me, especially in that I could make such a huge difference of an outcome, and that through my lead and personal strength we as a team came together and played strong and beat out our opponents. I realized then just how important leadership as well as teamwork is and how great an impact a single person can have on a group. This type of leadership and positive attitude could be used not only in an important team match as discussed, but also for each and every regular game of the season. The outcome of the game – win or loss – would constantly be improved even if only the attitudes of the players were changed. The more motivation a person has, the more bright they are going to shine; the more effort they will put in, and undoubtedly the greater the end result could be.

Works Cited
” Wordnet.” Leader. n. d. Wordnet. 22 Feb. 2006 <
http://wordnet. princeton. edu/perl/webwns= leader>