By David Flores
One of my very first experiences as a leader was when I was selected as a section leader in my high school band. I had never truly led 40 individuals before, much less for a whole semester of school. At first, I was very scared of how effective of a leader I would be. However, I knew most of the people in the section from the years before and I knew I just had to be myself and try my best. At first, it was a little rough and it was clear I did not exactly know what to do, but by the end of the first practice, it was as if I had been leading them for weeks.
One of the biggest things I learned from this experience is how to deal with insubordinate individuals. There was one student who just didn’t care and refused to listen to my directions. At first, I would try and tell her what to do and direct her in the right direction, but she would just not budge. At one point, I even had to let my teacher know what was going on because she truly got out of hand. After the problem continued to persist, I realized I had to approach it from a different angle, so I decided to try to get to her level and actually be her friend. It definitely took some time, but once I actually became her friend, she began to listen to me, follow my instructions, and not get called on as much during practice.