One of our tasks at Crotonville was to teach military leadership as a different perspective on managing to GE employees.  But I feel I learned more than those I taught about leadership.  As a rising yuk, my leadership experience was almost nonexistent, and as a nineteen year old with one year of college, giving a different perspective on leadership to much older people with years of professional experience was intimidating to say the least.

The main thing I learned about leadership is that one must display confidence to lead.  Getting up in front of forty to eighty people and speaking is harrowing enough as it is, but to do so under the previously mentioned conditions was even worse.  Facing the fact that in all reality the students should have been teaching me, I noticed that I was taken more seriously the more forward and seriously I acted.  Although I initially was quiet and put a disclaimer into every assertion I made, by acting confident and competent I impressed my boss and those I taught to.  Even as I was the youngest and most unexperienced in the group, I still felt like I was an important part of the intership and pivotal in many of the programs we developed. 

There seem to be certain things that one must or must not do to maintain a significant leadership role.  The fallability of a human being is almost certain over an extended period of time, but people expect of their leaders more than they expect from themselves.  This is an important part of being a leader, as a leader must take care of himself and those under his or her command.  What this means on a day to day setting is to be so inspired you inspire those around you, to be so competent you lead by example, and to never appear to be anything less than the leader they are.  This may include simple things like never saying "I don't know" and always being on time with appropriate materials. 

It's been so hard to relate my stay at GE Crotonville to West Point, as few of my classes had relatable material, and I spent almost all of my time at West Point obeying every order that most of the upperclassmen gave me. This made my competency very limited, but led to great opportunities to lead under pressure.  Staying calm, staying in control, and keeping the groups active and focused kept a great learning environment for all involved.