Leading from Within

Our reduced gravity team is flying an experiment on NASA’s Vomit Comet this week. I am senior on the team and was supposed to fly, yet I am now the alternate. I am sure that you are all familiar with politics, so I will not describe the asinine details. As I am now in a lower position on the team, I have been thinking a lot about leadership and what it means to be a leader

I have had several leadership experiences and underwent extensive leadership training through an army ranger style experience called Character Quest. In nearly all of these situations I was a team captain and a person in a position of power. However, now I am just a regular team member. What do I do about this? I was feeling at a loss for a while.

I’ve begun to realize that being a leader does not just entail doing a good job as a person in power. Being a good leader also means being a good teammate, because in the end, the goal is to complete the project and to succeed. If I do everything in my power to help the team and the project succeed, I am being a good leader whether or not I have the title or prestige of one. So I have had a frustrating time dealing with catty team politics and not getting to fly when I’ve done so much work, but I can smile at least, because I know that I have helped our project and our team succeed. Even though I would still like to go back and change things, I am grateful for this opportunity to push my ego aside and to learn how to lead from within.