Question

Describe a time you were led by a leader using, in your opinion, a leadership style that didn’t suit the situation. When and where was it? What could she or he have done better?

Answer 1

I was at a boys' scouts camp once where I had to endure a leader I dislike very much. We were a group of 12-year-old boys and we did not know one another before, therefore the start was not easy and some of the boys were very timid. The leader, a 20-year-old college student, Adam, was very dismissive of our needs and he laughed many of them off. Instead of making us welcome at camp, he made us insecure and unwelcome.

One boy complained about the food (he was a vegetarian), and Adam said that's a stupid approach to food as all humans need to eat meat. He also kept asking us stupid questions about the girls, our sexual experiences with them and if somebody among us was homosexual.

In retrospect, I think Adam was unfit as a leader for a group of adolescence boys and should have been fired immediately. He did not posses any qualities of a good leader, in this case understanding of our needs, a clear direction in his approach to us or a kind manner. He could have made us welcome and secure at camp, a place foreign to many of us. It was the worst camp experience I ever had in my youth.