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Stepping Up: The Day I Discovered the Leader in Me

Mario R. Rodriguez Garcia

Department of Arts and Sciences, Miami Regional University

ENC1101: English Composition I

Professor Shazia Zaidi

May 19, 2026

Stepping Up: The Day I Discovered the Leader in Me

Until my junior year in college, no one could ever have accused me of being much of a leader. I was an only child, so I never had to push myself to the front of a crowd of siblings to get the attention of my parents. Consequently, up until my sophomore year, quietly going with the flow had been working quite well for me. One day, a class project inspired me to face my fears and brought out the leader in me, to my own utter amazement. Hanging back and avoiding the spotlight has never been an option since.

Groups

As a change of pace, my Business 101 instructor decided to divide our class into groups of five students each. Inspired by a popular reality television show, Professor Tyson said that the teams would compete against each other at performing different business tasks. Over the course of the semester, we would each get a chance to compete and test our abilities with activities like buying and selling, inventing our own product and marketing it, and so on. Whichever team came in first would receive a prize, as well as a lot of bonus points toward our final grades. But first, Professor Tyson said, each team’s task was to come up with and agree upon a team name.

Somewhat reluctantly, we all scraped our desks across the floor to arrange ourselves in our randomly assigned groups. The corners of our desktops touching, my group made a tight circle in the corner of the room near the window. The lure of the outside world beckoned, as I looked at the four students who would become my business partners.

Maya Giordano

First of all, I noticed that Maya Giordano was part of our team, and my pulse sped up a little bit, because I had been admiring her from afar ever since the beginning of the semester. She had an appealing personality and a flashing smile, and she always seemed to have the right answers to our instructor’s questions when we went over our readings in class. Maya was discussing her geometry class with her friend Claire Washington, also part of our group. Claire was a good student, too, but didn’t speak up in class much. I couldn’t help being a little worried that the two of them were socializing rather than getting down to the task at hand. But I certainly didn’t want to make any enemies, so I just smiled and looked around at the rest of the team.

Justin Hubbs

Next to Claire, Justin Hubbs, your stereotypical jock-type, sat sprawled low in his chair, clicking his mechanical pencil until a broken piece of lead fell out. He pushed it around the desk with his finger until it fell on the floor, then he closed his eyes wearily and seemed to drop into a light doze. Next to Justin was a very thin, tall guy wearing a wrinkled button-up shirt whose name I didn’t know. He looked as tense as I felt. I kept wondering when someone would say something that would signal the start of our project meeting.

Team Name

It wasn’t long before Professor Tyson stepped in to say “Remember, come up with a team name you’re all happy with because you’ll be stuck with it for the rest of the semester.”

The professor’s excited voice seemed to wake up Justin. He looked over at Claire and Maya with a scowl on his face. Finally, the guy whose name I didn’t know looked over at me in mild disgust. “Well, any ideas?” He looked as though he didn’t expect much out of me.

Feeling defensive, I just tossed the ball back into his court. “Not yet, you?”

He didn’t bother to answer me, just looked down at his notebook and started writing something I couldn’t read.

Suddenly, to lighten the mood, Maya turned away from Claire to say “We should be team Slytherin, Like Harry Potter.”

“No, team Wicked,” Claire almost shouted. “Because we are so bad, we’re good. Wicked good!”

We all laughed, but I was starting to notice that we didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Of course nobody liked these suggestions, but nobody said anything. So, I did what any good follower would do. I mumbled, “Whatever you guys think.”

Consensus

Anonymous guy shot me a scornful look. Maya and Claire went back to comparing notes about their geometry exam. Justin was scrolling through his phone, which he was holding under the desk out of sight of our instructor. Professor Tyson reminded us above the roar of voices that we wouldn’t be judged on the name of our team, and that the goal was to arrive at a consensus, a name we all agreed was a strong one, and be ready to move on to the assignment he was passing out, our first selling task. The sooner we came up with a team name and moved on, the sooner we could get started on the real work of the competition.

Circle around Me

Just then, I started to feel a volcano of uncomfortable emotions silently rumbling somewhere inside my chest. It was clear to me that we had to come to an agreement fast. I started to feel a little-used part of myself demanding to be heard. Impressing Maya wasn’t the issue; winning the game wasn’t even that important to me. I just wanted to do something to bring these fellow students in the circle around me together. Suddenly, something seemed to rise to the surface of my spinning brain. I started talking in a calm and friendly voice that sliced through the apathy and distraction that had infected our group. “I’m Michael,” I said. “Why doesn’t each of us take turns saying our name and the first name that we can think of for our team. I’ll start.”

I pointed to my chest and said, “Michael. Team Venture.” Then I turned to my left and looked at Maya and said in a businesslike tone, “Next.”

Maya looked surprised and happy, as if she’d been handed an unexpected gift. “Maya. Team Enterprise.” Then she paused and looked at me, and I said, “Thanks, Maya.” Then I looked at Claire and said in the same businesslike tone, “Next.”

“Claire. Team Perfection.”

“Thanks, Claire. Next.”

“Wait, um, OK, Justin. Team Touchdown.”

“Thanks, Justin. Next.”

“Kevin. Team Ingenuity.”

“Thanks, Kevin,” I said. “Let’s vote.”

Learned to be a Leader

The team name we came up with that day doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I learned to be a leader. I remember is the feeling of taking charge, taking everyone’s feelings and ideas into account, and making something positive happen as a result. We had our name, the professor passed us our first assignment as a team, and we skyrocketed onward from there. Rather than grow annoyed at my “bossiness,” the team elected me as their leader. In fact, Maya told me later, “Thanks for taking all of our ideas seriously. You really listened, and you kept us focused. Because you wanted us to work, we wanted to work for you.” After an enlightening rewarding struggle, our team came in second in the game overall, and we formed lasting friendships as a result of our teamwork.

A Successful Business Owner

Ever since that day, I think of my first experience as a leader. Today, I am a successful business owner who leads my employees towards our goals every day. I realize now that leadership qualities were in my makeup from the start. I just needed to allow them to come to the surface.