Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about your accomplishments and what you learned from the experience. What were your responsibilities? Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to school activities. For example, do you help out or take care of your family?
During the latter half of junior year, my friends and I formed a group to cover different songs and dances. Our first cover was “Sing for You,” a ballad by the Korean-pop group EXO. I thought, with the right vocal part distribution, we could showcase our love for the song and language through a powerful performance.
The initial plan was to distribute the nine singers’ parts evenly among the five of us. However, we soon realized that our individual singing styles clashed, creating a discordancy too difficult to repair. Since I had the most vocal and Korean language experience out of all of us, I started teaching them how to pronounce the lyrics and then open up and sing with the right dynamics, emotions, and accents. They tried hard to learn their parts, but they felt uncomfortable having so many, and we found it difficult to move forward. We all wanted to make the cover and were willing to work hard, but I did not want anyone to suffer for it.
I decided that to make the process easier on the struggling members, we needed to rearrange the parts based on vocal and linguistic talent. Upon receiving the others’ agreement, I went to work rearranging the song to better fit our voices and redistributing the parts through auditions. It was not equal, but our voices complemented each other better, and everyone was more comfortable with their new parts. As the most experienced member of the group, I was always there to help everyone learn their parts with patience and careful guidance. I met with the others for one-on-one help with pronunciation and arranged practices where we could sing together and provide each other with constructive criticism.
It is not easy to strike a balance between friendship and working together, but I managed to step up and do so, and the result was a marvelous symphony of teamwork and effort.