Choosing Group Leaders

Yesterday in class we spent pretty much the entire class period having our second viewing of potential group leaders. Dr. Feinberg had the people who volunteered to be group leaders go out in the hall and had them divided into groups. When the group was called in they were given a task to complete and they were to demonstrate how they would be leaders. The rest of the class was to evaluate them. The first two groups huddled together and discussed the task they had amongst themselves and the rest of the class could hear them. How were we suppose to evaluate this? Basically the people in the first two groups received low rankings. The third group on the other hand did something completely different and innovative. They started out in a huddle and then when Dr. Feinberg tried to tell them that we were evaluating him they just ignored him. Then they broke off and ran throughout the room. No one knew exactly what was going on. Then their "leader" acted as one of those preachers who claim to have the power to heal people. He went to all of the other members and asked what they were struggling with and "healed" them. After that was over they demonstrated examples of good and bad leadership. I thought this was an excellent way for them to show their leadership skills. They instantly grabbed the attention of the class and then addressed their task. The third group's main leader was so charismatic and energized that he made all of the other potential group leaders look just as good as he did. They did a tremendous job.
Being a leader for a group is a difficult task. You have to be able to gain respect and have the attention of your group members. You must also provide them a reason to follow you. On Monday we had our first viewing of the potential leaders and they were to provide us with their leadership story. They had twenty seconds to do this and it was terrible. About 90% of them just listed off things they were involved in in both high school and college. I honestly could care less about what activities they are involved in and hold positions in. To me that gave me no reason to rank them high. I believe they needed to provide us with their characteristics that make them the leader they claim to be. I know I missed my chance to be able to become a leader, but after watching the past two days of viewings I know I could have done a much better job.
I believe a lot of people that volunteered felt that they were entitled to be a leader. Why? I do not know. I remember one girl's leadership story was that people always follow her and she never tries to lead people but they are just drawn to her. When I heard that, I knew that is the exact type of leader that you do not want to have. She came off as very conceded. A leader should never be conceded. A conceded leader is just out for him or herself. No one wants a leader that is like that. In order to be a successful leader, I believe that you must put your followers first and care about their successes more than your own. I believe that if you do this you will in turn be acknowledged for this and success will be there. You cannot be a successful leader if your group is not successful themselves.