Stress of Being a Leader

I guess a, a lot of forward thinking, calmness, it's very stressful. I found it to be quite stressful. I, I, I found being in front of those forty-five people was probably one of the more stressful jobs that I had to do. I, I lead two hundred and twenty people right now, but at the stress, isn't the same as, as it was in a field troop. The expectations of being out there with those people in the field all hours of the day and night. I think you have to be resourceful, have to be calm and you have to show a good example, you have to lead by example. They have to trust you and you have to trust them.

Interviewer: And how do you build up that trust?

You know it takes, sometimes you just, you've, you've gotta let people go and, and do their thing and see how they do. And to try and balance that with enough checks, checks on what they are doing that you're, you're not in the way, but you can at least know that they're succeeding. There's a real balance between that especially when you've got all the, your own things that you have to do, but you also have got expectations by your commanding officer to be on time, to be at the right location, have everything finished. That's a real balancing act. You gotta spend a lot of time with the troops and you gotta learn from them, especially as a young officer. First time in the field regiment, common engineer regiment, first time in the field, you have to spend a lot of time figuring, spending time with them, learning from them and figuring out what they do. Trying to, to actually get them, let them to know who you are too and it's just by that experience, I guess, is really how you get to the trust level.