Captain Leadership Issues

[eagerlearner102]

I am a vice captain so I collaborate with the captain. This is my first year having this role and I am concerned that I am not being a good leader. I was thinking of making a google drive folder to upload all textbooks and compile all tests from recent invitationals. My president and advisor thinks that I am going to make the team members too dependent on me (baby them, hold their hand, etc.). They think that they should figure it out by themselves. In other words, if the team members take the initiative to ask me for resources and help, then I can give them some resources. I shouldn't be doing it for people that aren't as passionate. I agree to them to some extent but I also want to help my team members do well.
I was about to order building kits for my building team members but my captain objected. She thinks they should decide themselves and be independent.
Essentially, how much autonomy do good captains give to their team members? Do the team captains help the team members a lot, especially new ones? Am I doing too much for them? I just feel so confused.
I am not saying my captain and advisor's thoughts are wrong. I think they are valid but I want to hear from other team's perspectives.

[Vortexx2]

I am a vice captain so I collaborate with the captain. This is my first year having this role and I am concerned that I am not being a good leader. I was thinking of making a google drive folder to upload all textbooks and compile all tests from recent invitationals. My president and advisor thinks that I am going to make the team members too dependent on me (baby them, hold their hand, etc.). They think that they should figure it out by themselves. In other words, if the team members take the initiative to ask me for resources and help, then I can give them some resources. I shouldn't be doing it for people that aren't as passionate. I agree to them to some extent but I also want to help my team members do well.
I was about to order building kits for my building team members but my captain objected. She thinks they should decide themselves and be independent.
Essentially, how much autonomy do good captains give to their team members? Do the team captains help the team members a lot, especially new ones? Am I doing too much for them? I just feel so confused.
I am not saying my captain and advisor's thoughts are wrong. I think they are valid but I want to hear from other team's perspectives.

Gathering resources and compiling the tests are really helpful to the team and I strongly believe you should do this. The tests especially help a lot. I would however disagree with ordering kits for the build team. I don't know how good they are at building but the best builds are the ones that are built without the kits. Also, stuff like that should be left to the individuals. I know that if my captains ordered me a kit I wouldn't use it and I would think its a waste of money. Overall it seems like you are being a good captain by providing some resources but make sure not to become too involved in other people's events. Let them figure things out for themselves and help if you can when asked. To answer your question, I believe good captains allow the members to work by themselves and help keep the spirit of the team happy. Hope this helps!

[JoeyC]

I am a vice captain so I collaborate with the captain. This is my first year having this role and I am concerned that I am not being a good leader. I was thinking of making a google drive folder to upload all textbooks and compile all tests from recent invitationals. My president and advisor thinks that I am going to make the team members too dependent on me (baby them, hold their hand, etc.). They think that they should figure it out by themselves. In other words, if the team members take the initiative to ask me for resources and help, then I can give them some resources. I shouldn't be doing it for people that aren't as passionate. I agree to them to some extent but I also want to help my team members do well.
I was about to order building kits for my building team members but my captain objected. She thinks they should decide themselves and be independent.
Essentially, how much autonomy do good captains give to their team members? Do the team captains help the team members a lot, especially new ones? Am I doing too much for them? I just feel so confused.
I am not saying my captain and advisor's thoughts are wrong. I think they are valid but I want to hear from other team's perspectives.

Uploading tests and textbooks to the drive is a great idea!
It won't make your team dependent on you because the people who do not care about the such thing will not take the initiative to even look at them, but those who do care will appreciate it greatly.
For the building kits, it depends on how good your school is doing with builds currently. If you're doing well, the members have it figured out. However, if you're not - or even just on a few builds you consistently do bad in - it's worth buying a couple to try and kick-start progress so that the team is not weighed down by that one bad event.
The role of a good management team in SciOly, I believe, encompasses the following:
- ensuring all paperwork is managed properly
- fund generation, usage, and accounting
- organization of team practices, etc.
- ensuring the well performance of the team
- and more

These duties fall into 2 categories - administrative and team aid.
Administrative is essential to a team, but the part it sounds like you're having trouble with here is deciding how much to aid your team.
To expand on the definition on team aid and a management team's duty - a good management team will attempt to raise the team's ranking, be it via the implementation of earlier practices, distribution of supplies, encouragement of growth of lackluster events that are consistently bombed, earlier test offs, and so on.

In this respect, if your efforts are to raise your teams ranking, acting on their best interest, you should definitely take action - there's a reason we have governments; leaders are there to do something on behalf of the people, not sit inactive and do nothing.

[Unome]

I think the resources is fine. I don't think you should be ordering kits unless your builders ask for them (and even then, I can see reasons not to).

[EastStroudsburg13]

I am a vice captain so I collaborate with the captain. This is my first year having this role and I am concerned that I am not being a good leader. I was thinking of making a google drive folder to upload all textbooks and compile all tests from recent invitationals. My president and advisor thinks that I am going to make the team members too dependent on me (baby them, hold their hand, etc.). They think that they should figure it out by themselves. In other words, if the team members take the initiative to ask me for resources and help, then I can give them some resources. I shouldn't be doing it for people that aren't as passionate. I agree to them to some extent but I also want to help my team members do well.
I was about to order building kits for my building team members but my captain objected. She thinks they should decide themselves and be independent.
Essentially, how much autonomy do good captains give to their team members? Do the team captains help the team members a lot, especially new ones? Am I doing too much for them? I just feel so confused.
I am not saying my captain and advisor's thoughts are wrong. I think they are valid but I want to hear from other team's perspectives.

Considering your success as a team depends on other people and not just you, I think you are well within your means to help teammates figure their events out. Not everyone will be as passionate as the most passionate person on the team, and that's a fact of life, but if you want to have team success, everyone needs to have some level of preparation. Who knows, maybe when your teammates start finding more success, they'll be more inclined to seek out resources in the future.

[eagerlearner102]

Thank you all for the advice.
Well my school's team isn't good, so I think they are better off using kits to figure out how to build (some are newbies).
Still, I should let them figure it out.
Another issue that bothers me a bit was when I asked my captain how much the team ranking depends on us. She says that if we don't do well as a team, I shouldn't take it personally because it isn't my fault. I understand that I don't control my team member's performance on other events, but I still think I should be accountable.
What do you guys think of how much are captains accountable for their team's performance?

[eagerlearner102]

Also, would compiling textbooks be a good idea? I will encourage my team members to share me some that will help other team members.
I don't really understand why sharing tests is not a good thing. It doesn't take much work (just copy paste links)

[gz839918]

To answer your original question, I believe that you are right to support all members, even those who are less passionate right now. Everybody starts somewhere; sometimes, good leaders empower the change.

Dedicated people don't always begin dedicated; they have to climb the mountain sometime. Maybe your team captain has a perspective from the peak and has forgotten the view from the bottom. Gently remind her that you some participants may be shy and need nudging them on the right path to the top. Additionally, tell her that you'd like to be reachable and open-hearted to members—it's hard to work well if you hardly feel welcome. Sure, individual events will mainly be alone or with partners. But as vice captain, you're at your best when you rally together your whole team towards the ascent. Tests and textbooks are the tools: you are providing a sense of direction for new members looking to start their Science Olympiad journey.

Now, for your next question—everybody is responsible for the good of your team. Captains and vice captains are responsible too, but how much credit they deserve depends on your team organization. The greater the duties of captains, the greater the vitality of transparency. It's definitely a good thing to hold yourself accountable regardless of whether your team is coach-led or student-led. You could announce publicly (for example, to a team groupchat) that you have certain goals and that you want team members to verbally tell you to work towards your goals. But if you feel your team didn't do well, that's never more than partly your fault. It's okay if one tournament went poorly. The failure only casts shade on you if you don't learn something new about leadership in the process. Reach in for your inner energy and don't let a few obstacles deter you!

Also, would compiling textbooks be a good idea? I will encourage my team members to share me some that will help other team members.
I don't really understand why sharing tests is not a good thing. It doesn't take much work (just copy paste links)

Compiling textbooks is definitely beneficial. Some high schools let teachers store old textbooks when newer editions are released; see if you can get access to some older books. OpenStax has free online textbooks for subjects rarely offered in high school like astronomy. For some subjects, though, these textbooks aren't all that great comparison to retail textbooks.

Sharing tests with your teammates is most certainly a good thing! All top Science Olympiad teams have archived tests online or in physical storage.

[eagerlearner102]

I kind of feel a bit bad I am posting and she doesn't know but I will say my opinions.
You are right. Sometimes they are externally influenced to do well on the event.
I made a folder and shared textbooks with the people so I hope that helps.

[sciolyperson1]

I don't really understand why sharing tests is not a good thing. It doesn't take much work (just copy paste links)

Its not. When compiling tests, try compiling full test sets in one google drive folder (make a copy of the folder and share the link with them). Look for test traders (not on scioly.org) which have test sets saved from past years, and try expanding your database to as large as possible so your students have enough opportunities to practice taking tests.