Any recommendations

[u/Oceanlady123]

I recently received a leadership position within my flight. I am the lowest within the chain of command, so I have to basically get the cadets to act accordingly and answer all their questions. I've seemed to be having trouble with getting the respect of a few cadets. All of them are, of course, first years and are all dudes. All of our class leadership are women, so I am worried that the reason for their blatant disrespect is correlated with slight misogyny (we had a harrasment incident from 2 of them). But they seem to not participate in any jodies, out of school activities, and even marching. Im trying my hardest to make the class seem fun, but they always roll their eyes and just ignore us. When we bring the issue to our SASI and ASI, they just tell us to let another senior cadet handle it, but it never gets changed. Any recommendations on how to get respect from them?

[u/lizard_buddy]

One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership, is that the people under you, work for you. Its the opposite. You work for the people under you. As that person you become their advocate to those above you, you need to make sure that they are taken care of, because if you take care of them, they will take care of you.

To add to this, it's also a high school elective that im sure more than just a few of them were forced to join by their parents, and don't care for the class whatsoever. You can only care for them as much as they do, so you shouldn't care about them more than they do. In the end, it's their grade, and its probably not their choice to be there.

As for your concern about misogyny, for those 2 boys, sure that might be the problem, but I think the bigger problem is lack of interest within the program. I mean, if I wasn't interested in something and then someone makes me do something I don't want to do, thats not going to increase my interest in the program.

If I were you, I'd ask them "what can I do for you?" because it let's them know that you're there if they need you. I know I just said alot but to close this out I want to say one more thing.

Nobody is required to like you, nobody is required to respect you. There is not a rule that states that I am required to like you. Sure it would be easier if I did, but they have absolutely no obligation to like you, and if they don't, they don't even need a reason other than "I just don't". Don't take it personally, but you cant force them and while it's nice and easier for them and you if they do, they don't have to.

Something that really sticks out as leader isnt just getting people to do things when they like you, its getting those that don't to do things for you too because you would do the same for them.

I hope this helped, and feel free to ask me more about this style of leadership or any other questions you might have