Man, I'd say first of all, good on you for being self-aware of your shortcomings. That's a good sign. I think the biggest piece of leadership in this regard is just humility. Admitting your faults is a very good first step. Obviously, you won't be laughing out loud at your flaws during OCS, but that doesn't mean you can't be humble. If you suck at something, ask the guys who are stellar at that thing for some help. The guys who get dropped for leadership failures are not usually incapable of being leaders, they are just widely hated by their peers because they're selfish and refuse to learn/adapt. You'll be surprised by some of these dudes' bad attitudes. It was baffling to me.
But all of us had things we sucked at ("leadership drop" is really a catch-all for "this guy is not a good fit"), but if you're a good dude (this applies to almost any military school) and seek out the right answer, you will earn the respect of your peers. The majority of OCS is just sucking it up and then repeating the exact formula as instructed (this applies to everything from PT to Squad Patrols and leadership evaluations). If you can't remember it, write it down and reference it when you need to use it. As an instructor/evaluator, I say that's just common sense, but some kids feel the need to impress their evaluators by memorizing everything. They're not looking for General Patton out there in the treeline; they're looking for an individual with the aptitude and the will to LEARN and someone who can give direction and orders to his peers without making his entire team hate him. When you're in leadership positions, they will basically tell you that you need to be screaming and jumping up and down like your Drill Instructors are. I didn't do that, because I've never seen an Officer do that a single time in my life. They might knock you on your "Company Gunnery Sergeant" Evaluation for "motivation,", but when it comes time to discuss you with the higher-ups, they will say "I think he would make a good officer." Not the case for some of the motarded Citadel grads who took it as their 3-hour chance to be a Drill Instructor with a bunch of kids who would later be writing their peer evaluations. Those dudes get beat up (or worse, ignored) after lights out. Just keep your cool, man. You will have a lot more fluidity and flexibility at TBS, but by then, you'll also have some more confidence and the wiggle room to use your strengths in a meaningful way to help your platoon, as opposed to just reciting and repeating doctrine. If you don't know something, ask. Do it with correct customs and courtesies OCS style, but ask.
I'd say the fact that you're worried about this is good, it means you are self-aware and humble. But I'd also offer that plenty of guys get through OCS with odd, weird, less-than-extroverted personalities and succeed just fine in the Corps. It's a common misconception that everyone in positions of leadership looks like an NFL player with the public speaking abilities of Winston Churchill. Remember when you were a freshman in high school and the seniors seemed like they were 30-year old gods to you? And then you became a senior and you still felt like a child? The same phenomenon occurs at OCS. Right now, it is "the mountain" that you have to face, and don't get me wrong, it's a formidable one. But about 5 seconds after check-in, you'll realize that all of your peers are worried about the exact same things as you, and they all feel like they are the only inadequate ones while everyone else is an All-American Football Player/4.0 Student/President of the coolest Fraternity on campus at their universities. For lack of a better term, you will be overwhelmed with a sense of how "normal" your fellow candidates are, just like you.
I'm a completely different person today than I was at OCS in 2012. If you can hack it physically, academically, and be a team player with the men around you, I don't think you have much to worry about. "Leadership" as defined in Hollywood movies and Instagram quotes is not the only definition. I know a lot of leaders who are quiet, who have to ask multiple questions where other people can instantly grasp a concept, and to be honest, it earns them the respect of their guys. Nobody likes a know-it-all.
If you end up commissioning, it will be about 11 seconds before you find yourself in a meeting where a senior officer drops an acronym you're not familiar with, and nobody asks what it means. And you'll find out later that everyone who was nodding and "yes sir"-ing also has no idea what it means. ASK. BE A REAL HUMAN BEING, and you'll be fine. Too often, we get shiny things on our collars and think our men need us to be robots. No, what they need is a real human being who has flaws, who admits when he struggles conceptualizing something, and works tirelessly to gain competence in that area. Your job is not to be the technical expert, but if you need technical information, you should ask the guy whose job IS to be the technical expert. That's why our MOS schools involve relatively few technical manuals but a lot of broad, overarching leadership concepts.
Good luck dude, rooting for you. The Marine Corps needs more self-aware junior officers.
