My Leadership Experience

Picture credit: discoverformen.org

 

I never thought I'd spearhead school projects during my time in the university. I mean, I  had some leadership roles in my childhood days, mostly as a class prefect, but growing up, I became a lot more discrete and solo with my moves. Not that I never thought I'd be a leader, but I felt unprepared because of my solo attitude and recovery from prolonged depression. All that changed when my class was given an assignment to produce a documentary on the history of the media in Ghana. My initial plan was just to lay back and wait for tasks to be assigned to me. Two weeks to the deadline, we had nothing besides financial resources; no plan, no script, nothing! That was when I decided to intervene. I led my class reps to seek advice from a lecturer, made some research on documentaries, came up with a plan and organized my course mates. In the end, our documentary scored the highest among four classes. I went ahead to take charge of two more projects with my class never hitting below the second spot.

Here are some lessons I learnt as a leader in my adult years;

1. Don't  let the power control you: This is perhaps, the most important rule of leadership. As a leader your main purpose is the show the way. You are like a compass on the journey. Your main aim is to serve in the interest of your followers since they may not directly benefit from you. An instance is my school project scenario, these were people I didn't pay, I just needed their collaboration for a successful project. Hence it was very necessary to treat everyone with maximum respect. You should see people, not subjects, even if they are on your payroll. 
2. Be willing to do extra work: As a leader, I had to do everything possible to make sure our targets were met. I faced situations where I had to do extra work to enable us subsidize our budgets. Having extra skills really helped me in this case. I printed t-shirts and handled graphic design works to help my team make some cutoffs. There were times I had to handle tasks deserted by members they were assigned to. It's important to gain diverse skills as a leader. You don't know when they'll be needed.
3. Don't expect everyone to like you: Never expect complete adoration. Some will like you, others will hate. This is inevitable as humans. Others may have liked you before, but would hate you due to your position. The hatred may be invisible, but it does exist. It's important to realize that not all smiles are real. The hate becomes visible when you fall, but that is a part you don't want to get to. Don't be overwhelmed with mind-blowing attributes and admiration. Don't go beyond your means to gain the love of those who hate you. It won't work. Nonetheless, you should correct hatred resulting from bad leadership.
4. Get used to criticisms: Criticisms will always keep you in check. Through this, you'll know the thoughts of your people. It would help you realize one of these two things; your path may not always be right or you'd have to prove to your people why you think your move is the right one. Accept criticisms with no emotions attached.
5. Be yourself, no matter what: Don't abandon your personal and social life. Be who you want to be, be with whomever you'd want to be with, and do whatever you'd want to do so far as these have no negative influences. There are times when people would probably want to change their outfit, or move with a particular sect of people but would be uncomfortable because other might think they've been acting up or superior since they became leaders. Be humble, but don't live to the satisfaction of people. Do what makes you feel happy once they're positive.