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In 2019, my team was selected for the finale of the Smart India Hackathon. I was the team leader. We planned to make an Android application and worked hard for months. But, just before 4 days of the hackathon, we got to know that we had to make a cross-platform application instead of an android application that we were making till now. It was a fault at my end because the team leader was sent this information earlier through email and somehow I missed it. Everybody felt devastated and blamed me for miscommunication and being irresponsible. They even decided to quit because it was nearly impossible to complete the new requirement within the given time. They did not want to continue with the hackathon but I was optimistic. I knew the strength of my team and how well they can do even in a little time. I pacified them, motivated them that we can still do great if we will work together. I carefully and comprehensively made a list of tasks that my teammates can do in less time and required for the project. I assigned each one of them specific tasks that they are good at and persuaded them to complete at least that much. They got convinced, started working on their plan, and were able to complete around 80% of the application even in that little time. I learned that even if things go wrong sometimes, being optimistic helps!
One of the biggest success in my life was to win a gold medal at the national level Taekwondo championship representing my state Madhya Pradesh. My years of martial arts training made me capable enoughto achieve that moment and my coach, parents, team and school were very proud of me. From this, I learned that hard work pays off, not immediately but definitely some other time. Second would be my getting an offer from IIM Kozhikode in first list itself. Last year, I couldn't even make it to the waitlist of this college and making it in first list this time was an achievement for me. There were many times of frustrations and anxiety for the whole year of preparation after failing last time. But I did not let those feelings overcome me and tried to work on the things which I lacked last time. I listed out the weakness I had and prioritized giving them more time so as to let away the fear. From this experience I learned the importance of planning and a structured daily routine.
I am most proud of my leadership and people management skills. This gives me confidence that makes me think I will be a great leader and lead the world to a better place. When you lead a team and make them feel comfortable under your leadership, you see a healthy and happy environment. When I was young, I always used to see my Taekwondo coach managing students. He was so empathetic towards each one of us as well as strict at the right times. I used to think that I will be such a leader. Today, I have led many teams and held positions of responsibility. Each and every time I yearned for team satisfaction and then succeeding.
A successful manager should be empathetic, a good leader, and honest with the team. He/She should understand the team well, their strengths mainly and deploy them at the right place to get efficient results. He/She should always be open to new ideas and appreciate the good work. The team should feel at home working under him/her. This means that the manager should always try to create a positive and healthy environment for the team.
Once, a very good friend of mine requested me to make a wireframe of an android application as a help for her assignment. Wireframe when runs, looks the same as an android application user interface. The problem was, she was supposed to make an actual android application and not just a wireframe. Her motive was to deceive her android teacher by not showing her the functioning of the application in terms of actual coding which she was supposed to do, but only showing the user interface. This would have been wrong on my part as well as hers. Making the wireframing would not take more than 2 days, but I wanted her to learn that language since it would have helped her a lot not only in that assignment but in the future also since she wanted a career in the technical domain only. She was just procrastinating even when she had 10 days left with a deadline and wanted an easy way to get the grades. If I wouldnt have helped her, our friendship would have been jeopardized. I analyzed the situation properly and had a talk with her in a very careful manner. I explained to her how learning android programming will help her and how fun it is. It would take time for her to learn and then do the assignment, maybe she wouldnt be able to complete an assignment on time, but she would for sure have a skill added on her CV. After a long talk she agreed.