“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence” – Cheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
People come and go, and so do all the “impossible” challenges. What truly matters is when they come and how they go. A lot of them do come around when we have other responsibilities too. How they go depends on how well we handle them, which brings me to a story of how I tackled the odds to improve myself and achieve the required goals.
Five months ago, I was prepping for a difficult month ahead, filled with regular assignments, presentations, a lengthy project and a cultural fest. I knew that time management was the key. As the month began, my tasks increased. Moreover, working with a group of 12 for a model-based project was hectic – people wouldn’t arrive on time, or they wouldn’t contribute enough, and sometimes they didn’t even come to help at all. Including me, only 5 members were dedicated towards the tasks. I oversaw the designing of the model, so I had to be present most of the times. This denied me the opportunity to use my time more efficiently and effectively. However, I learnt how to cut down on my time while doing assignments and presentation preparations. Moreover, my project group members and I discussed about the measures we should take to reduce conflicts and other problems in our group. Later, I assigned a part of the responsibility of the fest to other members of our music team and asked them to update me on the progress diligently.
After a lot of back and forth communication from two teams and handling so much stress for over 2 weeks, things started working out in a timely and a more organized manner. I had never taken up a leadership role and I always wanted to push myself and prove my worth as a good leader. Thus, my experiences helped me learn how to tackle sticky situations, understand my true potential, and boosted my self-esteem.