Yeah, I know, I’m late for the party.
“Leadership is one of the most observed, and least understood phenomena on Earth.” as James MacGregor Burns once wrote.
It was the second year of my engineering college when I understood the true meaning of this sentence in a social context, And that’s what I am about to share, with a little guilt admission involved. I hope the person who reads this can relate to how we tend to assume things that are just in our heads, and we tend to make an opinion about it. (In my case for somebody/people).
And why in a leadership context we should avoid making such assumptions. These assumptions can be the reason why your team might be holding back.
If you are confused about the title for the blog, then just know that I didn’t really celebrate the afterparty for the story which I am about to share. Not the way I wanted to.
Flashback — FirstYear
In India, a cultural festival, cultfest, culfest or college fest is an annual cultural event at a college or university organised by the student community. I was very excited to spend my freshmen year energy volunteering for our College Festival. Horizon hosts the EDM Night, the Live-In Concert, and a plethora of exciting events. These 3 days of madness felt like the first carnival experience of my life. From this experience, I learned that I can have fun away from books and studies, just for a while when it's time.
Be it Dance, FlashMob (yes that was a thing at that time :P), doing crafty work, setting up the room for the events and games, I was mentally ready for them all, although I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I always had help available from amazing people and friends I was making at that time. I have never been so good on stage for anything, but I always wanted to push my limits, I love challenges, and they find a way to get to me very easily.
I was running around all over the place, thinking I was contributing to the overall event, but in reality, this tiny body could only support one job at a time. :D
TechFest was different from a cultural festival. Colleges go a step further with their tech festivals, They organise tech events, games and competitions, exhibitions lectures and whatnot. It's a full learning experience if one is really interested.
Fast Forward — Second year
Now I have had experience with how an event is actually planned and executed. This time, I wanted to lead an entire event on my own. I wasn't sure what I was going to do exactly but I guess I wanted to put myself in a spontaneous situation. I was supposed to do a technical event, but I wanted it to have a fun angle too, Not technical fun, Just fun. I also needed a little human resource to help with it all.
By this time I have had the experience of making posters, designing certificates for various events, so I thought designing a technical game wouldn't be so hard. We were given an open spot on the topmost floor of the building by the side of the stairs. I wanted to utilise the space as much as I could and make people learn along the way.
So I had this idea of making a quiz game that would involve the team to go from one end of a giant floor maze to another. Going forward as you answer correctly. This was just one game. Multiple rounds having a different kind of quiz and a different game to play. I chose basic questions that could actually be asked in a coding interview. (Basic Data Structures and Language Related stuff). Finding the right questions wasn't the hard part, I just had to get them printed. But pitching the idea was.
I had to have a team helping with the event, I needed people who could understand the gist behind the event.
My team was a group of girls, who were also part of the creative team for the Tech Fest. Since they were involved in multiple areas of the fest, it was hard to get their time and explain to them the work which was supposed to be done for my event. Creative work for the entire fest was not an easy task either, it involved decorating the entire floor from corner to corner. Their schedule was already hectic. Since the team was fixed, the assigned team being busy with other tasks, and having no other helping hand, it made me anxious about how I was going to do it all alone. I started helping them with their work so they can join me later with the event.
At times, I was desperate. Three days for the festival to kick off, I was on the highest peak of anxiety, and one of my friends could actually see my nervousness or anger perhaps. Most of the creative work for the Fest was done by this time, But I had lost expectations that I was going to make this happen in just three days left. 😟
Moment of Realisation:
When you are in a leadership position, you tend to overlook how the people you are leading want to be treated. You just want to get the job done, but there is so much more to a person than just finishing the job. I want to admit, I was blunt at times and demanding to my friends who might not have been on the same page as me about this event and how important it was for me.I realized my expectations from the team were not met because there was clearly some communication gap. Also analyzing the differences between the way I work and the way my friends work. When I was working as a freshman I could simply not expect myself to multitask and do everything, and my peers understood and supported that. So I figured I had to be understanding and supporting one here.
Being friends means you are supposed to help the friend in need, I always believed but they never tell you to control your expectations according to time. This time I wasn't just a friend but I was given the responsibility to run a team. In my opinion, I was the friend in need here. I also made a few assumption which most of the team leaders would make.
“Perhaps i am not a good leader” “Nobody ever listens, so why speak up.”
In my head, I was doing everything in my power to acheive my goal.
What happened then…
Eventually, my team helped me finish the rest of the work and we made it on time. 🧡
On the first day of the festival, The morning was spent setting up everything, People really had no expectations as to what the event was going to be about. I am telling from my experience, I thought the event to be a mix of Fun and Learning experiences. When the person gives a correct answer they go forward with the game and with the wrong answer they learn something new.
To my ultimate surprise, the event was hit and won the “Best Technical Event” of the Tech-Fest from our department. To quote my event as technical would be an injustice, as many other technical event organizers would agree, my game was designed only to grab attention to the floor, and so was my intention behind making it. 😉 I never thought to win, I just wanted to give the best experience, My best experience as an organizer. But the actual experience to the game was added because of the beautiful women who helped me through it all. They ran the thing like a pro. They truly understood the value of the product and the potential it had to deliver.
Last day of the festival and our game had finalists already. We had to follow up and make sure they make it to the next rounds each day. It was like designing a game for the TV. People won first prize, second prize, but I know what they actually had from our game was an experience, it showed on their faces. 😊
Since the event, It’s been almost 8 years at the time of writing this post, so obviously I couldn’t find all pictures for the event, but here are some photos that will support my opinion about the game…
It wasn't my win alone. After We won, we were jumping with excitement.
I don’t intend on giving an action plan as to what you should do with your team. There are plenty of articles that probably Forbes has written which can guide you better. In my case, I was blessed with a supporting and dedicated team, my friends. But I will surely say I have learned some important things about leadership from this experience and truly changed as a person.
I wanted to write about this story to pay tribute to my friends for helping me in the situation I most needed and to celebrate the long pending celebration.
It’s not friendship day, but I read somewhere — One should not be selfish and should avoid anger, misunderstandings and ego from getting in the way. — true celebration of friendship. 🥂
In life, You never really travel alone, the world is full of friends. And I want to win more friends along the way. 😀
