Experience for being a leader for both semesters
Hi, my name is Echo. In this article, I’m going to talk about my leadership experience in the Bachelor of Art and Science in Integrated Innovation International Program (BAScii).
As a team leader for both semesters, I had some leadership experiences in high school. But only for small or medium science, design and technology project. Not big business projects as we did so far in university. I had some challenges in being a leader in this subject. First, commerce is not my strength. Second, there is some language barrier on communication (Thai language) as a foreign student. However, those challenges don’t let me give up.
Summarize leadership experience from Entrepreneurship course to Marketing course
In the previous semester, I was randomly selected by our professor as a leader for the Entrepreneurship course. At that time, I knew I’m not familiar with the business; but I gave it a try. First of all, my mind was like a blank paper, and I was a little bit shy when I lined up with other team leaders to give a short intro about myself. After that process, I met with my first team partners this semester. They first thought of me as Thai; then I told them I’m Chinese. Then our conversation turned into English. From the beginning of the first semester until the end of the first semester, I found out, the way I worked with my teammates is quite different from what I did in high school. I have to reprogram my mindset to fit inside this new environment. Also, I learned a lot of new skills from my previous teammates on communication, management. Especially the technique my teammates spook during the public speaking process.
Right now, we are in the second semester. We reordered our team members, leaders, and the content for our courses. This time, I decided to assign myself to be a leader again. Apart from learning new skills, I can expand my interpersonal network to understand more people and be friends with each other as well. Maybe one day, my friends can be my guide. From the start of marketing course until now. Although I’m not familiar with commerce, I have to overcome this. I don’t know whether to create my design studio or work for other people’s design studio. However, if one day I become a designer or an artist. I have to know how I’m going to promote my products or artworks. During this course, in my new team, we worked efficiently on every single team assignment. So, there’s nothing to clarify in my new team.
For the conclusion, here are the personal views on the concept of being a leader:
1. The concept of being a leader is not to be the only rock star inside the team. The role of being a leader is to make sure the teammates are moving in the right direction. When the team gets a problem during the teamwork, the team leader has to produce an alternative strategy to prevent further issues.
2. Team leader has to understand the teammate’s situation. Before scheduling a team meeting, the team leader must know whether the meeting time is suitable for every teammate. Also, the team leader has to assign their teammates reasonably. Remember the people are not product line machines. We need time to have a rest. So, the team leader has to consider this.
3. Team leader has to let their teammates talk first. Then, decide whether their teammates’ decisions are suitable to implement for the teamwork.
