Leadership & Emotional Intelligence Lab : Job Shadowing at HUMANITY GREECE

Published in

Leadership & Emotional Intelligence Lab

6 min readJul 2, 2024

Introduction

In the eighth semester of our university and within the framework of the laboratory course “Leadership and emotional intelligence” we were invited to choose a “leader”, to observe how he functions within a group and to become his “shadow” for two days. Choosing a leader was not a very easy task as we all had very interesting ideas. But then, and with the help of an acquaintance, who is a volunteer at Humanity Greece, we managed to get in touch with the founding member of the company, Mrs. Georgia Paraschou. And this is where our work begins.

What is Humanity Greece — Why we chose it

Humanity Greece is a humanity organization for civil activities (HOCA) that provides humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people and refugees through support packages, such as the distribution of basic goods (food, clothes, farm, etc.). Apart from families, it also supports schools by providing infrastructure, basic necessities and educational material, in order to ensure a proper learning environment.

We chose Humanity because not only did we want to see how an NGO works as the funding comes exclusively from individuals and businesses and not from the government, but also to help us fully understand the importance of volunteering and giving back to the community.

Meeting Georgia Paraschou

By choosing Humanity Greece we had the great opportunity and honor to meet its founder Georgia Paraschou.

After the questions we asked her and the answers we received, we concluded that Georgia is an example of a person who could very well be a role model. The reason that prompted her to create and found the NGO Humanity Greece came from the devastating fires that occurred in the last 4 years in Attica, Evros and Evia. The decision to create a company aimed at helping fellow human beings proves that Georgia is a person with high emotional intelligence.

Also, the day we visited the Humanity Greece offices we noticed the way Georgia can and does lead such a company, which is very important. As she pointed out “ being a Leader is a very difficult role, as one has responsibilities and the most important of them is the way in which she will represent her team. It is a very important role full of responsibilities as the weight it carries is significant”

What touched us and stayed in our minds was that Georgia is trying to train and prepare her colleagues in order to judge who will be able to represent her in the future in the role of the Leader. As she pointed out it is very difficult for a leader to be able to combine his professional and personal life. What she emphasized is that a leader always has an “expiration date” and the role does not last for long so she tries to train her colleagues for the future role of the Leader.

Finally, to the question we asked her whether “one is born a leader or becomes a leader”, she answered the following, “To be able to cope with the role of a Leader some important personality traits are required such as persistence, patience, faith and unceasing work.” Besides, Georgia’s vision is not only limited to her own role but also how she can create a better world through her company!

What we gained from this experience — Things that impressed us

Through the “Job Shadowing”, which we accomplished with the help of Georgia Paraschou, founder of Humanity Greece, we were particularly impressed by the organization skills that aim to collect the necessary goods and deliver them to the people in need, as fast and as much as possible. An other special element is the way they perceive the needs of others and classify them, as well as the way they ensure the transparency of the organization, something that Humanity encounters as one of the utmost necessities. But, apart from the fact that we were impressed by our association with Georgia and the other children, we also gained a lot from this experience. As a group we understood how an “AMKE” (a non-profit organization) works without the help of state funding, as well as how important it is to have a leader in a company or organization to direct, as long with taking responsibilities, when needed. Also, it was very important for us, as a team, to understand the concept of emotional intelligence and how it undergoes ideologically to Humanity. What we concluded through “Job Shadowing” is how crucial emotional intelligence can be in today’s era and how important it is to control our emotions, as they pointed out to us, to help people in need more productively and in the right way. Finally, we are more than excited to have been able to chat with Georgia Paraschou, the leader of Humanity. Georgia ‘showed’ us that the role of the leader does not always have a positive impact, as he has to ‘come forward’ for every decision and take responsibility. As a group, we will keep this, as something little of this experience and the words of Georgia herself:

“The responsibility for the positive is always a group one. The responsibility for the negative usually tends to lie with the person leading the group”.

Our visit and tour by the “Humanity” Team

Our day at Humanity started smoothly, in a quite peaceful way. At the beginning, Georgia Paraschou took us on a tour of their space, we saw the collection of food and products for the ones in need, with which Humanity’s support packages are created. It was a clean and welcoming space and there were quite a few people who were volunteering to help with Humanity’s work.

Afterwards, Fotis, who was present at the venue, explained to us very thoroughly how Humanity team works in general. He explained to us where, when and how everything started, how many families were registered in their registry and how many volunteers there are in 2024, compared to 2021. We talked about how Humanity operates, what their goals are and what their actions are every single day.

He explained to us the importance of empathy, in order to be a volunteer, and to what extent one is influenced by one’s family and school environment to develop the feeling of “coming into the other’s shoes”.

At the end, after a thorough analysis, he asked us if we have been involved in volunteering and we each answered individually about what we have contributed on an individual level.

Summary

In conclusion, the whole experience with Georgia Paraschou and all the volunteers we met at the «Humanity Greece» company headquarters was more than unique, something we will certainly not forget, as we saw first hand how volunteering works, without government support, only with the help of other people, but also how many needs still exist, which cannot be realized. In any case, the role of the leader is vital for an organization, a company or a business, both in terms of management, organization and planning, as well as in terms of the responsibility that comes from the position you have and the ability to put each one in the most appropriate position so that they perform better and lead to a good result overall.