22 things to note on Leadership.
5 min readOct 26, 2020
Here are some of the key points that are very important to consider when you are leading a bunch of people.
- It is all about making choices. Whatever landed you in this position is because of one or a couple of choices that you made in the past. And what so ever will decide the fate of the organisation or the team that you are leading are the choices that you will make in the coming days. Even a small step can do wonders or might end up leading to a disaster.
- Know the level of your impact. Be conscious about the responsibility that you have. Never take this for granted. When you start noticing the consequences of whatever you are doing, you actually realise that directly or indirectly you are making a huge impact and this will automatically make you more responsible. The best way to respond is to exploit the opportunity and make something out of it.
- You are seen as an ideal figure. The way you behave, the way you portray yourself is really important. Everybody at the first instant and for initial stages judges you on the basis of your actions and the way you respond. It really matters to everyone else and it should matter to you as well.
- Always be humble. It is a fact that every body likes a positive and a welcoming person. It is important to be polite, even when trying to be strict. Being rude or going mad is never an option.
- Do not be a boss, be a leader. This famous quote always makes sense. A leader is someone who takes everyone on board.
- Have faith in your team and make sure that the team has faith in you. It is all about digging the gold out of the dirt. It is your job to actually figure out how to make use of a person’s individual skill and not let any weakness affect the team as a whole. Try and make sure that the team believes in you as an individual and your vision. Their confidence in you is as important as your confidence in them.
- Every opinion matters. Try to be approachable enough. Try to consider the opinions and acknowledge the perspective of every single individual. Even if it does not make sense right now, trust me it will help you some day.
- Appreciate the efforts of your fellow mates. Every body likes to get recognised, every body likes that their work is appreciated and their efforts are acknowledged. Make sure that you appreciate the efforts of your team mates because this motivates them.
- Be a good listener. Speak less and listen to people more. Nobody is a born orator. Who ever you think speaks well and speaks sensible is for sure a good listener.
- Whenever you are speaking, try to express in the best way possible. It is important to take people on the ship and sail them with you but for that you need to pitch your vision to them. If you figure out how important it is to deliver something that you are going to, you will easily be able to figure out how you want to convey or deliver. This is a key formula to good communication skills.
- Always pen down whatever you have in mind. This is one of the most basic and important points to consider when you are doing your job and it actually impacts in a huge way. It happens that something strikes your mind and you are like I will think about this in my free time but after a while you are not able to recall. If you note every single idea or thought it is super easy to figure things out and it generates the best of the results.
- Make a To-do list and set time limits. Time management is the most crucial aspect. This thing really works — Keep a record of the pending work and keep deadlines for the same. And if you can make a list of everything that is to be done in a single day and the amount of time you need to give for each individual task then it will take your productivity to a different level.
- Procrastination will cost you more than you think. This thing called procrastination is the biggest enemy of a normal ambitious person. From the smallest acts like snoozing the alarm in the morning to delaying a very important task, everything counts.
- Planning is super important. Planning your year, month, week, day and even an hour can do wonders. For example just giving yourself 10 minutes in the morning by planning your whole day can boost up the productivity 10 times and can do wonders. It is obvious that everything does not go by the plan but try to make it possible. Analysing the whole day which you planned in the morning can be super helpful.
- Try to analyse your work. Make sure you are always open for reviews and suggestions. It is the best way if you actually want to grow. Whatever you as a leader are delivering, observe every small detail and always be conscious about whatever is happening. Always appreciate and acknowledge the criticism and make use of it.
- Learn from your mistakes. It is important to analyse and actually accept the mistakes made then only you can learn something out of it. They say your past is your best teacher.
- Keep learning — acknowledge the fact because it keeps motivating you. The best feeling is when you invest into something and you get something in return for real. When you are investing the most precious thing — your time, the realisation of actually making something out of this time is a great feeling.
- Satisfaction and determination. Always be satisfied with your previous work, but push your limits for the upcoming job. This mantra always helps.
- Try to push yourself out of the comfort zone. Sometimes this small push can turn into something amazing. Think of this chance as your last chance and just do it. Fear of loss will cost you more than you think.
- Never over do it. Everything has a limit and anything that is done in an extreme way is not good. Just do what is needed.
- Take a break when needed. Never indulge yourself so much into work that a saturation point comes where you give up. We are tend to get bored of a thing after sometime. It is natural to take a break. Once you are done, it actually increases your creativity and productivity.
- Enjoy. This is something that many people around you would have dreamt of. Enjoy your job, it will make the experience even better.
This article is solely based on my experience of leading a team of around 100 young people for a year at a non profit organisation.
