I have come across leaders who people just love effortlessly. Their charisma, way of addressing people and aura are just beautiful. Such leaders make "following" easy. I have also seen leaders who are just terrible. They take actions to suit themselves without considering how their followers feel. With that, it's safe to conclude that different people have their ways of leading but it is worthy to note that a leader's power is not diminished when he/she empowers others.
In highschool, I always wanted to be a leader but I had a contrasting character. I observed the past and present leaders and they all had one thing in common; courage. The courage to lead, the courage to address large crowds, the courage to be flexible. Courage was one thing I lacked in highschool yet I still wanted to be a leader.
After I was appointed a prefect, the first week was all rosey. I gained lots of recognition and I was given the necessary accolades that came with my position. My predecessor was still showing me the ropes in the first week so I was basically observing and extending a helping hand when necessary.
The second week was terrible. I never knew what it felt like to have so many people depend on you three times a day. As the dining prefect, I had to ensure everyone ate three times a day. There were some days when certain students would decide to be recalcitrant. Instead of them coming to eat, they would rather take hikes round the school compound. Again, I had to go after all these student and force them to the dining hall (yes, I was asked to force them). It didn't feel right forcing them to the dining room because I'm not a person who likes to discomfort others, but what to do.
My duty basically was to ensure that the students ate and after eating, I would assign a group of students to tidy up the dining hall. In all this, I barely had time to even eat; maybe I was working more than I should have 😂.
There was this day after breakfast, the boarding mistress summoned all the prefects and asked why we didn't supervise the students that worked in the hostel. After so much arguing and what not, we were asked to go back into the hostel and redo the job the junior students had already done. Our boarding mistress' excuse was that; " we didn't supervise the junior students, hence they did their jobs terribly and as such, we had to do it again".
I grudgingly did the job and the boarding mistress still said that I didn't do it properly and that I should do it again. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't pissed. I was already sweating in my freshly ironed uniform. I kept planning on the punishment I would give the junior student that did this to me,hehe.
When I was finally set free, I was already thirty minutes late for a thirty-five minute class and guess what? They wrote an impromptu test! The teacher handling that course wasn't one to give supplementary tests. It was at this point that I knew I was in a bad place. I would easily shrug my shoulders if it was another subject but it was further mathematics.
After following this man to his office and begging him for another thirty minutes he finally gave in and told me to come back after school for my test. I wasted time begging the man which led to me missing another class. You can only imagine how the rest of the day turned out.
I felt so tired and angry throughout that day. I can't clearly recall if I paid attention to the rest of my classes but what I do know is that I took the test after school.
This day taught me a very crucial lesson. As a leader, you have to do all you have agreed to do and that too on time. Procrastination and lollygagging wouldn't get a leader very far.
About the student who didn't do her duty very well, she got a heartfelt scolding from me, hehe. I on the flip side learnt how to plan for the future in order to lead judiciously.
On that note, I would like to say that anyone can be a leader. It just requires the right mindset and the willingness to lead.
This post is in response to the prompt from the hive student hub community. Do well to join in the fun. Thank you for your time.
With love, wongi ✨