<commit_before>---
layout:     post
title:      A Few Lessons on Leadership
date:       2016-06-06
summary:    Leading the Tufts robotics club was a real learning opportunity. 
thumbnail:  group
tags:
    - personal
    - tufts
    - blog
---

Two weeks ago, I graduated college. While I'm home, I'm taking some time to write down the most important lessons I learned as an undergraduate. This is going to be a two-parter. In this post, I'll focus on lessons I learned about leadership while president of the [Tufts robotics club](http://tuftsroboticsclub.com). In a later post, I'll talk about the importance of lifelong learning.

------------

Before going to college, I didn't see myself as a leader. In fact, I shied away from the spotlight whenever possible. I thought I was just too quiet to lead a group of people, and I figured I would probably screw it up anyway. This is a pretty natural fear---most people don't consider themselves leadership material. That said, I'm glad I was able to escape this mindset in college.

While at Tufts, I had the privilege of leading the Tufts robotics club, and through that experience I came to see that I *can* lead, and I can do so well as long as I am willing to improve myself. I'd like to discuss the lessons I learned which helped me to overcome my initial shortcomings as a leader. My hope is that this post will be helpful to anyone who finds themselves in a leadership role with no clue what to do, because I can definitely relate.

One of my first ventures at Tufts was joining the robotics club. I enjoyed programming and wanted to try my hand at electronics, and it turned out to be the perfect fit. I loved working with Arduinos at club meetings and before long, I was a core member of the club. It became clear halfway through my second year that the president of the club was eying me to take his place. I was lukewarm about the idea for awhile. I worried about a few things: a) that I wasn't engaging enough to be a leader, b) that I would screw up and embarrass myself, and c) that I didn't know enough to teach people everything they needed to learn. Nevertheless, I was elected president going into my third year, and it turns out that a) I was able to learn to be more outgoing, b) screwups are inevitable but I survived, and c) I didn't *need* to know everything. We'll take a look at each of these insecurities and I'll talk about how I overcame each one.

Let's start with a). Most people would probably agree that your typical leader is assertive, outgoing, and demanding---three things I was not when I was elected president. Because I didn't have these qualities, I was worried no one would listen to me and nothing would get done. My first misguided attempt to solve this problem was to try and make decisions by consensus so I didn't have to make them myself. One summer day, I gathered a group of long-time club members at
my house so we could discuss a few decisions that needed to be made, like what projects we'd like to work on in the fall. When someone who spoke confidently suggested something that resonated with me, I would encourage them to keep talking. Basically, I used assertive people to talk for me. This didn't work very well---without me properly directing it, the conversation would go around in circles, and when the time came for me to make the final call, I didn't have the courage to make a decision for fear of being wrong. So this gives you a sense of where I was starting from. I think one thing that helped me is the realization that sometimes, the most important thing is just to make a decision, whatever it is. This isn't to say you should make decisions hastily, but be aware that belaboring a decision is dangerous. You risk wasting valuable time, and in the end, no one will crucify you if you
end up being wrong, so long as you adjust your strategy in response. Additionally, it's important to remind yourself of your accomplishments and focus on the big picture if you want to build confidence as a leader. When I saw club members getting fully engaged in their projects and having major successes, I knew that I must be doing something right, even if I was struggling day to day. Then, once I believed I was doing a good job, addressing a room full of people looking to me for guidance became easier. So the secret is: act decisively, and give yourself some credit.

Let's talk about my next misconception: that messing up is a bad, shameful thing. On the contrary, I will echo many others before me in saying that making mistakes is an essential part of life that even leaders (especially leaders) experience every day. It's not our failures themselves, but rather how we respond to them that shapes our future successes. The biggest screwup of my college career came at the end of my third year. I was heavily involved in two projects: one with the
robotics club, and another with some friends for class. It was late April and the semester was beginning to wind down---which meant these projects were winding up, big time. It quickly became apparent that there was not enough time in the day for me to dedicate my full attention to both projects. I needed to choose one to prioritize. Let me tell you, the feeling of having to let someone down is a terrible one. I felt ashamed for having gotten myself into a situation where I couldn't fulfill all of
my responsibilities to both groups of people. So I did feel shame in the moment, and rightly so. However, the most important thing I take away from this experience is not shame, but a lesson learned. I thought to myself, "next time, I will be wiser, I will foresee similar dilemmas, and I will never again get myself into a place where I cannot fulfill my responsibilities as a teammate." It's a complex mix of emotions: to at the same time regret failure but also be
grateful for how it helped you to grow. It would be great to be able to learn these lessons without having to first make mistakes. But until someone figures out how to do that, your best course of action is to not fear making mistakes and try your best to learn from them when you do.

Lastly, let's talk about how I didn't feel qualified to be president. There were things I didn't know, skills I didn't have, which I feared would set the club back. I mistakenly tried to cover up the gaps in my knowledge by not reaching out for help---exactly what I should have done from the beginning. Throughout my first semester as president, I worried over every little detail of the club’s administration and basically did everything myself. If we needed a poster for an event, I made it. If
we were starting a new project, I was introducing and leading it. The club suffered for it, club members were bored, and all the work nearly killed me, too. It took me far too long to realize that I was surrounded by extremely talented people, and for our group to succeed, I would need to bring them into the fold and make them leaders too. I started to give club members more responsibility. I would task them with putting together entire events,
or designing a new logo and overall advertising strategy on campus, leaving the details up to them. The key is to invoke people's creativity. If you give people creative freedom, they will surprise you! They will come up with things you never would have thought of on your own. So it was totally normal that I didn't know everything when I became president. It's not my job to know everything. However, it is my job to seek out people who know what they're doing and to draw upon their strengths. To be an
effective leader, you have to relinquish absolute control and place your trust in your team.

Those are my three big lessons on leadership. Now, seeing as I have only just graduated college and have not yet even begun my career, it would be extremely naive for me to say that this is all there is to know about leadership. I am certainly not done learning how to lead, and I hope that the coming years will bring further revelations about myself, my personality, and my leadership style. But I at least hope that what I've written here will be
useful to someone, and maybe some people who have a bit more leadership experience will relate to some of these ideas. Thanks for reading!<commit_msg>Got rid of thoughts to self, reworded to not sound so silly<commit_after>---
layout:     post
title:      A Few Lessons on Leadership
date:       2016-06-06
summary:    Leading the Tufts robotics club was a real learning opportunity. 
thumbnail:  group
tags:
    - personal
    - tufts
    - blog
---

Two weeks ago, I graduated college. While I'm home, I'm taking some time to write down the most important lessons I learned as an undergraduate. This is going to be a two-parter. In this post, I'll focus on lessons I learned about leadership while president of the [Tufts robotics club](http://tuftsroboticsclub.com). In a later post, I'll talk about the importance of lifelong learning.

------------

Before going to college, I didn't see myself as a leader. In fact, I shied away from the spotlight whenever possible. I thought I was just too quiet to lead a group of people, and I figured I would probably screw it up anyway. This is a pretty natural fear---most people don't consider themselves leadership material. That said, I'm glad I was able to escape this mindset in college.

While at Tufts, I had the privilege of leading the Tufts robotics club, and through that experience I came to see that I *can* lead, and I can do so well as long as I am willing to improve myself. I'd like to discuss the lessons I learned which helped me to overcome my initial shortcomings as a leader. My hope is that this post will be helpful to anyone who finds themselves in a leadership role with no clue what to do, because I can definitely relate.

One of my first ventures at Tufts was joining the robotics club. I enjoyed programming and wanted to try my hand at electronics, and it turned out to be the perfect fit. I loved working with Arduinos at club meetings and before long, I was a core member of the club. It became clear halfway through my second year that the president of the club was eying me to take his place. I was lukewarm about the idea for awhile. I worried about a few things: a) that I wasn't engaging enough to be a leader, b) that I would screw up and embarrass myself, and c) that I didn't know enough to teach people everything they needed to learn. Nevertheless, I was elected president going into my third year, and it turns out that a) I was able to learn to be more outgoing, b) screwups are inevitable but I survived, and c) I didn't *need* to know everything. We'll take a look at each of these insecurities and I'll talk about how I overcame each one.

Let's start with a). Most people would probably agree that your typical leader is assertive, outgoing, and demanding---three things I was not when I was elected president. Because I didn't have these qualities, I was worried no one would listen to me and nothing would get done. My first misguided attempt to solve this problem was to try and make decisions by consensus so I didn't have to make them myself. One summer day, I gathered a group of long-time club members at
my house so we could discuss a few decisions that needed to be made, like what projects we'd like to work on in the fall. When someone who spoke confidently suggested something that resonated with me, I would encourage them to keep talking. Basically, I used assertive people to talk for me. This didn't work very well---without me properly directing it, the conversation would go around in circles, and when the time came for me to make the final call, I didn't have the courage to make a decision for fear of being wrong. So this gives you a sense of where I was starting from. I think one thing that helped me is the realization that sometimes, the most important thing is just to make a decision, whatever it is. This isn't to say you should make decisions hastily, but be aware that belaboring a decision is dangerous. You risk wasting valuable time, and in the end, no one will crucify you if you
end up being wrong, so long as you adjust your strategy in response. Additionally, it's important to remind yourself of your accomplishments and focus on the big picture if you want to build confidence as a leader. When I saw club members getting fully engaged in their projects and having major successes, I knew that I must be doing something right, even if I was struggling day to day. Then, once I believed I was doing a good job, addressing a room full of people looking to me for guidance became easier. So the secret is: act decisively, and give yourself some credit.

Let's talk about my next misconception: that messing up is a bad, shameful thing. On the contrary, I will echo many others before me in saying that making mistakes is an essential part of life that even leaders (especially leaders) experience every day. It's not our failures themselves, but rather how we respond to them that shapes our future successes. The biggest screwup of my college career came at the end of my third year. I was heavily involved in two projects: one with the
robotics club, and another with some friends for class. It was late April and the semester was beginning to wind down---which meant these projects were winding up, big time. It quickly became apparent that there was not enough time in the day for me to dedicate my full attention to both projects. I needed to choose one to prioritize. Let me tell you, the feeling of having to let someone down is a terrible one. I felt ashamed for having gotten myself into a situation where I couldn't fulfill all of
my responsibilities to both groups of people. So I did feel shame in the moment, and rightly so. However, the most important thing I take away from this experience is not shame, but a lesson learned. I vowed next time to foresee similar dilemmas, and to avoid situations in which I was unable to fulfill my responsibilities as a teammate. It's a complex mix of emotions: to at the same time regret failure but also be
grateful for how it helped you to grow. It would be great to be able to learn these lessons without having to first make mistakes. But until someone figures out how to do that, your best course of action is to not fear making mistakes and try your best to learn from them when you do.

Lastly, let's talk about how I didn't feel qualified to be president. There were things I didn't know, skills I didn't have, which I feared would set the club back. I mistakenly tried to cover up the gaps in my knowledge by not reaching out for help---exactly what I should have done from the beginning. Throughout my first semester as president, I worried over every little detail of the club’s administration and basically did everything myself. If we needed a poster for an event, I made it. If
we were starting a new project, I was introducing and leading it. The club suffered for it, club members were bored, and all the work nearly killed me, too. It took me far too long to realize that I was surrounded by extremely talented people, and for our group to succeed, I would need to bring them into the fold and make them leaders too. I started to give club members more responsibility. I would task them with putting together entire events,
or designing a new logo and overall advertising strategy on campus, leaving the details up to them. The key is to invoke people's creativity. If you give people creative freedom, they will surprise you! They will come up with things you never would have thought of on your own. So it was totally normal that I didn't know everything when I became president. It's not my job to know everything. However, it is my job to seek out people who know what they're doing and to draw upon their strengths. To be an
effective leader, you have to relinquish absolute control and place your trust in your team.

Those are my three big lessons on leadership. Now, seeing as I have only just graduated college and have not yet even begun my career, it would be extremely naive for me to say that this is all there is to know about leadership. I am certainly not done learning how to lead, and I hope that the coming years will bring further revelations about myself, my personality, and my leadership style. But I at least hope that what I've written here will be
useful to someone, and maybe some people who have a bit more leadership experience will relate to some of these ideas. Thanks for reading!
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