What I Learned from Student Clubs
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¶1At the end of last semester, I was elected president of the Asian Studies Club at my university. It's a pretty cool deal — the school gives us a lot of support to host fun events, like foreign movie nights, happy hours, and special receptions. We also sponsor speakers to give special talks on Asia-related topics.
¶2It goes without saying that becoming a leader or an officer in a student club will help you develop leadership skills that will be invaluable in all areas of life. Being in different roles, I realised that it requires a combination of leadership, advocacy, and community. And I also learned that managing people is not easy... especially students.
¶3This lesson is probably pretty obvious, but it's something that I didn't fully understand until I experienced it myself. Taking on leadership positions is one of the most intimidating things I've ever done. However, it's also one of the most rewarding experiences, because I learned a lot about the nuances of managing teams, people, and expectations.
¶4First of all, when adopting a leadership role, I struggle in finding the right balance between being "one of the team" and being taken seriously. I always avoid becoming an overly authoritative figure and I try to become super friendly to the people I work with. As a result, people stop taking my deadlines and requests seriously. I used to be scared of imposing real consequences, and I thought I could get things done just by being best friends with my team. I learned the hard way that this does not always work — it is important to set expectations on the very first day of a project and to have tough conversations once in a while.
¶5Additionally, I cannot emphasise how much I came to value the importance of communication. I realised that I am usually the most frustrated when I'm working on projects where communication is lacking. This is when people don't respond to group messages (or when they do, it's very minimal), don't share their concerns or challenges, don't participate in discussions, or are generally just disengaged.
¶6This happens a lot in student clubs (or even class projects). One of the unique challenges of working with students is that they have tons of other things going on, and it's hard to know if the thing you're working together on is even in their priority list. If you've ever worked in student groups, you are probably familiar with people saying something similar to this: "Oh, I'm so sorry. I had a midterm and another homework assignment going on, so I couldn't finish it. Can I do it by next week?"
¶7I realised that I actually don't mind it when my team moves things around to fit their schedule, but this requires communication. I've come to appreciate when people inform me that they have other things that they have to prioritise, and then work out alternatives together with me. This experience made me very conscious of my own communication skills when I have to work with others. I try to keep myself accountable and be on top of communicating my priorities, expectations, and especially challenges to my managers and teammates.
¶8Overall, leading student clubs taught me the importance of setting expectations and communication (and that students are probably the hardest group of people to manage). Nevertheless, I enjoyed identifying people's strengths to build an executive board of students who are truly passionate about change and community. Serving as a leader of a student club presents a visible platform for me to help people bring their best selves to the table and think outside of their comfort zone, as college is a time to discover who you are and what intrigues you.