Becoming a leader for your organization is an exciting yet daunting experience. On one hand, you’ve accomplished your goal of being elected for a position of leadership… but on the other hand… you have a new responsibilities and people looking to you for direction.

Here are our tips on effective Leadership:

Learn How to Delegate

We’ve all had that person in a student organization or group project that tries to do everything themselves. Maybe we’ve even been this person at one point or another. One of the hardest parts of leadership is passing on responsibilities to other officers. But by not delegating, your work and your team will suffer with efficiency, development, and inclusion.

As with everything in life, there is a trade-off. By focusing on a task, you are trading your time and energy to get that task accomplished. If you’re president of your student organization, you should be focusing on the big picture and vision of your group, not on creating a t-shirt design or choosing what to post to social media. Although these can be fun and important tasks too, you’re aim to lead a team to obtain the overall goals of your team.  

Inspire with a Vision

Chances are, you didn’t just walk into your leadership role, you had a vision for your student organization that people agree with and voted for. Just like you had a vision the day you were elected, every day after you should keep this vision in mind or evolve it into something the whole organization can get behind.

A vision of what your student organization can be in the future or can accomplish can be the momentum for your fellow officers need to get work done. With this end goal in mind, officers have a justification that what they do matters and a metric to base their success off of.

Lead by Example

“What you want to ignite in others must first burn inside yourself.” – Charlotte Bronte

Being a leader means setting standards and values for your group and upholding them in daily life.

How can you keep your members and officers active and accountable if you’re not? I once had a President of my student organization who continuously flaked out on meetings when she felt a better personal opportunity was present. It wasn’t so surprising when other officers began to follow suit.

Think about how you want your fellow officers to act. Do you want them to be timely, passionate, and active in getting things done? If so, you must be exemplary in all these matters. If you talk behind your officers back or never complete a task, you set the stage that shows these things are okay to do for as your fellow officers.

Serve Your Fellow Members & Officers

It’s important to acknowledge that all officers and members are essentially volunteers. No one is obligated to be present at meetings or participate in the organization. Your officers and members could have joined and can still join any other extracurricular group on campus, but they choose to be apart of yours.

This means that the traditional idea of leadership that involves barking orders and exercising your power over others isn’t going to be applicable. (It’s not really applicable in any situation considering most people choose to be lead rather than being forced into being lead.)

It’s time to change the concept of leadership from one that enforces to one that serves. As a leader, it’s your job to serve your fellow officers and members by offering them a setting to grow as individuals, understand their role, test their ideas, feels included, and make an impact.

Do Everything With Sincere Quality and Purpose  

Your student organization may not conduct world or national level change, but you can create change in your school or local area. At the very least, you are impacting the lives of your members and the people in your community.

No matter how small the tasks you and your officers are assigned, try to accomplish them with excellence and greatness. If you’re in charge of making the website for your organization, make the best website you can make! If you’re in charge of fundraising, get creative and think of the most out of the box ways to maximize donations! People take notice of passion and are in turned inspired to do better themselves. By following the mantra of Martin Luther King, Jr., “I can do small things in great ways.” these small things add up on a personal level and on a team level with can later create great things!    

What Do You Think?

Have any of these great philosophies change your perspective on leadership? What does leadership mean to you? Are there any philosophies you think we’ve missed? We love hearing from our readers, so leave your feedback below!