Leadership can be described as the act of guiding or influencing other individuals or groups. Experienced leaders will come to know that flexibility in their approach is one of the key components to being an effective leader. While it is important to stick to their core values, leaders must adapt to ongoing situations and be ready to take the initiative to navigate what is present. You cannot predict the future, instead, it is important to support your vision with a set of flexible approaches. In recent times, the ongoing global pandemic has brought challenges to everyone in their own unique circumstances. While all challenges are different, leaders across the globe faced three main challenges: Safety, Engagement, & Support.
As a student leader myself, I have faced these challenges first hand through my job at University Housing and in my position as VP of Programming for the Illini Union Board. The first challenge that leaders had to approach throughout the pandemic was safety. In many cases, whether you may be leading an individual or a large organization, in order to ensure the well-being and health of those you influence, distanced or remote contact was and in most cases still is essential. Speaking from my role on the Illini Union Board, one of the first things that were done was switching all meetings and events to remote attendance so we could promote a safe atmosphere for the organization. The next challenge was engaging students in this new era of virtual events to minimize decreased attendance. A lesson learned on engagement is that there is always room to try new approaches. For example, while the IUBoard had used social media for program marketing and student engagement in the past, the pandemic quickly reassured us that social media was a key component to connecting with students. Through social media posts and newsletters, we were able to bring programming to students all across the country as they returned home for distance learning. Social media turned out to be an ideal proxy to market events for many campus leaders, especially when word of mouth and on-campus advertising had played such an important role in promoting programs previously.
Something that all leaders should take into the future as we navigate the possibilities of returning to a hybrid of in-person and online alternatives, is that being supportive of those around you can make you a great leader. As many of us continue navigating distance learning and events, we understand how draining and difficult it can be on our health to sit behind a computer screen all day. As leaders, it is key to be supportive of not only those you are leading but also yourself. This can be as simple as having a one on one conversation with those around you, check-in on their life outside of what your connection is to them. Make sure you are providing them with the resources they need to succeed. Most importantly be supportive and remind them that their success is dependent on their own self-care. It all stems from within, if you take care of yourself then you will shine with the ability to lead those around you.
*All images were taken prior to the pandemic*
