My 10 Biggest Mistakes as a Young Leader

Image Source: LifeHacker.com

My ability to learn from even the littlest things in my life has become one of my greatest assets. Here are some things I've learned from retrospect on my 4 years in the university where I served on several platforms as a student leader. Read, learn, practice and share these lessons:

1. Assumption that everyone buys into my vision because it sounds good. When I first became a leader (and an officeholder in the University), I had a plan in mind. I had a vision for my group. It sounded good to me but I never cared too much about explaining it well to my followers and partners. It wasn’t until I realized I was walking alone that I repented and started to carry more people along.
2. Making my preferences for some people too obvious. As a leader, you will always be faced with 3 sets of people. The first set are those who are always ready to help. Those people you will definitely like. They make your work easier. The next set are those who like you but are indifferent about the vision. They seldom ever act concerned. The last set are those who will never do anything right. They neither like you nor the vision. It’s hard to like people like that. For the first set of people, it’s easy for you to focus so much on them and abandon the other two sets forgetting that it pays a lot for you to develop and try to win over those in the other two sets (but know that you can’t win them all over). That way, progress is easier to make.
3. Being too logical and refusing to be sentimental at times. As a leader, I despised emotional people. I was under the impression that in order for a leader to function properly, he must leave the heart out of it and work with his head. I was wrong. I forgot that leadership requires the leader to win the hearts of his followers. I also forgot the importance of instincts. It almost cost me my most trusted and loyal friends. Appealing to their hearts was the easier way to get them to buy into the vision. However, logic is also as important as emotions.
4. Making too many mistakes with the mindset that making mistakes is good…it’s only good when the mistakes aren’t critical. One of my life’s philosophies used to be to learn from my mistakes. I misconstrued this philosophy in my head so much so that I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes. This cost me a lot. I made so many critical mistakes. Many of which I regret till now.
5. Not developing other leaders after me: focusing on building relationships and not enough successors. I like to consider myself a people person. I do not have many friends but I strive to maintain a likeable personality. This affected me. I loved to show my followers I cared but I neglected developing more leaders. I failed in that area. Of course, I helped people to grow as better human beings but I helped less people become better leaders. Another thing I regret.
6. Assumption that I need everyone to go along for the vision to work. As I mentioned earlier that as a leader, you will be faced with 3 sets of people, this point is derivative of it. I forgot the potency of the 80/20 principle and tricked myself into believing that I could carry everyone along. I couldn’t.
7. Procrastination. I procrastinated a lot as a person and it affected me as a leader.
8. Inability to properly delegate responsibilities and authority to my subordinates. One thing leaders need to learn is that they can’t do it all on their own. They also need to learn that there are actually people who are ready to work. They believe in you and they believe in your vision. Give them work to do. Place responsibilities in their hands, and both you and they will be happy you did.
9. Working so hard to develop others whilst neglecting the need to constantly develop myself- it left me empty at times. I expended all forms of energy as a leader. In fact, I fell sick at a point. I almost reached breaking point. For a few moments, in fact, I had given up. My resignation letter was ready. It was later I got to understand that I was giving too much and not refilling myself. Spiritually, mentally, and otherwise, I was always getting gassed out.
10. Lack of accountability. Though I had people I reported to, I had no one to whom I was accountable. My growth as a leader, not only stalled, but it regressed badly because I wasn’t reporting to anyone and no one was looking after my own personal development. It hurts me till today.

All these mistakes, I have learned from and I’m becoming a better person for it. One main reason I made these mistakes was that I gathered relatively little knowledge during my time as a leader. My growth was stunted and I had close to nothing to keep me going and to to help my leadership development. Knowledge is very important. You can’t act better than you know. Your growth and abilities are limited to your level of knowledge and understanding and application.

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