Harshita Garg is a BTech Information Technology student of HMR Institute of Technology and Management, New Delhi who has been continuously involved in beyond the classroom activities.
Here, Harshita is sharing her experience being an Executive Board Member at the Literary Society of HMRITM. Her hard work has the potential to propel her ahead of the curve.
Go ahead and know what her story has to offer so that you can easily find a path of self-growth.
What was your role? Briefly list the responsibilities associated with it.
I started my journey at the Literary Society of my college as the core team member where my responsibilities include developing the content for social media and for WhatsApp groups and organizing various online and offline events.
Due to my constant efforts, I was promoted to the Executive Board Member position of my society and now I’m leading a team of 8-10 members with my fellow partner. Now, as the position gets upgrade, responsibilities too.
I plan, manage and conduct various online events with my team and make most of them successful. I conduct team meetings with my team and conduct various online interview sessions with authors and writers on our social media to get the audience engaged, giving them constant knowledge.
The upgradation of my position made me realize, how hard is to make people work and work yourself being calm and patient at the same time.
What’s it like to juggle between leadership roles and academics? Pen down the challenges you faced.
The major challenge was working well while keeping myself patient. Being impatient is one of my biggest weaknesses and this leadership have taught me to give a full stop to that. At first, I used to get so impatient and frustrated when things are not likely to work but then my teammates and seniors who have handled this in the past, taught me the correct way of leading by being a leader and not a boss.
Another challenge that I faced was excepting that I’m wrong at times. Due to constant delay in work, I used to get frustrated with my team members and then they used to complain and then I used to get angry again. But being the executive board member of my college society, I slowly realized how to work with them and make them work.
Did you also get a chance to connect with any other activity while working on this post?
As a part of this society, I got an opportunity to open up and get into a live session with some debut authors and get to know about their life and some amazing books which can give us life lessons and deep dive into an author’s life.
What are the top learnings, skills and values that you acquired here?
Leadership qualities, public speaking, team management, time management, writing skills, technical knowledge, skills of recruiting new members and how to work patiently with a team are some of the skills that this position has taught me in just 2 months of getting promoted.
I’m proud of me and my team that we have successfully conducted many events and live sessions together and are taking this society to higher levels.
Do you feel your current role fills you with pride and gratitude? Illustrate how the experience gained will help you going forward?
Yes, I strongly feel proud of myself that I am able to manage the team and taking this society to higher levels. I have learnt a lot already and I know there is a lot more potential in me and my fellow members to take this society to even higher levels. I never expected that I would be leading the team because I just enjoyed being a part of Literary society and learning new things.
At first, I was scared and doubtful that I would be able to manage these things or not, but my sincere thanks to the previous executive board who started this society and asked me to lead it further. Leading a team and being lead by someone are two different experiences and everyone should at least experience both of them once in their lifetime because that is when to come to know about the struggles and challenges people face on both levels.
As when we talk about leadership we have a whole team with us. How do you persuade others to accept your ideas/ways?
As I mentioned before also, I was very bad at making people except me and persuade my ideas and one of the reason was the level because we all are in the same year of study and seeing me at the upper level, they might not be happy.
But slowly, I kept patience and start listening to their ideas first instead of giving orders to them to do anything. This trick worked and now we all work as a team with no more upper and lower level designations but yes, the tag of leadership is still on for me and we are trying our best to implement the best things possible.
What is your message to students, aspiring to the same or a similar role to do?
My simple message to them is to be patient and listen to their fellow mates at first before getting to any conclusion or deciding anything and in this way, you will be a great leader and not a boss. Another thing that leaders can follow is to keep flourishing your team with new ideas and a new way of working because unless you start, they won’t start anything.
How can we (Friends, Family, YI Fraternity) encourage young students such as yourself to engage with co-curricular or extra-curricular activities?
Getting into co-curricular and extra-curricular activities has become important in today’s leading world where no one is dumb to listen to you without any benefit. If you strengthen your interpersonal and communication skills, you will be a better person as a whole.
And these skills are not practically taught in schools and colleges and these are some things that you learn in getting engaged in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, being part of societies and communities that develop you every day.
We at Young Influx would take this opportunity to thank Harshita for taking a leap of faith and sharing his impeccable story. We are humbled and grateful, your efforts mean a lot for the youth seeking growth and development.
And hello, dear readers, we welcome you to explore the platform with an open mind. Help yourself gain the most out of the experiences and opportunities listed here.
And before you bid us adieu, we would like you to know that you can read more such student stories here.
