154 days left

In 57 days my LC will vote my successor...
In 62 days my successor will go through Baaaaaaaptooooom and gets his/ her first insights into LCPs life...
In 65 days I will introduce my successor to the Board of Advisors...
In 75 days my successor and I will be at WMV (Wintermitgliederversammlung) in Augsburg...
In 81 days I will say the final GoodBye to my LCP colleagues...
In 101 days the Take Over will start...
In 126 days my EB and I will say GoodBye to our LC...
In 153 days my EB and I will hand over our local planning to the new EB and celebrate at the Take Over Party where I will have to say GoodBye to my EB...
In 154 days I will look back on a year with my EB and my LC: all the LC Meetings we had, all the Trainees that arrived and left, all the projects and events we organized, all the problems we solved...

154 days left - I will enjoy every single day...

Blogging is great and relevant

Just a short note to motivate you to start your own blog about your life and experiences - be they within or without AIESEC, in whatever country

There are definitely quite a lot of people reading this stuff. Every time a new article is published here, viewings go up. A lot of people come from Facebook or other blogs that link here. Also, some search on Google for keywords such as (just a selection of the most common) "leadership experience, aiesec, leadership and myself, impact of an amazing leadership experience, Learn from my experience of leadership" and, my most favourite search entry, that summarizes for me very well what AIESEC is about: "what local organizations can give me leadership experience".

(The map shows only the very recent visitors - storage is limited. It is funny, as I can see many friends and member of my local committee in other countries on the map.)

Cheers, Nicolas

Federal Elections in Germany

Leadership also means taking on resposibility - and voting is the responsibility of each citizen. On Sunday we are electing a new Parliament here in Germany. Trainees from all over the world meet in Hamburg and made this video to motivate all Germans to cast their ballot.
If you are living in Münster you might even find me handing the papers to you - I will enjoy that day helping organize and count the vote.

Enjoy the video!

Personal Notes from the Train

Hey!

At the moment it is approaching 1 am, I have slept around seven hours altogether in the last three days and still, somehow I feel like writing a short note :).

I just returned from Bonn, were I meet with the other members of the team on external positioning (see my post here) for an intense two days of working long hours, discussing and having fun. In the train back I realized, that working in this team alone I have gained so many new skills. Also, just minutes after leaving I was getting good-bye messages from friends I have made in this team.
In every part of my life so far I have met lots of people, most of whom I do not see very often any more. But there always are some people who will stay with you. In the last two years in AIESEC I have met so many incredible persons from so many different backgrounds as I have never met before and it is nice to know that some of them will also be there in the future :).

On a different topic:
Sitting in the train, reflecting on this, I got a short message from Natalie. She is my pre-predecessor and one of the most amazing persons I know, even though I do not hear from her very often. Right now she is doing recruitment for Google. From Paris she sent: "aiesec is amazing. just wanted to share that with you. send greeting to my local committee". Now, I do no know what made her send that message to a person she hardly ever sees at 11:30 pm - but I am pretty sure it must have been a strong experience. And it feels to good to be working in an organization that is creating experiences like that every day, everywhere for so many people.

Sorry if this got a bit sentimental, maybe will be more factual next time.

Nicolas

Manager? Or Leader? Or both?

Dear readers,

First of all, I want to use the chance to thank Nicolas, Local Committee President from Münster, for lately admitting me for this blog, as I have not been belonging to the initial group of LCPs who wanted to start this – I am now here because I feel the will and motivation to share my thoughts and beliefs to you as well…

Just to shortly introduce myself: My name is Johannes Köhn, I am the Local Committee President of my lovely AIESEC & IAESTE Local Committee at TU Berlin. I have been elected in November 2008 and started my term then in March 2009. In 2008, I was Organizing Committee President (OCP) for the issue-based project Energy Forum on production and distribution of energy - concerning renewable and conventional energy sources. Before that, I was member of the Incoming Exchange Team (ICX) at TU Berlin, being responsible for getting available traineeship positions in Berlin companies and finding trainees that fit to the requirements.

I study industrial engineering since the winter semester 2006/2007 at the TU Berlin when I also joined AIESEC; in October, my 7^th semester will start already. Also, I have a lovely girlfriend coming from Finland and a lovely family living right outside of Berlin.

Now, here it comes: Manager? Or Leader? Or both? This question often comes to my mind when reflecting about my job and what I do in AIESEC… In a first step, one of course has to define what a manager and leader actually is. I will skip this, as I don’t believe there is a universal definition and the terms are much interconnected. To me, it is more important how I fulfill my responsibilities to my stakeholder!

But still there is the question of what I am? Am I rather a manager, as I plan and organize meetings, set up agendas, do strategic planning, get together with companies, write tons of e-mails, have telephone conferences with the AIESEC network? Or am I a leader, because I stand in front of my Local Committee and talk about what leadership means to me, because I want to motivate my team and my LC, represent my LC at national level in taskforces or at conferences, because I want to have an impact on the development of people, being a role model?

I think that one cannot be just a manager OR a leader – there is always the need to have qualities of both in order to be successful. The one cannot go without the other.

I believe that the true question lies within finding the answer to how you should prioritize your both roles as a manager and a leader – what comes first in what situation! To me, I have sometimes the feeling that I am a little bit more the manager for my LC, as it is my environment and the situation that ask me to be this. It is always a balancing act, as there is no obvious right or wrong…

Finally, I wanted to share those thoughts to you; talk to me if you want to share your thoughts as well.

All the best for you and many greetings to my Local Committee you see on the picture below! :-)

Cheers,
Johannes

My network AIESEC video

New views on University

Hey there,

I just want to share a small thought with you, no big story:

Yesterday I realized how much my view on the university has changed since I became LCP. Because a member of the executive board of AIESEC I represent the world-wide organization in my city, I was suddenly getting to know more people and recieved more information on structures and processes than I did before. My team and me now know the heads of the university and of the city administration, we got insights into the little fights between different faculties and departments about lots of money and power and of course got in contact with a lot of other student initiatives. I did not know before that an organization that often seems so dull is such a jungle inside :). And of course we are sometimes asked for our opinion, our recommendations or just to give interviews explaing AIESEC (I already had to give three :) ).

Cheers,

Nicolas

Totally unrelated, just because it is so dark here, a picture from the AIESEC in Münster cake we had at our anniversary last year (Thanks to Julia and her great OC):