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):

Motivation

I already learned a lot about diffrent methods of motivation... but the most motivating thing in my LCP-term has been and still is my EB-team and my LC.
Let me give you an example:
There are moments when you are sad, tired, desperate or unmotivated. Yesterday evening I had such a moment: There were some troubles with diffrent projects. Furthermore I suddenly feared to not reach the X-goal we set at the beginning of the term. I really felt desperate and tired then.
But today at the EB Meeting we talked about the diffrent things and I got some good news, we created new ideas and found solutions for the problems. My team - again - gave me so much motivation and strength and now I really feel great again.
My LC will rock this term and we already have and for sure will have success - even though we might fail in a project or have less X than expected. The experience I make - and I´m sure it´s the same for my VPs - are so cool, I learn so much and I have so much fun together with my EB and my LC - this is the greatest success for me.
Another good thing for motivation is: Look back from where you started and where you are now. I took over a very good LC (thanks to the EB 08/09) but still we´re improving things and try out new ideas. I already can look back to cool events (like the LC Global Village or IMAS or Trainee Parties) and good results. And so much more will come up in the next month like recruitment, like projects and like elections!!! :)

Let´s get it started!!!

Video on why it´s good to be an LCP

Now post from me for today - instead I found a cool video from a Local Committee President (LCP) from the US. Now, I´ve never met this guy - but I´m pretty sure that most people in leadership positions in AIESEC can identify with what he says.

Working in an invisible team

Together with around 14 other AIESECers (Ken and Johannes are two of them) I am working in a national task force that is basically doing market research to better position AIESEC towards our customers. (Sounds like serious economics - and it is. Stay tuned here or follow the wiki in our intranet myaiesec.net for contents.)

Working in a taks force is one possibility (not only for LCPs, but for every member!) of many to leave the local level for a while and work on the national or international one. Now the special thing about this team is that it works completely virtually. That was a new challenge for me: Of course I use mail, skype, spradsheets, wikis etc on a daily base. But relying completely on them was new to me. Conflicts can come up much faster when you do not see your opponent. And we all learned a lot of small things, such as: More than two telephone conferences a day are really tiring. Call all 50 Local Committees individually if you want to get answers. The station of Hagen has no W-LAN, Hannover does. Virtual irony does not work. Some virtual rooms for telephone conferences tend to kick you out from time to time, others don´t. Google Docs are really cool, but when importing excel sheets, the design will be lost... I could go on much longer.

We also learned that working together in such a big team only works, when you know and trust each other. I am really thankfull to be allowed with this great team, coordinated by the one and only Arne.

Nicolas

Picture taken on our kick-off in Bonn - only a part of the team could be there, unfortunately.

Johannes is joining us

Dear Readers,

in the last few days it has been quiet here. That is normal, above all we are students - and right now we are studying for our exams or recovering from the ones we just had :). But rest asured, new posts are in the pipeline.

To help us, one more Local Committee President will join us. I am pleased to announce that Johannes from the Local Committee at the Technical University (TU) Berlin will also share his experiences here.

Yours,

Nicolas