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!!! :)
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.
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.
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.
Hey! Let me shortly introduce myself to all the readers from cities with less bikes than two per inhabitant (i.e. not from Münster, Germany): My name is Nicolas and since March 2009 I am the Local Committee President of the lovely LC Münster. This is me and parts of my local committee at our small conference (the MOMS, together with lovely LC Osnabrueck) in May. I study Politics and Economics in the fourth semester; originally I come from Bochum and Berlin, so I somehow feel connected to these cities, and I have lived a few month in Jyväsykylä and have of course.friends there. I want to write a few entries here around the topic "what is that guy actually doing all the time we see him in the office" :). So here goes the first one.
A major part of the LCP-position as I see it is responsibility. This is not someting that you do, but something that you take on and live. And it is a very rewarding experience.
You may know, that in AIESEC Germany the LCP is partly financially liable for actions of the LC. In practise that means for me to sign a lot of stuff - e.g. all the project calculations or reimbursement sheets my great Finance team is putting together. If something went wrong, then I would be the person to blame. This is not always easy: Sometimes it means stopping people from fulfilling great ideas because legally or financially they are too risky. Luckily, AIESEC has a great system of checks and a cool supporters; so it´s not that hard :).
Responsibility also mean always standing behind and supporting your LC. When I visit a member of our Board of Advisors, they sometimes give me a hard time - because the love our LC and want to see it performing, they may ask: "Why did you drop that project?", "Why are your number in that area so bad?", "Somebody from AIESEC promised me this or that two years ago and did not deliver!". I would never blame the respective member or company for that, but have to do my best to explain. I learned a lot that way.
Why is this still so rewarding? Well, because 95% of the time great things happen. And as LCP you get a lot of acclaim for that. I often get called by people from all over Germany about small things, about a small project they heard went well and they want to know more. Standing up for my LC, I somehow really started to identify myself with all those people. (You realize I always say my LC :)). When I hear from our Incoming Exchange Team that they closed a deal, when I get the notification from google news about a new press article that got published, see a new member lead the Local Committee Meeting and speak in front of fifty people, when a girl from France asks where she can apply to chair our local conference - in those moments I am extremely proud of my members and happy to have taken on this responsibility.
Yours, Nicolas
This is a video on the topic of responsibility, shot at the LCP-Conference SMV in June. It is in German, I am sorry.
I wanna share two experience with you which I made during the last week:
On our last LC Meeting we had a Global Village organized by our Trainee Coordinator Andreea and our Resort Leader Internal Marketing (OGX) Mo. There, members, trainees and returnees presented 14 countries with food, drinks, pictures and music. For me it was a very great night because I really saw the internationality that we can live here every day. And I know that this cool Global Village is a direct outcome of our daily AIESEC-work.
The other event was Saturday night: Together with members and trainees from India, Norway, Taiwan, Egypt, etc. we went to see a great fireworks at Olympiapark. So we were sitting on a hill, watching the sunset and the fireworks and enjoying some drinks. Afterwards we went to a club where we danced like crazy until the morning. Again this was an event with people from very diffrent countries and backgrounds and it was so much fun.
Why do I tell you this? I just wanna show you that being engaged in AIESEC is basically about internationality, fun and cool experiences - things that you can have every day! It´s up to you to take part in that. For me these are the best experiences in my Leadership Role and this makes the job so amazing. We do have an outcome and an impact with our work as I can see at all the great events in my LC and the more time and power you invest in AIESEC the more you get out of it!
Some days ago I realized that I am having a really intense experience in AIESEC, in my Local Committee here in Münster. I am learning so much and there are so many great moments, but I am not sharing them with that many people.
Talking to other LCPs, we noticed that we all had had similiar thoughts: How can we share our experiences? How can we increase transparency, so that the people who elected us see what we are doing? How can we raise awareness for leadership, apart from exchange probably the best thing you can do in AIESEC? How we can we strengthen our network and better explain to other people what other people are doing?
Well, this blog is supposed the be one part of our answer. Of course, personal communication is much more important and you can always approach us. You are also invited to use the other communication channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Xing, Homepages or our intranet. We love to hear your opinion!
We - that is Ariane from Jena, Betti from Munich, Ken from Bielefeld and Nicolas from Muenster - formed as a group quite randomly, just because we wanted to represent different cities.
AIESEC is the international platform that enables young people to explore and develop their leadership potential for them to have a positive impact on society. As the largest student-run organization we have around 35,000 members worldwide. Each of the approximately 800 Local Committees are lead by a Local Committee President (LCP).
In this blog five of them from Germany are sharing their stories:
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