I happened to be a man gifted with mathematical talent, I managed to excel in my studies and graduated with honors in college. After all of my achievements (yeah I'm a student achiever, you can check a story of my life featured by an international magazine here: GineersNow: Fisherman's Son.) almost anybody would think of me to be strong in almost all aspects - little do they know that I have one weakness which I've been trying to overcome until now. That is no other than my low self esteem and self-confidence. This hinders me from displaying the very best of my talent - I feel shy everytime I get a chance to do so.
I'm a practicing mechanical engineer now, and I handle a group of skilled technicians as their supervisor. It's hard to handle them with this kind of attitude. Even if I am in authority, I tend to forget my status and just treat them as though they are at my level - I mean I just can't dare impose my will on them. As a result I tend to lose my efficiency as a leader, and this is bad.
This is a matter of serious concern. I have to start believing in myself, and handle people effectively by disregarding my young age as a leader (I'm 24) and the age of people I am supervising, which are way, way older. I have to totally change my mindset, read books on building self confidence and how to efficiently lead people. I'll work hard on it and I will never stop.
Thank you @futurethinker for these kinds of challenges, I get reminded of the things I have to do, and it made me feel the urgency to solve it now. That's why I am so grateful I came to know Steemit - such a powerful blogging platform. I regret so much that while I secured this account 6 months ago, I only started being active and had my first post last December29. More power, @futurethinker and @evecab, keep empowering people in this platform!
If it might help you, there are many different leaders, and the whole that treat their team on the same level have been very succesful onces. Leading and commanding are two different things. I think you will be an excellent leader with this quality of yours. You might need to find your style of leadership.
Thank you for sharing @caratsky :)
Your are exactly on point, @futurethinker. We do have our own styles of leadership. These words from you has lifted some burdens off me. Thank you for saying I'm still on track and I'll just to improve some details of my leadership approaches. God bless you, man. More steemit blessings to you. :)
I really liked your post, @caratzky! I second what @futurethinker says here. I'm in the same position as you, and my team members are also my friends. Sometimes I can be just a friend and colleague, and other times I have to make not so pleasant decisions, but I do want to be seen as their equal, not their boss =). You can lead by example and by being wise and fair, and people will automatically recognize you as their leader.