HOW I DEVELOPED MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN ESTIEM

Many ESTIEMers talk about making friends and travelling all over Europe. While this is definitely a big factor of why we love this network, I can assure you that ESTIEM is so much more. In this article I will help you understand the opportunities that lay ahead and the skills that you can acquire during your journey simply by telling you my story. If you find it boring, I am terribly sorry but I do hope that even a small sentence of it will inspire you to take the next step or even bring a tear to your eye by remembering the good old times.

Some things about me? I am Nikolina, an ESTIEMer for 5 years now and while saying that, I already feel old. My journey was rather smooth, starting by being just a member of my Local Group, to being a Local Boardie, a team member in a couple of entities in Central ESTIEM, a trainer, a leader and until some months ago a member of the Board of ESTIEM.

My time in ESTIEM was fascinating as well as challenging at times but I know one thing, it played a major role in who I am today! Before I started writing this article I tried to list the skills that I gained and was amazed by how long the list was. But fear not, I will try to squeeze them all in my small magazine article!

decision to join the group without my friends. But fortunately, I went one day to a local meeting alone. That was one of the few times I bursted my peaceful and comfortable bubble. I soon started being involved in the local activities, met new people, boosted my confidence and definitely became a more outgoing person.

First steps

I remember seeing ESTIEMers in my university and being fascinated by their culture and friendship but my friends weren’t that much. I was a very shy person and it took me a while to make the

Boardie Leader

The idea of the Local Board came naturally and so, in 2019, I became the Vice President of Administration of Local Group Xanthi. That year was exciting and stressful at times but I sure learned many lessons. I got the chance to coordinate and inspire people, be involved in the recruitment process, organise numerous local and international events, even fundraised a bit but most importantly I developed my public speaking abilities by doing presentations in my university and promoting ESTIEM to my peers.

Soon after, I decided to explore central ESTIEM and I soon found myself being the leader of Be X for X Days. While recalling the time I applied, I might have been the most clueless applicant at that Council Meeting. I was very scared to go there and make a presentation, even more scared to answer questions and especially not confident enough about my goals. Now I know that it was a great lesson for me because I learned how to set goals, improved my presentation skills through my experience and had the chance to lead a team and keep their motivation high during the challenging times of the pandemic.

Trainer

While setting personal goals, I realised that I wanted to become a trainer and had my first steps by delivering sessions to my Local Group. Soon, I became an official ESTIEM Trainer, developed many skills and I still enjoy the never-ending learning experience. Being a trainer has helped me improve my facilitation skills and manage unforeseen situations by being able to improvise and set my creativity to the roof.

Board of ESTIEM

The next step for me could only be that of the Board! If you ask me, I was really scared to take this step but at the same time I knew it would be an absolute and wholesome experience. Once I was elected as Vice President of Administration -you can call me Super Admin-, I found myself with a big challenge. I had to learn so many things in such a small time and therefore, had to master

Dear reader, organisation, time management as well as learn how to delegate tasks to other people. Moreover, managing an association of this size means taking a huge responsibility and having to think strategically since you are not only working for yourself but for some thousands of people. Another needed aspect was that of adaptability since most of the time the board needed to comply with the circumstances and not the other way around.

As a board responsible, I got the chance to be an advisor to 10 lovely ESTIEMers and help them set and achieve their goals, lead their teams as well as develop themselves personally. In addition, I got the chance to help them understand the potential I saw in them and make the most out of their leadership experience.

Regarding my position, amongst other things, I got the chance to understand how to use different platforms, facilitate communication and organise our network’s biggest event, twice (!). I also learned a lot by stalking Shared Drives and Elium spaces but I guess I should not be telling you that, oops.

Thank you for reading this far! I guess I owe you a beer. If you are on your first steps in our network my advice will be cliché but “Don’t be afraid to aim high”. If you are an ESTIEM dinosaur, I hope I helped you dig out some memories.

Svetoslava Simeonova Local Group Paderborn & Sofia