Hive Naija Weekly Prompts | Edition 32 ~ I love taking up Responsibilities

There have been times that we have been prompted to step up and assume responsibility. It may be in our personal or professional lives. Tell us about a time you were required to step into a phase of leadership - no matter how brief the moment. Was it difficult? Did you adapt?

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That time when I had to step into the position of leadership was difficult but I found it so interesting.

I happen to hold a very key position at work. I am a teacher but had to take up a voluntary task as an Education Management Information System Officer, so I stand as an intermediary between the school management and the superior offices. Any information the head office needs is always processed by me. I work directly with the school management. So, when it comes to school management, there's hardly a thing I do not know.

There was a time my school had no vice principal and we were waiting for someone to be redeployed to assume the duty of the vice principal, but there was none for a very long time. Still in the process of waiting for a vice principal, my Principal completed his years of service and had to go on retirement as well. Though there was another staff whose grade level was ahead of mine, when the principal was asked who could manage the school pending the time a new principal or vice principal would be redeployed, he mentioned me.

I had no choice, but to take up that responsibility because the reason for me to have initially volunteered to work as a management information officer for the school was to make sure the system worked fine, so then I knew I'd do a very great job.

The first week, everything went fine, and for weeks upon weeks, things were still cool, I was proactive in responding to the head office in due time.

But then came a time when I had to make a managerial decision, that was when I felt the heat.
A situation happened in the school, we had a case of corporal punishment, and unfortunately, the affected child was a student with a very learned and wealthy parent and the teacher involved was a newly employed staff, so he wasn't too experienced, and we all got into trouble.

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The teacher flogged the student and left him with injuries, and based on the ethics and rules of the job and the state, corporal punishment is a big offense.

I had the duty to protect the interest of both the parents of the child and the teacher, as well as not implicate myself in the whole thing. I was young though, with a lot of confidence, but I never knew how I could convince the parents of the child not to take up the issue against the school even though they had every reason to.

I was in a state of impasse in making any move. I wasn't the school principal and there are limits to what I could do and not do, limits to the decisions I could make and not make. So I felt consulting some of the principals that I once worked with would help and they did help me with the situation, and the whole issue was settled.

It was a really interesting time though it was a difficult one, because it increased my knowledge of management. I learned it is not how efficient and productive you are that will determine the level of managerial skill that you have but it takes an inborn talent and experience to become a manager. Because 'leaders are born and not made'.

Thanks so much for reading. I'm @psalmy05.