My Experience as the SAF President

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My Experience as the SAF President

Former HIM student An Nguyen shares her experiences of being the SAF President for a term. Leading a team of ten classmates, she faced obstacles along the way but pressed on to achieve even bigger successes.

By Swiss Education Group

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Can you imagine being elected to lead a team of ten and actually enjoying it?

I worked in many diverse teams during my three years at HIM and saw examples of high, but also low performing teams. After having such great role models in leadership during my internships and my time at school, I thought I would be ready to lead a Student Ambassador Forum team, formed of 10 people. In addition, I had also chosen the Human Capital and Development (Human Resources) specialization and the SAF was an appropriate environment for practicing what I was learning in the classroom at the time.

It was a fruitful experience where I could test my leadership skills, but it came along with many unexpected challenges. I wanted to build a team that enjoyed what they were doing, whilst still being effective. This is why we started off with team building activities, events, and dinners to get to know each other better.

I believe that people reach their best potential when they are left to take responsibility for their assigned tasks and initiatives and by taking control of the process.

I believe that people reach their best potential when they are left to take responsibility for their assigned tasks and initiatives and by taking control of the process. This is why I decided to use a ‘laissez-faire’ leadership method and it worked well with most of my teammates. I saw their confidence improve and how they adapted well to how things were done at HIM, in collaboration with the operations and academic staff.

I always encouraged my team to reach out for help if needed and to be there for one another. However, the most important and difficult thing to manage was the need to be consistent and to communicate well.

safswiss
The Student Ambassador Forum dressed up in traditional Swiss shirts.

Did everything go as planned? Definitely not!

I am really glad that I faced conflicts that taught me how to improve in the future. I realized that you definitely have to change your strategy when you have strong differences in opinion and that you must understand where others' motivation lies, if you want to get results and find common ground. Obviously, we had moments where it was not easy to get what we wanted and we would stumble upon obstacles. I had days where I would be demotivated, experience high levels of stress or when I was sick and my teammates had to take over. For all these things I am deeply grateful and this is what I learned: although we will go through hard situations in life, we still need to be there for each other and be able to deliver what we promised ourselves.

Although we will go through hard situations in life, we still need to be there for each other and be able to deliver what we promised ourselves.

Our biggest achievements included: trash collecting activity in Montreux, an acoustic concert with an Italian artist, collecting money for a children's charity in Zimbabwe, reduced the usage of plastic in school, covering events on our school’s social media platforms,  and much more! Furthermore, we organized fun theme nights every Friday for fellow HIM students.

Finally, I can say that I was extremely lucky to be able to work with such a motivated team. Together we managed to deliver projects that enhanced our fellow students' lives at HIM. I look back on my experience with pride as I know that we went beyond our duties and responsibilities, to create memorable moments and friendships.

 

An Nguyen graduated from HIM in 2019 and is currently the Executive Development Program Coordinator & Faculty Assistant at IMD Business School. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

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By Swiss Education Group