Leading a Society is no easy feat. One has to deal with multiple stakeholders, manage internal affairs and be a role model; all this, on top of studying for University! After watching various Presidents discuss their impact on their respective societies at the Bright Network Society of the Year Award Lunch 2019, I learnt a great deal about the different leadership styles and adapted different approaches to fit my own style. I have great appreciation for all the society presidents across the UK for dedicating their time and investing so much effort into creating an inclusive environment for their members to grow, learn and develop.
Nomination/Application
The application stage involved summarising my role as President and highlighting my responsibilities in managing the UCL Law Society. Apart from that, I explained my leadership philosophy and how it guided the way I led the society – “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind”. Additionally, I discussed the personal impact I had on the society and the structural changes I made in my term as President. This included initiatives such as creating four new sub-committees, pioneering a structured Mentorship Programme, bringing in seven new sponsors and organising a Diversity and Inclusion Series (several panel events with leading practitioners).
Preparing for the awards lunch
A great deal of time was spent brain-storming an overarching theme for my speech for the awards lunch. Eventually, I decided to stay true to my leadership philosophy and start my speech with a quote from Stitch, the animated character. The speech had to included elements of myself, my motivations, my personal impact on the society and my vision for the society going forward. I tied in my leadership philosophy of building a “family” in each of those elements and tried to highlight what we have achieved together over the past academic year.
The awards lunch itself
The awards lunch was well organised. We were sat on a table with the founder of Bright Network, James Uffindell and Simon Lyle, from London Business School. It was an incredibly enriching experience to converse with liked-minded individuals and discuss our different leadership philosophies. Each of the finalists were brilliant and made a strong case in their speeches as to why they should win the award. The entire experience was positive and I would definitely recommend each of you to submit a nomination for the award!