LEADERSHIP VS RELATIONSHIPS

(Disclaimer: This post is based on the opinion of the author and should not be taken to necessarily mean the opinion or beliefs of AIESEC Egerton as a whole.)

Since I joined AIESEC in Egerton, I must say I've learnt a lot by doing a lot. But little did I know that this was just the tip of the iceberg. I have a couple of areas I needed to learn about. Obviously when you produce good stuff in an organization, you in one way or another trigger some attention towards your line of duty. Now, ifyou are in the introduction to AIESEC stage or better still, in the taking responsibility stage(TR), then this article is not meant exactly for you.

This post is meant for those in the Leadership role(LR). Yeah you had it right, those in the LR level. This is because when you are in that level in the AIESEC experience, what you do or say can either build or tarnish the image of AIESEC in your respective LC or MC. I don't mean to be harsh or naïve but as indicated in the title, leadership and relationships don't mix. Relationships in this context mean "an emotionally close friendship, especially one involving sexual relations".

In public offices, (at least I experienced this when I was in primary school) a married husband and wife are not allowed to work in the same school. Among the values of AIESEC is activating leadership and demonstrating integrity. How can a leader demonstrate integrity when he keeps getting into 'relationships' with members in his/her LC? Now I know some of us are wondering 'why is it an issue as long as you keep it well managed? My answer is simple, when you get into a relationship with someone, things cease to be business as usual. Your business becomes the business of the other.  And this leads into a conflict of interest. As a leader your interests should be first and foremost, to uphold the interests of the entity you are leading, which in our case happens to be AIESEC.

Now I know AIESEC is very involving and I also know no one is an island. Everyone of us needs someone to keep us going every once in a while. So my advice is simple, if you must get into relationships while in the LR stage, find someone in another LC or MC. That way, the risk of conflict of interest is minimized. Leadership is about guiding, influencing and leading people, and take note of the word people( not a person) but relationships are about one person being with another. Leaderships involves taking care of the interests of everyone while a relationship is about taking care of the interests of someone.

In conclusion, lets take stock of the many examples of good leaders who fell/got into scandals because of not acting right when it came to relationships. Some were even forced into resignation. You don't want to be forced to quit do you? I won't mention names due to the nature of this blog but I know we all have good examples of such leaders in our minds already. But again this post meant to act as a thought leader for those currently in the LR stage and those who will join this stage in the AIESEC cycle in the future. In one way or another, this topic will affect you and you need to know how to deal with this.

-By Comm. & IM team, 2011/2012