August 2025
Greetings,
In today’s session of the Aawaj Child Group, we began with a brief review of our previous discussion and then moved forward with the topic of the day – Leadership Development.
To start the conversation, I posed a simple question: “What is a leader, and what is leadership?” Each participant shared their own views, and building on their responses, I explained further.
A leader is someone who unites a group, team, or community, makes the right decisions, and inspires others to move forward toward a shared goal. Similarly, leadership refers to the actions and behaviors of a good leader – guiding others positively, inspiring them, and working together to achieve common objectives. Leadership is essentially the art and ability to influence activities for the fulfillment of social goals.
To make this concept clearer, I narrated a story from society that everyone could relate to. The story sparked interest, and participants actively shared their reflections.
We then discussed the essential skills needed to develop leadership, which included:
- Building self-confidence
- Effective communication and dialogue skills
- Ability to plan and work together as a group
- Decision-making skills
- Sense of responsibility
- Empathy and good listening skills
- Problem-solving skills within the group
It was emphasized that leadership should be practiced by giving every member of the group the chance to take turns as a leader. Leadership is not only about giving orders but also about listening and supporting others. Since effective communication plays a vital role in leadership, we played a game called “Hand-in-Hand Exchange” to reinforce the lesson in a fun and practical way.
To deepen our understanding, we explored the different styles of leadership:
- Autocratic Leadership – ruling by fear, threats, and one-sided communication, with no regard for others’ input.
- Democratic Leadership – listening to everyone’s opinions, seeking consensus, encouraging participation, mutual respect, and two-way communication.
- Laissez-Faire Leadership – providing freedom with little control, depending heavily on others, trusting them, and focusing more on listening than directing.
Through this discussion, participants realized the value and benefits of leadership in our lives. They expressed that democratic leadership is the most effective style and committed to practicing it in their own lives starting today.
At the end, we reviewed the key learnings from the session and shared information about the next topic for discussion. With this, the day’s program was concluded on a positive and inspiring note.
With regards,
Binod Kumar Ram