Starting from the beginning of my internship in Schindler, my team used to have a total of 6 members. After two months, one of my teammates was fired for his poor-work and other social problems that he had, and therefore, only 5 left in the team. One day, I arrived at the workplace about half an hour early and the project manager came to ask me that could we finish balancing the doors for the elevators in block 3 and 4 by that day as their authorities from head office in China was coming the next day. There were four elevators that had unbalanced doors and that usually takes at least two days to complete balancing for a team of six. As it was an urgent request, I ringed to my manager and told him about that. He told me that our team leader was on sick leave, and asked me to take that role and try to do that. The task of balancing the door usually need 3 people for each lift, one for driving the elevator from inside, one for balancing the frame from outside and one for balancing the door staying on top of the carriage. However, at that time, we had only 4, and, I knew that it is impossible to work as a group of 4 for each lift and we would not finish in time for all 4 lifts in 32 storey building. As my manager asked me to play as a leader, I divided into groups of two and talked about changes in tasks. One had to balance the doors staying on top of the carriage as before, however, another one had to work the tasks for two people by balancing the frames and checking the door gaps from outside, driving the lift by using the control panel inside and doing the fundamental cleanings. And, I let them know that they would probably need to work overtime on that day. As a team leader, I had to run between the two blocks many times. Besides, I also took the same responsibilities as others. After the first lift, we changed the roles. Although there were delays because the lifts were in use by some residents and we did not have enough people to work on, we finished everything at dinner time. My manager was surprised by our work, and he said that I was a good leader and he trusted in me to give the role of team leader again in new projects if I continued working there. I felt relaxed and happy for both of my performance and my manager’s compliments.
Before this incident, I was not that confident in taking the role of leader. However, this incident excavated my skill and now, I do not hesitate anymore to take part as a leader in professional engineering. I am thankful for my manager who gave me a chance to take that role and it crashed my vacillation for a lifetime. My teammates may not have trusted in me as they had been working in this company for longer than me, however, they followed what I said. And, finally, I convinced them that I have the essential skills of a professional engineer.
From this incident, I learnt about the skills required to become a leader. A leader has to know what to do and how to give responsibilities to others. A leader has to look back followers and help them with their tasks. A leader has to have the ability to make strong decisions. A leader has to invest himself in the team. In the future, I will try to improve my leading skills much more and I will try to become a leader in any workplace. Even if others doubt for my skills, I will try to prove that I have all the required skills. In order to do that, I will try to learn about how to do everything in the workplace, including fundamental tasks, starting from the day I get to the workplace.