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Be accountable for your actions, Gatchalian advises youth leaders

Be accountable for your actions, Gatchalian advises youth leaders.

 

These are the traits that are expected from leaders who want to be successful in leading a group, organization, or a community, a former Valenzuela City mayor told delegates of 2014 International Youth Convention of the Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP) held last week.

 

In his speech, incumbent Valenzuela City Congressman Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian told youth leaders to be accountable for the actions of their group members to avoid questions in liability that would only ruin the workflow and productivity of the group they belong to.

 

Gatchalian added that leaders, as the ones accountable for the group work, should carefully guide their peers and work together with in handling project as it would teach and motivate his members to create an even better output.

 

“The true test of leadership is whether you can be accountable to your members and peers. When they voted for you they can point fingers and say, ‘this is not my responsibility’. So what you should do is lead by example and be proactive in guiding your peers,” he said.

 

Gatchalian, who was active in volunteer groups before entering politics in 2001, said leaders should have the initiative to fully disclose the result of the project they managed to answer needless clarifications and to be transparent.

 

He urged youth leaders to use the new technologies in being transparent as it can help them in reaching out to their companions and in making available to the public the projects they were involved in.

 

“You also need to be transparent. Don’t wait for people to ask for information. You have to tell them these are the funds they have raised and these are their programs where the funds were used,” Gatchalian said.

 

“In your age right now, you have the cellphone, the Internet, [and] Facebook. You can all use those means to communicate transparency. Don’t just use them to tell stories and to talk to your friends. Use them as tool to be transparent,” he added.

 

Another key to being a leader, Gatchalian said, is being fair to their members, noting that treating a person as special would make the others feel uncomfortable in sharing ideas that might become helpful to an activity.

 

To be fair to his group members, a group leader should get their hands dirty and be more engaged with members in group activities.

 

“Be fair, you cannot treat a person as special. You have to treat everyone with fairness in getting their views and coming up with solutions together,” Gatchalian said.

 

“Also, you have to do the job with your peers. You cannot just stay in the office and say, ‘You do the project and I’ll stay here.’ As a leader, people look at you because you are fair and you possess good qualities. One of those good qualities is being hands-on,” he added. (Tim Alcantara)