Peer Mentoring: Unleashing The Leader In You.

In his book titled "5 levels of leadership" John C. Maxwell said, "Don't be a lid on your organization. Give it the best chance for a bright future by developing other leaders". Did you get that?.

Leaders who develop other people to become leaders are leaders with a growth mindset. When you lead without putting growth into consideration, you are a lid (cover).

This article is to make you lead and not to be a lid. Nobody understands leadership until he or she does it. And that's one of the major reasons rurbana was created.

Your ability as a sales intern to develop a younger student in such a way that she can efficiently handle sales and customer management when you're no longer there as a student has taking your leadership to a higher level.

You're no longer just a leader, you are now a leader who is developing another person to become a leader through mentoring. You are now a mentor.

Peer mentoring, in some cases, has been a preferred way of mentoring young ones in school, because most times, students do learn more from fellow students, than they do from older mentors. Older mentors support and guides with their rich experience, while peer mentors make the whole scenario more realistic.

Any student that can utilize her leadership qualities efficiently, can make a lasting impact on any student that falls for her influence. Therefore don't neglect those leadership qualities in you. The earlier you start using them, the better you become. Be the leader you want to see in others, starting now that you're in school.

Leadership as a lifestyle.

Leadership is a lifestyle. The way you live your life is what makes others follow you. You're leading them with those qualities that differentiate you from others. Leaders do not choose their followers, their followers choose them because they're worthy of leadership.

When you start influencing others with your lifestyle, you're a leader. When someone starts going to the library because you're doing so, you're a leader.

When someone adopts a dressing style because she likes the way you dress, you're a leader. When a fellow student decides to join a group that you belong to in school, because of the way you coordinate yourself, you're a leader.

Good leaders help others bring out the best in them through their influence. Their actions are more transforming than teaching. Our lecturers teach, but a student leader transforms.

A student does not change because of what is taught in the classroom, she changed because someone, probably a fellow student has influenced her in one way or the other.

One might say I'm not leading any organization in my school, therefore I'm not a student leader. If that's what you think, then you're wrong.

Leadership is not a position, in other words, you can be a leader wherever you find yourself. It might be among your peers, in your family circle, or in a group that you belong to.

 As a secondary school student, I'm compelled to always tuck in my shirts, though it's not my preferred way of dressing. Then, after my secondary school education, I don't see any need of tucking in my shirt again.

As a fresher in the university, I prefer going on jeans trousers, and polo all year round since no one is pressurizing me to tuck in my shirts any longer.

But there's this student who is a year ahead of me whom I like his personality. He usually at times goes to school in clean plain trousers with his shirt tucked in.

Because, I like this guy and the way he coordinates himself, I have to add shirts and plain trousers to my wardrobe and goes to school with my shirts tucked in. He has influenced my way of dressing through his personality and the way he dresses.

In no distant time, we became friends, and his influence becomes more pronounced on me. He has become a leader and my mentor in most of my affairs while in school. Leadership is not a position, it's a lifestyle. Influence others positively with your lifestyle, and they'll follow you.

If there's any place where peer influence has the greatest impact, it's at the higher institution. It's a great force that pulls every student, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

It's no longer about your parent's advice, though the effects are still there, now it's more of whom you are. You might pretend for a while, but once in the campus community, those who share the same interest with you will help you discover more about yourself.

Not necessarily about what they will gain from you, but because they joyfully want to lead you to a path they believe that will help you look more like their tribe. A tribe in this context is a group of people with a common outlook.

If you're opportune to have access to a good opportunity while in school, don't hesitate to carry those you lead, along with you. That's your duty as a leader, lead them into opportunities and not into debt and problems.

Give them reasons why they should tell their friends about you. Good leadership is contagious. Use your leadership access to mentor freshers and inexperienced students on how to get the best from their years of study in the higher institution.

Think about the joy that abounds when you remember that someone is living and building a better future for herself because of your influence while in school. Such feelings can even motivate you into more leadership roles after graduation.

That's the power of achieving greater things in life through previous minor foundational experiences. Our article titled "How to achieve career excellence through little beginning" gives further explanation on the benefits of building your future career through minor milestones previously achieved.

At times, certain skills and experiences acquired in school go a long way in helping us make better career decisions after school. This is one of the major reasons we introduced business management internships across our higher institutions so that the entrepreneurial-minded student can benefit from our platform in both experience and financial wise.

If you will like to take part in our internship program while in school, you can apply HERE.

 Practically, let me say that your ability to transact a business solely based on trust is an experience worth sharing with those that look unto your leadership, because leadership thrives on trustworthiness. Our article titled "Trust: The most viable currency in business" explains further the benefit of trust in business.