When You Become a ‘Senior’

Being a senior puts a lot of responsibilities and opportunities on your shoulders. Most of the times, we en-cash the opportunities and forget the responsibilities. I experienced similar behavior from some seniors, few weeks ago and thought of sharing something on being a matured senior. One day or the other, all of us will pass the phase of being a junior at the work place and will eventually be a senior. Things shared in this post might be useful then.

Last month, I was invited for a get-together of present and past members of a club, of which once I was a member. I actually was in the middle; quite senior to the organizing batch and yet, quite junior to other seniors who were invited for the event.

The juniors from the present batch were all geared up, trying to make the event a success. They had well-planned the way event should go. But, things actually took a different root. The seniors took charge of the event. They shared their old memories, addressed the juniors, sung couple of poems which they had composed and the event was over.

I was actually disappointed. Being at the middle of the seniority, I could have changed the course of the event but I was rather too amused by what was happening and decided to sit quietly and watch what happens.

Being a senior, I would have loved to listen from the juniors first, instead of telling them our greatness. I had a natural curiosity to understand their thoughts, their idea,

I would have spent 70% of the time to know juniors, their thoughts, ideas and ways in which we could help them to achieve what they wanted. When you get the mic in your hand, it’s very difficult to hand it to someone else and listen to her. But that’s what separates leaders from followers. True leaders always listen to others.

When you are a senior, you have to be empathetic towards the juniors, respect their planning and let them allow to follow it. If anything goes wrong, you can always correct them. When you do not allow your juniors to work on their own, you are taking away an opportunity from them; opportunity to try, test and improve.