Students' Chaplaincy Council holds leadership seminar at DHLTU

The Students' Chaplaincy Council (SCC) of the Dr Hilla Limann Technical University (DHLTU) has held a leadership seminar for student leaders within the university community.

The seminar, held on February 17, 2024 at the university campus, covered various themes including leadership, balancing leadership with academics, fundraising, and conflict management.

Speaking at the seminar, the Master Chaplain of the SCC and Lecturer with the Industrial Arts Faculty, Dr Nicholas Addo Tetteh observed that student leaders were unable to effectively combine their leadership roles and academic responsibilities because they lacked the skill to prioritize their tasks.

"It has been a challenge for many students in balancing their academic work as well as their leadership positions in school, but technically speaking, it's because most of them don't set their priorities right," he said.

He added that students were challenged in balancing their leadership and academic roles as a result of their failure to create schedules that commit them to task.

Dr Tetteh, who was also the Director of International Relations and Collaborations for the university, advised the student leaders to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals that reflect their leadership and academic yearnings.

He noted that it was the goal that engenders the student to take the right steps towards achieving it and by that, aids the student to act within the remits of good leadership and sound academic motives.

"If your goal is to become an excellent student before coming, that will also shape your idea of putting together things to put your academic scale higher and then, your responsibility as a leader too, on a higher scale," Dr Tetteh intimated.

He urged the students to prioritize their tasks based on deadlines and order of importance, create realistic schedules, practice time management, communicate clearly with peers, delegate responsibilities, and seek support when needed.

Youth leader and alumnus of the SCC, Catechist James Baba Anabiga intimated that leadership was not just an event or a mere seasonal change of batons but rather a conscious effort towards influencing others positively to achieve set goals.

He told the student leaders that there were numerous leadership styles but that there was no "one-size-fits-all" approach to leadership and urged the leaders to adopt any of them that suit the situation at hand.

Mr Anabiga, who was also the Speaker of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament, urged the student leaders to harness such good leadership qualities as trustworthiness, truthfulness, honesty, confidence, charismatism, good communication, resilience, and adaptiveness among others in order to succeed in their roles.

He, however, cautioned the students against bad leadership habits such as self-aggrandizement, unaccountability, and dishonesty lest they fail in the roles entrusted to them.

Some students who participated in the seminar said they learned valuable lessons from the series of lectures and expressed optimism that, it would help improve their lives and practices as student leaders.

"I have learned a lot of things about leadership. And basically, as a leader, you should have effective communication skills...and you should have public speaking skills," Augustina Gawu, a participant said.

She urged her fellow students to inculcate the qualities of good leadership in order to lead their groups with admiration.