In life, we all must have stepped up in a position of taking responsibility or let me just say taking over as a leader. The role of a leader is not to order people around but to make sure everything goes well accordingly and to execute the job well.
I am the type that gets scared taking over of things like a leadership role because I don't think I can handle the position but at times if you haven't been there you can't say maybe you are capable or not.
Some years back when I wanted to learn a handwork, I was scared to leave the big girl life I was living for being just a common apprentice under someone. But I didn't have a choice, when we got to where I wanted to learn, I discovered that I was older than the lady I wanted to learn from but the fact that she knew the work so well made me bow down for her.
Some months later after I had started learning in her shop she realized that I am a fast learner and for that reason, she always wanted to show me different hairstyles that she knew, I was exactly 6 months old in her shop when she gave me a leadership role to play in her shop.
The image was captured in my shop by me
I got to work very early and I had clean everywhere before all my seniors came meanwhile before my seniors came my boss had got to the shop so she gave rules to them that after her I am next, meanwhile I was the last person that came to learn work from her and we are about 15 in number that is learning from her.
The next day she wanted to attend a party so she came to the shop and then said, "Aunty Esther I am going out now, this shop belongs to you now so run it like it belongs to you," I couldn't say no to her so I took the position.
Some minutes later, some customers came and I was the one acting like a boss while my seniors acted like my apprentice, I had to send my seniors a message as if I was the boss if not the customers wouldn't have allowed us to make the hair for them most especially me because I was just 6 months old in the shop, they would never believe that I could plait the hair. Thank God I was able to handle their hair even though I was feeling nervous and scared at the same time which made me sweat a lot that day.
When my boss came back I did account for all the hair we made and she was so happy that I could handle the shop, some months later she wanted to travel for good 3 days and she gave me the keys to her shop and her drawers which she always keep her money. I couldn't sleep when I got home because I know how aggressive some customers are, for the fact that I am not the owner of the shop and I don't want them to know makes me more restless.
The next day, I got to shop very early and I prayed which was unusual for me. The first customer came and I was able to handle her hair, meanwhile, some seniors were there that are very hard to control so I didn't bother looking at their side I just faced the work squarely. The second customer gave me a very tough time because she knew my boss and she didn't believe I could do the hairstyle which made every other customer that was in the shop know that I wasn't the boss there. But still, I managed to get the hair done.
When my boss came back she was so excited that she could leave her shop now without any worries, and the experience taught me more about being the leader and how to stand up to be a boss. All thanks to my boss for giving me such an opportunity to be in control if not I might not know what it takes to be a boss and now I am glad that I am in charge.
Being a leader for the first time can be scary, exhausting, and tiring but as time goes on you will definitely get used to it.
