Leadership isn't perfect: Aditi on letting go of the plan

As part of our Youth Convo Series: Leadership Glow Up, guest speakers from the Generation Global Youth Advisory Group joined a live peer roundtable to share the leadership moments that shaped them. Aditi, from Burkina Faso, spoke about three projects that each challenged her idea of what a “perfect” leader looks like. Here’s her story:

I’m Aditi, and I’m from Burkina Faso. Beyond my studies, I’m passionate about robotics, writing poetry, playing football, and taking part in global youth forums. Today, I want to share a leadership experience that completely transformed how I understand what it truly means to lead.

People often think leadership is about having all the answers, staying in control, and being a total perfectionist. I used to think that too. I thought that if I planned every detail perfectly, everything would go smoothly. Winning the election to become my primary school president felt like a dream come true, but reality hit fast.

My first project as president was a community donation drive. In my head, I had a perfect vision of how it would go, and I expected my team to immediately agree with my plan. Instead, I hit a wall. My team had completely different perspectives, conflicting opinions, and different priorities.

At first, I felt overwhelmed and frustrated, and I tried to force everyone onto my page. But that pushed me to change my own perspective, because I realised that not everybody sees things the way I do. That was my first reality check: real leadership isn’t about forcing your vision onto other people. It’s about listening, compromising, and finding common ground. If you can’t bring people together first, you can’t move forward together. That first project taught me to listen.

My second project, the Clean Campus Campaign, forced me to face my biggest fear. To buy new recycling bins, we needed to run a fundraising carnival, and to make it happen, I couldn’t just work with my friends. I had to bring in the high school students too.

I was only a primary school president, and I was terrified. I remember standing there, paralysed by stress, thinking: What if this goes wrong? Why did I even run for school president? What if they laugh at me? What if they ignore me?

That was when my principal saw me struggling and gave me the push I needed. She reminded me of my potential, and something clicked. I understood that you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t step outside your comfort zone.

So I changed the question in my head from “What if this goes wrong?” to “What if this all goes right?” I took a deep breath, walked up to the older students, and spoke from the heart. It worked. They joined us, we ran the carnival, raised the money, and bought the bins.

That moment proved to me that leadership doesn’t start when your fear disappears. It starts the second you step past it.

My third project tested me in a different way. It challenged my ability to handle pressure. A close friend came to me with a beautiful idea: creating care packages for our school’s cleaning staff for Women’s Day. She trusted me to help bring the idea to life, but we had less than a week and no time to write formal letters to sponsors or businesses.

I was stressed, but I realised that leadership rarely follows a perfect plan. You can’t simply give up when things don’t go your way. You have to adapt and work with what is in front of you.

So we changed our approach immediately. Instead of waiting for companies, I worked day and night writing letters to parents and asking for donations. That quick action and determination helped us collect enough supplies to give every member of the cleaning staff a generous grocery hamper. Seeing their genuine smiles made every second of stress worth it.

That project taught me that the plan can never be perfect. You always have to adapt and respond to what is in front of you.

Growing as a leader has been a continuous and challenging process, and being a leader is never easy. If you stop moving the moment things get tough, nothing changes.

Whenever I feel exhausted or start doubting myself, I think of my mother, who is a poet and one of my biggest inspirations. She once wrote me a poem that I carry with me. It reminds me to rest when I’m tired, then get up and come back stronger, because my destination is still ahead of me.

Being a leader is not easy. I’ll say that again. I was scared, and I wasn’t always sure that I should even be a leader in the first place. My friends’ motivation and support helped me keep going. But the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you always have to keep moving. Obstacles will come, and they will also go. That’s something to remember.

To me, leadership isn’t about having a title, being fearless, or expecting perfection. It’s about having the courage to step outside your comfort zone, finding common ground when opinions clash, adapting when plans fall apart, and continuing to move towards your goals.