What Leading About 1,200 Leo Members Taught Me

I’ve been in the Leo movement for almost four years. I’ve held several student leadership roles: Treasurer (2023), Vice President (2024) and President (2025) of the Leo Club of Mahanama College, Club Secretary of the Commerce Society, Chief English Speaker of the debating society, and District Secretary of Leo District 306 D7.

I love this community. It’s where I learned to organise, speak, and listen. Along the way, we led about 1,200 members and ran more than 50 community-service and leadership projects.

This is a post I wanted to write.

What went right#

The best moments had one thing in common: people felt they owned the project.

We also won a few awards, including Most Outstanding Leo Club (Leo District 306 D7, 2025) and Most Outstanding Club Vice President (Leo District 306 D7, 2025). They’re lovely. But if I’m honest, the award was never the point.

Communities are hard#

Let me start with a personal note. Leading volunteers is hard.

Nobody has to be there. You can’t pay them, and you can’t threaten them. You can only make showing up worth their time. Early on, I over-planned events and under-listened. I once announced a date without asking anyone, and wondered why nobody was excited.

Listening to feedback#

As the club grew, so did the feedback. Some of it was kind, some of it wasn’t, and some of it was just tired.

I learned a few things:

Treat feedback as a gift. Even badly delivered feedback usually contains something real.
Don’t defend, explain. You can say the same thing in a way that sounds bitter or sounds transparent.
Take more responsibility than seems necessary. It surprises people, and it usually ends the argument.
Don’t stop the conversation too early. A little tension means people care.

Say yes to fewer things#

More than 50 projects sound impressive. But the ones that worked had a clear owner, a clear date, and a clear reason.

The ones that didn’t were usually good ideas nobody was responsible for.

Communication across languages#

I grew up speaking Sinhala, and I studied English seriously for years, eventually earning Cambridge C1 Advanced.

The biggest thing I learned about communication is that simple words travel furthest. Whether you’re speaking to a school assembly or writing to a stakeholder, clarity beats clever vocabulary.

What I’d tell the next president#

Remember there are humans on the other side of every decision. Remember that volunteering is a gift, and nobody owes you their time. And above all, be the person who makes it easy for others to lead.