Payal

Thakkar

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations, the Traditional Owners of the land on which I am grateful to work and learn, and I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present, and future.

About Me

“A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create.”- Mahatma Gandhi,

this same thought has been igniting the fire of my passion towards helping people and maintaining the “step up and take charge” attitude.

Hello! My name is Payal Thakkar. I am currently a student of Master of Professional Accounting and Law at Deakin University, majoring in law. I was born and brought up in Una, Gujarat. I came to Melbourne, Australia to pursue my post-graduation in November 2019. I was nervous and excited about my journey at Deakin. I always believed in the capacity to translate vision into reality from passion and not position. It took me years of practice and patience to achieve all that I have today.

Since the young age of 12 years, I have been a volunteer for various events that have not only impacted and have had brought positive changes to my life and personality but also, in my opinion, have made the world a better place. These opportunities have made me realize the importance a leader has in a community. Furthermore, my father has been supporting and encouraging me to become a better version of myself. He has been the idol who taught me that making the right choice is difficult. And it takes courage to do what is right and maintain fairness and trust, whether in an office or on a field. Moreover, becoming an international student in a foreign country was a choice that I had made, intending to become a global citizen and global leader.

Additionally, I have contributed in a positive way to the student community with supportive people throughout my Deakin journey. Over the past two years, the main volunteering opportunities in which I have been practicing my leadership skills: Feeding India, RSPCA, Deakin Orientation Ambassador, DUSA Crew, DUSA Virtual Leader, Walk for Autism, DUSA MSDU Club, DUSA DTTC Club, DUSA DNES Club, HULT Prize 2020, HULT Prize 2021, Student Partner, Student Mentor, Deakin FreelancingHUB, Red Cross, CQ Accelerator Leadership Program, DUSA Elections 2021. The essential skills that I learned from my experiences were integrity, delegation ability, communication, self-awareness, gratitude, agility, influence, empathy, courage, giving credits, and respect. In addition to these, the skills that I used to become a prominent leader were self-management, critical and innovative thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, development of others, effective cross-culture communication, strategic actions, accountability, and people orientations. Besides, I had learned that traits such as: fearing change, dismissive of other ideas, lack of empathy, inconsistency, blaming nature, indecision or being arrogant and bossy make a leader vulnerable and inefficient.

I believe that "Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal."

The key elements of this definition:

Leadership stems from social influence, not authority or power
Leadership requires others, and that implies they don’t need to be “direct reports”
No mention of personality traits, attributes, or even a title; there are many styles, many paths, to effective leadership
It includes a goal, not influence with no intended outcome

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