Leadership

From "No Onboarding" to Head of Organization: Leading 75+ Volunteers

Taninwat Kaewpankan
2025-12-05
8 min read

Management is hard. Management when you can't offer a salary is even harder.

From September 2023 to May 2025, I served at Millennial Consulting, a student-run consultancy under the non-profit organization Station in Copenhagen.

It wasn't just a club; it was a professional learning program with three distinct stakeholders:

  1. The Students: Talented applicants we carefully selected to be consultants.
  2. The Clients: Real startups with real problems who lacked the time to solve them.
  3. The Partners: Professional consulting firms who hosted workshops to train our students.

My journey wasn't a straight line to the top—it started with me being completely lost.

Phase 1: The Initiative Gap (Operations Member)

I joined the Leadership Team behind the scenes. My job was to help run the organization so the student consultants could do their work. But when I started, I didn't get a proper onboarding. I didn't know the workflows, the tools, or the expectations.

I could have sat back and waited for instructions. Instead, I chose enthusiasm.

I started taking notes during every meeting. I asked "dumb" questions. I volunteered for the small tasks nobody else wanted. I learned that in a volunteer organization, authority isn't given; it's taken through initiative. By simply showing up and caring, I earned the team's trust.

Phase 2: Structuring the Chaos (Head of Operations)

That initiative led to my first promotion. As Head of Operations, my problem shifted from "What do I do?" to "How do we work?"

Operations were ad-hoc. Communication between the leadership team and the student consultants was scattered. To fix this, I implemented a hybrid project management model:

  • Structured: Clear milestones and deadlines so everyone knew exactly what was expected.
  • Agile: Flexible "Mentor Sessions" that allowed student teams to pivot based on client feedback.

The Result: We improved operational efficiency by 30% and reduced coordination delays by 20%.

Phase 3: Head of Millennial Consulting

In my final cycle, I was promoted to lead the entire organization. The challenge wasn't just execution anymore; it was ecosystem management.

If we didn't find clients, the students had no work. If we didn't recruit good students, the clients wouldn't get results.

  • Talent Acquisition: We didn't just accept anyone. I oversaw a systemic selection process to ensure we found students with the right mindset.
  • Business Development: My team and I had to actively go out and "sell" our services to startups to secure cases for our students.
  • Partnerships: We coordinated with professional consulting firms to host workshops, giving our students real-world training and connections.

Managing this while ensuring 75+ volunteers stayed motivated was a delicate balance. I focused on enablement—facilitating workshops to unblock teams rather than micromanaging them.

The Metrics That Matter

Leadership is often intangible, but the results shouldn't be. During my tenure:

  • 100% of projects were delivered on time.
  • We achieved a 90%+ client satisfaction rate.
  • Student engagement scores increased by 30%.

Conclusion

Leading Millennial Consulting taught me Servant Leadership. My job wasn't to be the star; it was to build the stage where the students could be the stars. Whether I'm debugging a React app or managing a complex organization, the principle is the same: Remove friction, provide clarity, and let people do their best work.