Yearbook has been the greatest leadership exposure I could have ever received. I started on staff my first year as sports editor, immediately thrown into a leadership position. The staff totaled 20 people and I led a section of three staff members. I definitely had a huge learning curve to overcome; I am very headstrong and stubborn at times and my sophomore year I struggled a little on how to talk to my staff needed to fix something. I was little too blunt at first, but as the year progressed, I evolved. I learned effective leadership strategies such as how you cannot just bring people down; you have to make them know that they are valued and explain what they're doing right before you can tell them everything they are doing wrong.
My junior year on staff, I was promoted to photo editor. I was in charge of assigning all photography events, shooting events myself, and teaching the seven photographers on staff what I had learned. I truly feel my leadership skills blossomed this year. My staff was eager to learn and better themselves and with this I was able to see the vast improvement with each of them. They would shoot events with me in the beginning and I would advise them on camera settings, where to stand, and encourage them along the way. When they would upload their pictures, we would go through them together and we would talk about the photographsI liked and why they were good, and talk about the pictures that could have been great and how they could fix it for next time. The photography staff accumulated a great number of awards (five Best In Shows) at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association conference, and all of the hard work paid off.
This year, I am co editor in chief of the yearbook and I manage and lead a staff of 42 strong-willed, amazing individuals. I am the one that they go to for nearly everything this year. I have to have all of the answers and be able to teach them how to carry out the theme of the yearbook. This year, I always try and find time to work with the individuals on their designs, writing, or photography. They grow in front of my eyes. With this job comes a lot of tough responsibilities. There are always going to be issue on staff with 42 high school teenagers and it's not always easy managing the large personalities that come with the territory. When there are issues that arise, there has to be a tough conversation and sometimes a little lecturing, and I'm the one that delivers it. These moments of adversity are where I feel my leadership has truly shined. Being a leader through the good times is a great feat, but leading through the hard times is when you really find out what you're made of.
Part of the leadership process this year was organizing our staff based on talent, requests for certain positions, and, most importantly, the people whom we felt needed to run certain sections. One of the most important concepts I've learned in leadership is you have to have good people leading underneath you as well. The chain of command is a very important aspect of our program, and we implemented it very well this year.
My junior year on staff, I was promoted to photo editor. I was in charge of assigning all photography events, shooting events myself, and teaching the seven photographers on staff what I had learned. I truly feel my leadership skills blossomed this year. My staff was eager to learn and better themselves and with this I was able to see the vast improvement with each of them. They would shoot events with me in the beginning and I would advise them on camera settings, where to stand, and encourage them along the way. When they would upload their pictures, we would go through them together and we would talk about the photographsI liked and why they were good, and talk about the pictures that could have been great and how they could fix it for next time. The photography staff accumulated a great number of awards (five Best In Shows) at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association conference, and all of the hard work paid off.
This year, I am co editor in chief of the yearbook and I manage and lead a staff of 42 strong-willed, amazing individuals. I am the one that they go to for nearly everything this year. I have to have all of the answers and be able to teach them how to carry out the theme of the yearbook. This year, I always try and find time to work with the individuals on their designs, writing, or photography. They grow in front of my eyes. With this job comes a lot of tough responsibilities. There are always going to be issue on staff with 42 high school teenagers and it's not always easy managing the large personalities that come with the territory. When there are issues that arise, there has to be a tough conversation and sometimes a little lecturing, and I'm the one that delivers it. These moments of adversity are where I feel my leadership has truly shined. Being a leader through the good times is a great feat, but leading through the hard times is when you really find out what you're made of.
Part of the leadership process this year was organizing our staff based on talent, requests for certain positions, and, most importantly, the people whom we felt needed to run certain sections. One of the most important concepts I've learned in leadership is you have to have good people leading underneath you as well. The chain of command is a very important aspect of our program, and we implemented it very well this year.
This is the staff hierarchy for this year. For me, it was like a puzzle, and once we got it, it fit just right. Of course, there are those on staff who pull their weight more than others, but this system has worked well for us this year. The chain of command helps staff members know where to go to first when they have an issue, and then where to go from there.
Team Building
A happy staff is going to produce much better work than an angry or sad one, and a healthy fun environment is what I like to cultivate in yearbook. We try and do as many activities as we can as a staff outside of a school for staff bonding. I organized a party at the beginning of the year before the school year started so new and returning staff members could familiarize themselves with each other and have some fun. We played croquet, jumped off the dock, had some barbecue and hung out. It was a great way to kick off the year. Throughout the year we have had pizza parties for those who meet deadline, a paintball excursion, and a holiday staff party outside of school. Yearbook fosters many friendships and is a safe place for people to explore their talents.