Being a leader is a feat not all are cut out for right away, but is a trait that can be learned.
Being the editor-in-chief for Odyssey IUP has taught me a lot of useful skills to take with me into the workplace, volunteer opportunities and my interactions with people for the rest of my life. I never really viewed myself as having strong leadership abilities before this experience, but when I was thrown into this position after only creating content for the team for two months, those skills had to be quickly learned. A huge skill necessary, that is not normally thought of, is organization. Keeping track of who is who on the team, how many times and when they submitted an article and our numbers of page views and social sharing is very important to track the participation and growth of a team. Making to-do lists and Excel documents to track these things have allowed me to keep everything together in terms of organization. Another skill is keeping community culture and morale at the standard that you have set for your team. This skill is definitely one of the hardest, being a group of college students with jobs, friends and classes that usually take precedence over creating content on a voluntary basis. When morale is low, having face to face meetings with food and new ideas can re-energize a team to keep creating. One of the hardest skills, though, I've taken away from leading an Odyssey team is discipline. Learning how to keep members accountable and even letting members go is definitely something I had to grow comfortable with. Having the hard conversations with team members when they weren't submitting and contributing to the team is never easy, but necessary. This leadership experience with Odyssey has grown me into a stronger leader who will be able to transfer these skills to my career in the future.
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