I'm an extroverted person, which makes me a vocal leader. I like to take charge and explain my point of view and then open up the discussion to other ideas, contributions, or objections. However, this year has been a real challenge and obviously completely different than everything I've ever experienced before, and I feel that I've had to shift my leadership style because of it. 

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Last year would often consist of me standing in front of the staff at the beginning of the period, outlining a problem that needs solving, explaining the work that needed to be done that day, leading an InDesign or copyright law session, or praising the staff for work already done. I would constantly be walking around, checking in and joking around with staff members, and, most importantly, building tightly-knit relationships. This year, I have been far less connected to my staff on a day-to-day basis, but I feel I've still found ways to be an effective leader.

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Zoom is far from an ideal means of communication. Still, I often contribute to daily agendas that our adviser creates, and I start every Zoom session with some kind of announcement similar to what I did at the start of class the year before. I try my best to be charismatic over Zoom, but it is extremely difficult. We've had limited time in school following a hybrid schedule, but in the one class period of Journalism class per week that we're in person, I've tried to be as funny and talkative as possible to make up for lost time and keep working on building relationships with every member of the staff. 

 

It's obviously more difficult to converse 1-on-1 with staff members on Zoom and with just a few of them in person, so texting with my classmates is something that I've had to shift to a lot more this year. Every day or so, I get a text from a staff member about a variety of things: if I can check out their story, a certain grammar rule our staff uses, when stories are due, what pictures to use, and more. I've had to stifle my natural tendency to be a vocal leader this year, but I think that texting with staff members and helping them solve problems in that way has been a sufficient substitute for now.

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My co-editors-in-chief and I are extremely close as well. We have our own group chat to converse and decide on various issues, and we meet every so often together on Zoom with our advisers to check in and clear up any staff issues there may be. I feel that the strong bond between myself, Madeline, and Amelia as editors-in-chief has really helped our entire staff thrive in these uncertain times.

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Earlier this year, the three of us decided to get the staff together to meet each other and try to bring some sense of normalcy to this crazy year. We met up at the DuPage Children's Museum in September to take individual staff pictures and it ended up being a great teambuilding experience. We all introduced ourselves and within half an hour it felt like we had all known each other for years. I felt that this was a fantastic way to start the year and build relationships within the staff. Since then, we haven't done much as a staff due to COVID concerns, but I hope to organize some more safe staff activities later this year.

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This year has been a real challenge for me as a leader, but I think it's safe to say that it's made me a better one in the process. I've had to learn different techniques and persist as a leader while not being able to utilize some of my most effective attributes, which I think has molded me into a more versatile editor-in-chief. As I part ways with the Omega this May, I have the final goal of preparing next year's editors-in-chief with anything and everything they might need to lead a staff. Particularly, due to an absence of print issues this year and assuming that we will pick that back up again next year, I aim to sit down with them for a few hours and go through everything there is to know about Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and any other tools we use to make a print issue.