When I joined Odyssey as a content creator I enjoyed writing every week and sharing my thoughts and ideas with an online audience. I loved being a part of a team who strives towards a common goal of submitting articles with a group of students I saw everyday at school. When I accepted the Editor-In-Chief position for Lycoming College's community I had no idea the type of leadership opportunities it would being me. Now, four months into the position, I can honestly say Odyssey has shown me how to be a better leader. There are four major lessons I have learned just in my short time in the position and I can only imagine the plethora of others I will learning down the road.
The first lesson I learned from being an EIC for Odyssey is how to communicate. This position shows me how to communicate with a team of hard working content creators, in order to meet deadlines and create awesome articles every week. Although my team is smaller than large university teams, communicating on daily basis with a team of 14 talented writers can be challenging. Through trail and error--and an awesome ME--, I have learned the best ways to express ideas and talk with my team.
Teamwork makes the dream work! This is my favorite lesson, because I'm so passionate about working in teams. I enjoy the atmosphere of working off one another in order to build good ideas and strong articles. This, of course, comes with good working communication. I love collaborating with other EIC to see what makes their communities successful and sharing my ideas with them to help. I believe it's the best way to encourage mutual motivation and not competition.
I have also learned that enthusiasm is everything. Evan Burns, the CEO of Odyssey, excites his employees by explaining how Odyssey makes a different, especially for the millennial generation. His enthusiasm towards building a bigger and stronger online platform for young writers encourages everyone who works with Odyssey to help build the company to that common goal. On a small level, I know that if I'm enthusiastic about the content my team is creating reaching our goals will be reached more easily.
Responsibility is the most important lesson I have learned since I joined Odyssey's EIC team. Writing is only one small piece of the must larger job description. We also edit, recruit, and help our team. It takes time and dedication. Being responsible meaning setting aside time in order to work on Odyssey, even if that means daily. It means meeting your own deadlines, as an example to your content creators.
I'm proud of being an Odyssey EIC, but I'm even more honored to be a leader for such an amazing group of young writers. Communication, enthusiasm, responsibly are all important qualities in leadership and without the opportunity of being an editor-in-chief for Odyssey, I would have never been able to grow into the leader I am today.
