Recently I completed an experience with the Edge House Campus Ministry. As a part of it, I helped with reorganizing the way things were done. This experience focused on improving a group that I was a part of while helping me determine and develop my leadership style.
During it I completed a variety of tasks to achieve this. One of my focuses was investigating ways to improve communications. Starting at a base of just getting information out by text, I helped get a weekly email started by taking initiative and sending them. What this helped with was making sure that everyone was on the same page. This was beneficial to the organization but was something that over time I grew to be tired of doing and was not enjoyable. Upon reflection I realized that I was trying to do something that required a lot of repetitively asking people for information and writing, two things I personally do not like doing. This was helpful to me as it was a reminder that not everything that needs done needs done by me.
If I was to pull one thing I did that helped me learn about my leadership style was redesigning the Edge House website. The old website had been created eight years ago and mainly sat untouched and unimproved. Basically, what I did was come up with a plan of what needed done. Then I reached out to people who were interested in working with a website builder to help with the actual building. Then I helped lead meeting to decide what needed done, and who was best suited, skill and time wise, to accomplish that. We then kept a laundry list on google docs that we put in comments about what needed done. Throughout all of this, I learned a lot about how I succeed in leadership. When it came to developing plans, creating lists, assigning work, and getting things moving forward, I was able to succeed. Unlike the earlier attempt to take charge, I really enjoyed this one. I am very proud of what we accomplished as we have had comments saying that it was more user-friendly which was the goal.
With this I also worked to help coordinate two different Alumni events. Both were based around inviting them to come back and go to a service around them. Of the two, one of them was successful. For the first Alumni night, we reached out to people a month ahead of time by post and email. The event was planned by asking them what they missed and incorporating those events into it. This worked very well as we had high turnout, and everyone had a really good time. The second time was thrown together haphazardly at the last minute with an email going out about a week beforehand. Not a single person showed up. This was a bit of a humbling experience as I thought if I said something people would just automatically show up enthusiastically. This helped me realize a fact that seems so basic, but I didn’t consider, that people have lives. This is really important to not just know, but to take into account when you are trying to get people to attend and to have a good time.
Additionally, I helped by attending several retreats. These were based around helping high school students grow. This was beneficial as it allowed me to work on interpersonal skills.
These experiences helped me grow as a person as I learned the importance of using my strengths to get things done. During this experience I had the opportunity to try various forms of leadership and event planning and some of it was successful, and as you can see, some of it was not. I found that when I was planning and helping organize the event it was successful when I put thought and effort into it. When I was trying to control all the details and micromanage, as in with the emails, it did not go well. With that experience, I had the opportunity to reach out to my mentor and talk through the importance of letting go of responsibility and realizing that I did not need to be in charge of everything.
During it I completed a variety of tasks to achieve this. One of my focuses was investigating ways to improve communications. Starting at a base of just getting information out by text, I helped get a weekly email started by taking initiative and sending them. What this helped with was making sure that everyone was on the same page. This was beneficial to the organization but was something that over time I grew to be tired of doing and was not enjoyable. Upon reflection I realized that I was trying to do something that required a lot of repetitively asking people for information and writing, two things I personally do not like doing. This was helpful to me as it was a reminder that not everything that needs done needs done by me.
If I was to pull one thing I did that helped me learn about my leadership style was redesigning the Edge House website. The old website had been created eight years ago and mainly sat untouched and unimproved. Basically, what I did was come up with a plan of what needed done. Then I reached out to people who were interested in working with a website builder to help with the actual building. Then I helped lead meeting to decide what needed done, and who was best suited, skill and time wise, to accomplish that. We then kept a laundry list on google docs that we put in comments about what needed done. Throughout all of this, I learned a lot about how I succeed in leadership. When it came to developing plans, creating lists, assigning work, and getting things moving forward, I was able to succeed. Unlike the earlier attempt to take charge, I really enjoyed this one. I am very proud of what we accomplished as we have had comments saying that it was more user-friendly which was the goal.
With this I also worked to help coordinate two different Alumni events. Both were based around inviting them to come back and go to a service around them. Of the two, one of them was successful. For the first Alumni night, we reached out to people a month ahead of time by post and email. The event was planned by asking them what they missed and incorporating those events into it. This worked very well as we had high turnout, and everyone had a really good time. The second time was thrown together haphazardly at the last minute with an email going out about a week beforehand. Not a single person showed up. This was a bit of a humbling experience as I thought if I said something people would just automatically show up enthusiastically. This helped me realize a fact that seems so basic, but I didn’t consider, that people have lives. This is really important to not just know, but to take into account when you are trying to get people to attend and to have a good time.
Additionally, I helped by attending several retreats. These were based around helping high school students grow. This was beneficial as it allowed me to work on interpersonal skills.
These experiences helped me grow as a person as I learned the importance of using my strengths to get things done. During this experience I had the opportunity to try various forms of leadership and event planning and some of it was successful, and as you can see, some of it was not. I found that when I was planning and helping organize the event it was successful when I put thought and effort into it. When I was trying to control all the details and micromanage, as in with the emails, it did not go well. With that experience, I had the opportunity to reach out to my mentor and talk through the importance of letting go of responsibility and realizing that I did not need to be in charge of everything.
