Leadership and Teambuilding
I would definitely consider myself a vocal leader overall; as editor-in-chief, I would often explain my point of view and then open up the discussion to other ideas, contributions, or objections. Because of COVID-19, my senior year was definitely a real challenge and completely different than everything I've ever experienced before, and I feel that I had to shift my leadership style because of it.
My junior 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 something else of that nature. I would be walking around, checking in and joking around with staff members, and, most importantly, trying my hardest to build tightly-knit relationships. In my senior year, I was far less connected to my staff on a day-to-day basis, but I still found ways to be an effective leader.
Zoom was (and still is) far from an ideal means of communication. Still, I contributed to daily agendas that our adviser created and started every Zoom session with some kind of announcement similar to what I did at the start of class the year before. I tried my best to be charismatic over Zoom, but it was extremely difficult. We had limited time in school following a hybrid schedule, but in the one class period of Journalism class per week that we were in person, I tried to make up for lost time and keep working on building relationships with every member of the staff.
It was obviously more difficult to converse 1-on-1 with staff members on Zoom and with just a few of them in person (our hybrid schedule did allow for full classes at a time), so texting with my classmates was something that I had to shift to a lot more that year. Every day or so, I got a text from a staff member about a variety of things: if I could check out their story, a certain grammar rule our staff uses, when stories are due, what pictures to use, and more. While my senior year was not an ideal time for a vocal leader like myself, I think that texting with staff members and helping them solve problems in that way made a sufficient substitute for the circumstances.
My co-editors-in-chief and I were extremely close as well. We had our own group chat to converse and decide on various issues, and we met every so often together on Zoom with our advisers to check in and clear up any staff issues there may have been. The strong bond between myself and my co-editors-in-chief really helped our entire staff thrive in uncertain times.
In September of my senior year, the three of us decided to get the staff together to meet each other and try to bring some sense of normalcy. We met up at the DuPage Children's Museum 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. This was a fantastic way to start the year and build relationships with the staff.
My senior year was certainly a real challenge for me as a leader, but I think it's safe to say that it made me a better one in the process. I 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 molded me into a more versatile editor-in-chief and journalist as a whole.
Communication with Staff
I texted many staff members about many subjects. Often times I took time to congratulate or praise a staff member for the work he or she had been doing to boost confidence (middle right).
Other times (bottom right, top left) I was contacted about a stylistic or technical issue with a staff member's story, which was probably the most common topic of the text conversations I had with staff members.
I also frequently talked to members of the staff about sources, inspiration for stories, and more general ways of getting information and quotes for a story (bottom left, bottom middle, top right).
In all of these instances, it was always my first priority to be kind, straightforward, and helpful because it was more difficult to get to know my staff in 2020-202 and I wanted to take advantage of any conversations I could have with any member of the staff.
Leading Lessons
Teaching lessons to the staff was another thing that I did quite a bit of in my two years as editor-in-chief.
At the beginning of each of those years, I created lesson plans and taught the whole class the in's and out's of Adobe InDesign and the SNO dashboard, which are the platforms we used to create for our print issues and online content, respectively.
Things were a little different senior year, so I had to give a mini-review of navigating InDesign and SNO to my fellow editors-in-chief as well. To the right, you can see my notes for teaching the staff how to use SNO to publish a story.
We also taught the class InDesign, thinking we were going to have print issues. I led a lesson and walked through the steps of laying out a page, walking around to help as well.
Staff Testimonials
“Sam brings the Omega to new heights. His presence and incredible work ethic motivate everyone on his staff to live up to the precedent he sets,” - Nolen Stevens, Multimedia Editor
"Sam is a leader, writer, and student far beyond his years. He carries himself with remarkable maturity and does every task, no matter how small, with purpose. He energizes our staff daily, encouraging us to push our limits and making sure any content we produce is nothing short of the best it can be. There is no one who better demonstrates what it means to lead by example," - Madeline Schallmoser, co-Editor-in-Chief
"Sam is one of the best EICs one could ask for. He is always pushing to improve on whatever he can. Whether it’s editing someone’s story or making 2-3 of his own, there’s not really anything Sam doesn’t have time for. He’s without a doubt one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around," - Jake Morgan, Sports Editor
"Sam has guided me through my two years of journalism and I have seen that he has always been the first to step up to any challenge. He consistently helps anyone who needs it and by doing this he has truly made our staff into stronger writers altogether," - Emma Gramm, Feature Editor