Allison Williams
For just about anyone, taking a leap into a leadership position can be daunting at times. I mean, let’s be real — it comes with responsibility, time commitments, dependence from others, pressure and so much more.
Here’s my story on making the transition into my leadership position and how I navigated it with three simple tactics.
The Start
I started my journey into HVC pretty late compared to my peer, in the second semester of my junior year.
Sure, there are times I say to myself, “Yeah, I wish I would have started sooner.” It’s easy to get lost in the, “I could have had so many experiences by now,” or “I could have transitioned into a higher position even earlier than I did” mentalities.
And to be fully transparent, I do think about those things occasionally.
But then, I challenge myself into thinking, “If you started in HVC as a young college student, do you think you would’ve had the same highly positive experience you’ve had in your education so far?”
And even though I don’t know the answer, that thought makes me thankful for how my journey started — and how it has grown since.
Stepping into the Position
As daunting and scared as I was, transitioning into my current role as an account executive has by far been the best thing I could have done to challenge myself. I totally stepped out of my comfort zone.
All of a sudden, there I was managing a group of students and balancing a relationship with both the executive board and my client.
This came with a learning curve that I am, in fact, still working on.
Here are three takeaways that I wish I knew when I started my transition.
First up: Time management is your friend.
One of the most influential pieces of advice I could pass on would be that learning to manage time in a leadership position is absolutely essential to success.
That is, success without burnout. Because those two words shouldn’t mix.
Balancing school, social life and an extracurricular activity as a student can quickly get exhausting.
Trust me.
This means making healthy boundaries for designated work with a structured schedule.
Take out that planner you bought at TJ Maxx and swore you’d use.
You’ll need it.
Once I learned what worked best in terms of scheduling out my week and allotting my time where it needs to be, my workload suddenly felt much less overwhelming. I could finally focus on my work without worrying about the rest of my plate.
Going off that point, I always say: working from home, or in an environment without a 9-5 structure, can quickly get messy.
No one is there beside yourself to tell you to put the computer down after midnight. I found myself doing that much too often, so setting aside around 3- 4 hours on a Monday morning after class is a much healthier approach at planning and organization when it comes to my time.
The next biggest lesson I’ve learned: Practice honesty without making people feel bad.
This was a huge one for me. I knew going into a leadership role that I would have to be transparent with my team in order to progress and see work I was completely satisfied with.
And as a people pleaser myself, this can be hard.
Sure, it may be cliche, but it really is always the way you say your message, not what you say.
That piece of advice will get you far. I promise.
For me, this looked like setting the standard of quality expectations with my team early on. I was honest and made it completely clear that I am looking to fulfill a certain standard, not only for the integrity of the organization, but for my client as well.
I made sure to stress that if they would not use the content for their own personal business, I didn’t want to see it.
And if it’s not perfect the first time, we can work on it together.
After a few in-depth one-on-one sessions with each of the account associates, they understood the quality I expected in their work. This made them more eager to get it done right the first time.
My last takeaway is my key to building a successful campaign: Identify your team’s skills.
This one came to me pretty fast.
During one of my very first meetings with the team, I asked each member what just about every good leader should ask: what are your skills, where do your interests lie and what skills do you want to build through HVC?
By the end, I realized that although some were indeed accurate, many found skills and interests they didn’t even know they had.
Throughout the first few weeks of the semester, I made it a point to observe who was eager to do what tasks and who did each task well.
Identifying each member’s talent made my life much easier when it came to important, key points of the campaign. I knew exactly who I could depend on.
I knew, “This person is great at brand imaging and could make kick-butt graphics,” or, “this person is awesome at writing, let’s have them write a blog post.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be okay to limit anyone to a certain skill set. Remember, identifying them is just as important as throwing them out of their comfort zone every once in a while.
It’s for their own good.
With that being said, when it came to less important tasks, such as graphics to put into the content bank, I tried to place someone who felt a bit less comfortable in the act, in order to allow them to experiment and strengthen those skills.
And it worked.
Believe me, that one piece of advice will save you lots of frustration. Just pay attention.
What’s important: you have been chosen for this role for a reason. Embrace it and remember the most important part: to learn throughout the journey.
Happy Valley Comm 