what makes a good leader?
to quickly sum up a recent conversation between g-s and me, i need to be a better leader for the newspaper.
i'm too easygoing. too lax. inauthoritative. unrespected. lacking.
up to that point, i had never sat back and analyzed my situation - i have a close group of friends that don't take me seriously because of my usually casual, joking manner, i have an editor who feels completely alienated and disrespected, i have another editor who disregards anything i say as bullshit, and i have a helluva lot of idle reporters segregated from the paper-making process.
i found my placid manner was causing me problems; instead of demanding something be done, i pleadingly asked if it could be done, "please."
the staff seemed disturbingly unperturbed when missing deadlines by days, why? because there was no point if i didn't enforce a consequence.
g-s' stressed message throughout our man-to-man chat was to be unafraid of being forceful with my peers - that i shouldn't worry about hurting people's (especially my friends') feelings when telling them to do something.
i don't take g-s' advice lightly, either. he has been the most influential teacher i've had, so his opinion is valued.
with that in mind, i decided that it's necessary to demand respect in that class, even if that means acting like a dick every once in a while. to make a random and unneeded government reference, i need to be a dominant federal government with control over lesser states.
to kick off this new era in handling my position, i yelled for everyone's attention to order that all pages be completed and printed off by 2:45 to allow for proofreading. "this paper is going out today." it felt good; i like control.
at first, i felt a tad stupid for demanding such a deadline knowing that many of the pages were in no way, shape, or form close to completion.
somehow though, when the clock ticked 2:45, i was distributing four of the six sections of the paper to proofreaders to make corrections to - the other two sections had understandably extenuating circumstances. success!
i think i've always been afraid of seeming out of character as a demanding managing editor, but i've realized it's my right, and more importantly my duty, to be the guiding force of "the hawk eye," and i'm ready to tackle that role.
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on 1.23.2006 at 8:13 PM.
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1/23/2006 9:10 PMdemand from those under you, but in a nice way with positive re-enforcement
Good Luck
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