My Learning Curve with Leading Meetings
While at PSU Berks, I decided to get super involved in clubs and organizations. This gave me the platform to learn and develop a variety of skill sets such as:
- Communication Skills
- Conflict Mediation
- Public Speaking
- Running meetings
- Conducting weekly 1-1s with my team
- Team Building
- Event Planning
The most important thing that I learned so far at Berks was how to manage a team and host one-on-one weekly meetings with each executive board member. At first, I thought that the only objective of meetings was to talk about pressing issues within our organization, however I quickly realized that the purpose of the one-on-ones was not only to talk business.
My team members were struggling with adjusting to their new positions, and they needed me to act as a mentor to help them gain coping skills and help them better manage their time. I hadn’t realized that they were struggling because I never thought to ask about their personal lives and was too focused on our organizational goals rather than their personal needs.
I remember the exact moment that this need was brought to my attention. My one team member came to me and interrupted me as I was running through my list of responsibilities. I was taken aback for a moment until she said, “Katie can I talk to you about something important in my life?”, of course I was willing to listen, and I realized that she had a huge personal issue going on in her life. She was comfortable enough to share this with me, if only I had been willing to listen. Once she got that information off of her chest I was better able to understand her and I could adjust my perspective as to how many responsibilities she could handle at that moment.
From then on, I realized the importance of being a support role for my team members rather than pushing them to their limits and strictly adhering to a business-only approach. This change in method and perspective led me to be a more understanding and effective manager of the team, and from there I could build more personal relationships with each person and created a bond with each of them which ultimately improved the organization as a whole.