Becoming a leader in the newsroom

During my first live show and first week lead producing, I learned the value of leadership skills in the newsroom. The two skills I tried to focus on were organization and communication.

After the chaos of run through week, I realized going into this Tuesday I needed to be much more organized with my story ideas.  I am a visual thinker, so I wanted to use the white boards to my full advantage.  I consistently kept track of where each MJ was by writing their story slugs next to their name on the white board.  I found this idea was great for communication, because not only did it help me, but it was also beneficial for the other producers to see where everyone was.  Also, Mariah and I thought ahead and made sure to put stacks of MJ forms at our desks at the beginning of the day so we wouldn’t forget to hand them out.  Our organization paid off, as I found a tall stack of completely filled out MJ sheets by Mariah’s desk after the show.  I also made sure to pick certain stories for MJs before they arrived so I could have the necessary information, like wires, phone numbers, and addresses, organized and prepared to give to them in time for them to make it to the event.

Leaders must not only be organized, but also communicative.  This week taught me the importance of effective communication skills with MJs, like delegating and multi-tasking.  I also worked on my communication skills with my fellow producers, like how Mariah and I came up with a highlighting system to visually keep track of which stories we had video for.

Overall, I found my first week as a leader scary but very rewarding, and I know my leadership skills will continue to improve throughout the semester.