The Correspondent

My experience as Editor-in-Chief

  During my year-term as Editor-in-Chief of our campus newspaper, The Correspondent, I had a lot of opportunities to practice my interpersonal communication skills within a small group setting. Apart from the duties of planning, scheduling and leading meetings and informing the group of story deadlines, I did not really anticipate needing to communicate anything more. I knew that communication was important to the overall function of the paper, and I knew that I would have to really invest energy and time into the group. However, I never considered there could be gaps within our written communication and verbal communication. Namely, I never considered there could be issues with staff not understanding or knowing what was required of them, especially after I made the decision to hire two copy editors instead of the traditional one person.

One of the copy editors became frustrated and upset with the other copy editor, and unfortunately did not come to me to talk about it directly. As soon as I found out there was a problem, I immediately opened the floor for dialogue. She explained her issues, and I listened. When I left the meeting, I realized that I had failed in my communication with both, and the rest of the staff. Something as simple as outlining their specific job duties and expectations had completely escaped my mind from the beginning of the year, and not to make excuses, but things were so hectic that this small detail was easily overlooked. Now, I had a staff problem on my hands, and I had to figure out how to handle it.

I talked with our faculty advisor, and we decided that making a document with the outlined duties and expectations was a key next step. After this, I planned personal meetings in our office with each editor. This was a time for them to share their issues, ask questions and understand what we expected moving forward. It was also made clear that should they fail to comply with these new guidelines after a few issues were published, they would be relieved of their duties. I knew this was the right step because I could not immediately terminate someone who was doing what they thought they were supposed to do, just because the other person was not pleased with their work or understood what their job should be.

The meetings were successful, and tensions were relieved. This experience taught me the importance of being clear with people from the beginning of a work relationship and making sure that people know they can come to you if they have questions or issues. It taught me the importance of taking time to listen to people and to set aside any of your feelings to fully attempt to understand their feelings. Moving forward, I take this experience as an example of a time when internal conflict can be resolved through interpersonal communication. In the classroom or the workplace, I remember the importance of being an effective and clear communicator.