Your role as an officer is to make a positive impact but making that impact can take many forms. The people around you believe in you to make that impact and will support you in amazing ways when you represent them. I learned four takeaways by the end of my terms as a chapter president and association officer that are connected on both levels of leadership that can be incredibly important to officers during their term.
1. Continuous vs. Cluster Work
Depending on your role in your team, it may feel like you have more work than others. Cluster work is when most of the heavy lifting occurs when you prepare for significant events. After these events, there are periods when it feels like there is little to no work. For those with cluster work, find ways to help others during your periods with little work to help ease the stress of others on your team. On the other hand, continuous work is a steady amount of work throughout the term with only a mild amount of change during significant events. For those with constant work, remember to pace yourself and know that it’s okay to ask for help from your peers!
2. Adaptability Is Vital
You’ll find out quickly that things will not work out perfectly, and there will be last-minute changes. Being prepared with backup plans and thinking on your feet with professionalism will help you succeed. Once, I had to create a workshop for over 900 members on the day of the event. Another time, my classroom flooded with all of our products for our service project. Situations like these can and will happen, so relying on your team and genuinely listening to everyone’s solutions is vital to ensure that events and projects can continue to run as smoothly as possible.
3. You May Not Get to Everything
You may start with incredible goals and initiatives, but not every plan will be completed. Commitments to school, work, family and more may take away from your officer work time. Make a priority list of need-to’s and want-to’s for the year. If you don’t complete need-to’s (like hosting association conferences), things can’t function properly. If you’re passionate about a goal that was not achieved, voice this to the incoming team, show them how it can benefit your members and give them ideas so they complete it during their term.
4. Energy Can Falter
Energy is high right now, but procrastination increases and morale decreases when work gets heavy. Remind yourself of the reasons why you’re serving when you can. It may initially be for college applications, but this position is meant to represent and aid your members. Seeing your members succeed because of something your team did is a fantastic feeling, so finding new reasons to keep going when it gets tough helps you and your members.
Although these are a few of the major tips I can give going into your officer term, your term is going to look different than any other officer’s term because it’s what you make of it. If you ever need advice on your position, you can go to past officers, executive officers, advisors and many more because we all want to see you succeed. So, are you ready to Get The Edge on your officer term?
