Understanding Leadership in Your Workplace or Organization

This past May, I attended the LeaderShape Institute with Temple University, a six-day long leadership retreat. On the second day of the program, we talked about leadership styles and took the DiSC Classic Personality Test. This test helps you understand yourself and others by giving you a framework for understanding human behavior. DiSC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. After completing the test, you find out the strength of these qualities are in your own personality. 

I found out that I am a “C,” which places an emphasis on work that ensures quality and accuracy. After taking the test and finding out which letter each of us represented, we found that our different strengths in our leadership styles, when combined, are beneficial, especially in your organization or workplace.  Whether you represent dominance, influence, steadiness, or conscientiousness all four of these qualities are needed:

Dominance (D) – This type of person likes getting immediate results, shaping the environment, making quick decisions, managing trouble, solving problems, and questioning the status quo. A person with a dominant personality needs others who use caution, weigh pros and cons, research facts, calculate risks, and recognize the needs of others.

Influence (i) – This type of person likes contacting people, being articulate, creating a motivating environment, generating enthusiasm, and entertaining people. An influencer needs others who respect sincerity, develop systematic approaches, take a logical approach, concentrate on the task, and seek facts.

Steadiness (S) – This type of person enjoys performing in a consistent, predictable manner, demonstrating patience, helping others, showing loyalty, being a good listener, and creating a stable, efficient work environment. A person with this personality needs others who react quickly to unexpected change, apply pressure on others, work well in an unpredictable environment, and are flexible in work procedures.

Conscientiousness (C) – This type of person likes being diplomatic with people, critically analyzing performance, concentrating on details, approaching situations systematically, and weighing pros and cons. This person needs others who delegate important tasks, encourage teamwork, use policies as guidelines, and make quick decisions.

Whichever letter you represent, you bring value to your workplace or organization. You may even have qualities from two or more DiSC areas. As you can see, you need others with different strengths and leadership styles to help make your workplace or organization the best it can be. What type of leader are you? 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Megan Healy. 

Stay on Track This Semester

Classes have already begun for many colleges and universities and will start for the majority of the remaining ones today.  We might as well start off on the right foot this semester and pave the way for smooth sailing in the next several months.

• Get a planner. Use it.
  There is no better way to stay on top of your schoolwork, social activities, and other commitments.  If you write everything down there is no reason to forget it. That way you'll always know what's coming up and what you have room for, be it homework or fun events.
  
• Talk to someone new.
  Don't be a loner on the first day of class. Scope out your classmates and sit next to someone who seems like they might have a similar vibe to you. You could end up making a great connection, helpful study buddy, and possibly even a new friend!
  
• Go to office hours.
  Professors notice the students who go above and beyond in class. If you visit them during office hours you will stick out in their mind. Spending time outside of class with your professor will also ensure that all your questions get answered.
  
• Eat breakfast.
  You're a busy bee and you need energy for the day. Eating even just a little something for breakfast every day will keep you going through all your classes and extracurricular activities.  You'll beat that mid-day funk and be able to perform at top speed. 

These are just some of the things you can do to keep yourself on track for the upcoming semester.  Get organized right away and you'll stay organized throughout.  End the year with a successful semester and reward yourself with a summer of fun (not that we're counting down the days or anything)!

What will you be improving on this semester?

Email Inbox Etiquette

An email inbox can be overwhelming. Especially in the generation of text messages and tweets, answering emails can seem very time consuming. As an aspiring PR professional, realize you will be relying on email a lot. Winter break is a great time to get organized and catch up!

Although email is a great tool, it can also be a downfall when it is disorganized. During past internships, the number of emails I received in just one hour was intimidating. Here are a few times to keep your inbox organized and to keep yourself sane:

Keep it as unread – If you don't want to read the whole email now, save it for later. Most of the time I am in such a hurry to clean up my inbox I click through emails without reading the whole thing. Instead of skimming through emails, keep it flagged for a little later when you have the time and patience. 

Check your junk mail folder – You never know what is in there until you check it! Try to check it once every day to make sure aren't missing an important message. 

Organize by subject – Creating folders for my inbox was such a lifesaver. If you have a lot of unread notes, organize by subject or sender to get through the important stuff first.

How do you organize your inbox? Let us know!

Utilizing Your Current Applications

Time management is the one skill that people of all ages continually grapple with. You would assume at a certain point, you will just have your life together. However, regardless of all of your efforts, some things still seem to slip through the cracks. 

On this blog, staff members have introduced us to new phone applications to help better organize our lives. However, it's surprising to me how many people do not utilize apps that are already on our phones. These apps that may fade into the background for some, are essential to me for getting every task done. 

Alarm clock: While most may simply use this app to wake up in the morning, it's also a great tool to remind you of tasks other then cutting your sleep short. The alarm clock is perfect for reoccurring events. It's also helpful for time management and can help you ensure that you aren't pulling an all-nighter for only one assignment but rather utilizing that time to get multiple assignments checked off your to-do list.

Calendar: Personally, I'm not sure where I would be without this application. Similar to the alarm clock, it serves as a reminder but provides much more detail. I primarily use this for professional tasks. If I promise to follow up with someone, I immediately set a calendar reminder for that date with details on the person I'm working with and our previous conversation. That way, I won't be flustered when the time comes to send a follow up email.

Notes: This is one of the most self-explanatory, and yet least-used, applications. It's perfect if you're caught without a pen and paper and need to jot down something important. What's more, you can sync notes with your email account. Should you accidentally delete a  note, it will still be stored under a folder in your email. It's extremely convenient and you didn't have to waste precious storage space downloading another app to your phone.  

If all of these applications are common ground for you and you use them already, that's great! However, some people are searching for the perfect app to keep them organized when what they're looking for may already be on their home screen.  

Perfect and Professional Portfolio-ism

For internships, jobs, and even student organizations, PR students have to go through several interviews. Of course with an upcoming interview comes the re-wiring of your portfolio. Whether you are just starting to put together your portfolio or updating it, following these few steps can lead your portfolio to perfection.

Compile all the pieces. Since public relations consists of a broad range of skills, there are plenty of options for material for a portfolio. The majority of your portfolio will consist of writing pieces of all different kinds: press releases, media alerts, PSAs, media kits, pitch letters, articles, and even informal blog posts. Make sure to include pieces that reflect your relevant skill set, even things such as graphic design or media technology.

Quick Tip: Don’t forget to grab a program from any event you’ve worked or volunteered at. Add them to your portfolio to show that you’ve been out and about in the world of public relations at events, not just writing from an office!

Find the perfect fit. By the time you graduate, you’ll probably need a 3” inch binder, but don’t overcompensate as a beginner. Open space will take away from the neat look of your portfolio. Pick out a binder that is going to accommodate what you have currently, and then move on up in size.

Perfect your resume. Edit your resume for the specific position you are interviewing for, adding any newer relevant positions you hold. Always keep a few copies of your resume in the front of your portfolio. If you’re using a binder, slide them in the outside sleeve. You could be surprised by multiple interviewers and wouldn’t want to be without copies for everyone.

Use a peer review. Ask fellow students and friends to take a look at your portfolio. They can check out your resume and writing for any small errors you may not have noticed, and catch if your portfolio has the right appearance. The more eyes to view it, the better.

Overall, you want your portfolio to come off like yourself do in an interview: cool, calm, and collected.

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Staff Member Alyssa Guckin.

Overwhelmed? Overcome it!

For most of us college students, today marks the end of our first week back on campus. We still haven't mastered our schedules, are most definitely sleep deprived and still have textbooks to purchase. It all can seem, well - a bit overwhelming. Stress and time management are common themes in the world of academia. It is always beneficial, instead of diving in head first, to step back and look at what you can do to help yourself before the semester truly begins.

Here are some things you can do to get yourself organized, relaxed and ready to bring on the spring semester!

1. Schedule your day, down to the hour - Having everything you need to accomplish written down on a schedule or in a planner will help you to procrastinate less and focus more.

2. Take your time - Quality is better than quantity. Don't rush small assignments in the beginning of the semester because that will become a habit all semester long. Make sure you give yourself enough time to produce quality work.

3. Don't take more on than you can handle - Think you can handle 18 credits, a part time job, an internship AND a social life? It will never happen. Make sure your plate isn't too full this semester so you can focus better.