I remember that English class vividly. Our teacher, with a lot of enthusiasm, proposed the idea of starting a school blog. Since no one in my class had any prior blogging experience, a few of my friends and I, who were bloggers, were given the responsibility of forming the team and taking this initiative forward. At that moment I thought, "Well it's just a blog. How hard could it possibly be?" Little did I know, just how much this experience would teach me. Here are 5 important life lessons I learned from this blogging experience:-
1. How do you get people to listen to you when they are your friends?
Think about it. We had to create a blog team with people who were our age, our friends. In a job, employees listen to the boss because they get paid. At home, you listen to your parents because, well, they are your parents. However, what about my friends? What leverage did I have over them? None. It was at this point that I learned that I needed to convince them, not by using a position of power, but by just being their friend. Whether it was asking people for their articles or photographs or even asking people to re-send things, convincing them was a lot easier when I spoke to them with respect and as a friend. What this taught me is that not everyone can be convinced using the same methods of conviction. Some people may not like being told what to do, while some people will be slightly easier to convince.
2. Conflict management
When someone proposes an idea, there will always be people who are against the idea. Nobody likes being told that their idea is not good. This leads to arguments. If the argument is taken too far, it turns into a battle of egos, where people are trying to "win" the argument, at any cost. Some of the conflicts I faced were resolved quickly, while others took slightly longer. After a few disagreements, I started understanding the art of conflict management. It also taught me that no one likes to be told that they're wrong. Sometimes just listening to and understanding different opinions can improve the idea.
3. Presentation takes practice
The blog was just an idea, which needed to be implemented. For this, we had to create a presentation for the esteemed members of the Management. The day of our presentation arrived and I had to start presenting the first few slides. Seeing all the teachers and the Principal there made me nervous. I tried to sound as confident as I possibly could but there were a lot of "Umm" and "likes" and "you knows". I knew what I had to say but I wasn't able to articulate it very well. It was then that I realized how much practice it really takes for a perfect presentation. There were so many aspects of speech to keep in mind- voice modulation, speed, tone and diction. Never again did I take presentation rehearsals for granted after that.
4. How to communicate with different people
The blog was going to be written by students from all 3 branches of our school. This meant that we had to communicate and coordinate with a lot of different students and teachers. This required a tremendous amount of confidence. We did not always agree with everyone's idea. That's when we had to come up with our own idea and offer a counterproposal. A vote would then be taken and we'd reach a consensus. That taught me how teams work in an organization. Through the blog, we met a lot of new people and made many new friends and we got to listen to better ideas. That was a huge advantage of working in a team.
5. How to motivate your team
There were a lot of times when the team wasn't as excited as I was about the blog. These were times when the team had to be motivated. It wasn't easy to motivate them but eventually, I learned that to motivate people, I had to find a way to make people enjoy it. If people enjoyed having more responsibility, we'd give them more responsibility. All the work the team did was recognized and they were praised. That was what would encourage them to keep this initiative going. I learned to recognize people's efforts and make them feel good, make them want to work and spend time. Another way of motivating the team was being optimistic, no matter what the situation. I learned that people, including me, enjoy getting credit for their work and efforts, so that was an important way to motivate the team.
In conclusion, the blog was an amazing experience that I will never forget. The lessons, the friendships and the memories are something that I will always cherish.
~Mallika Dasgupta
(Batch of 2020-21)
Comments