Over the past several years, I’ve stepped up to voluntarily manage groups of volunteers. It’s never been a big deal. I’ve never seen it as real management experience, and neither has anybody looking at my resume. At most, it’s been considered a sign of leadership skills, but no management experience.
A couple of months ago, I was offered the opportunity to both teach and manage, and I took it. I know that part of what ended my museum education career was my lack of desire to be stuck behind a desk managing, and so I’ve been a bit more willing to consider management positions over the past few months. One that allowed me to actively teach was just perfect.
I’m even proud to say I’ve survived my first week in a supervisory role. I really wasn’t sure I would. There have been more than enough times when I’ve considered how I would handle situations. There have been more than enough times when I’ve just watched someone deal with an unusual or uncomfortable situation, and just admired them.
I’ve now spent a week being the admired one. Being the one who gets to make the decisions and talk to the people and do all the administrivia. It’s really no different than when I voluntarily managed other volunteers, except now it’s going to officially count for something.
Posted by Rebecca as Leadership and management at 7:39 PM EDT
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The first week of camp is over, and I’m exhausted! Therefore, this week’s link dump is going to be low-effort.
Posted by Rebecca as Link Dump at 8:45 PM EDT
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The link dump is coming this evening after camp, but I wanted to be a good little survey-taker while I remembered!
As I’m spending my ummer in a science day camp, I’m really rather amused by this particular banner!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 6:35 AM EDT
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Although much of my free time right now is occupied by summer camp, I’m still thinking on and trying to work on things for my jewelry business. Among the things I’ve been working on include a wiki and a catalog.
I try to maintain the wiki and a blog to build a conversation with visitors to my business’ web site. I find it helpful to build rapport through stories and sharing what little knowledge I have on jewelry making. It helps establish that I know what I’m doing, and it identifies me as someone willing to help. It makes me accessible to people who visit, and encourages them to ask me questions (which they actually do from time to time).
Posted by Rebecca as Marketing at 5:59 PM EDT
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Here’s a fascinating article from Monster on whether or not a woman should change her name when she marries.
Not that I’m in any danger of debating this any time in the foreseeable future, but it really is one more interesting argument for not changing your name. With so many women waiting until they have established their careers, it’s really something to ponder. They’ve built a personal brand based around the person they are, and becoming married creates an entire environment of change. It’s almost silly to assume that one’s network wouldn’t be able to handle a change that they probably have seen in the process.
How does one cope?
Posted by Rebecca as Networking at 7:52 PM EDT
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Camp starts next week, so posting is going to happen when I have time to sit at my computer. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s link dump!
Customer Response
Customer-driven innovation
Sometimes your customer base is the best judge of how to improve things in your company.
How accessible are you?
One of the best ways to gain and retain customers is to be approachable and easily located.
100 keys to solo sucess: Focus on the friendlies
Again, so much depends on how you interact with potential and present customers.
Entrepreneurship
Trend of the Alterpreneur
I keep aspiring to this lifestyle.
Posted by Rebecca as Link Dump at 10:45 AM EDT
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My schedule is about to get crazier than usual. I’ll be working at a day camp five days a week, and then going straight to my tutoring job three days a week. I’m going to spend my summer teaching! I’m so excited!
Of course, this lovely 50-60 hour work week (can’t forget about all the teacher prep time that comes with teaching!) is going to severely cut into my jewelry business time. The situation is further compounded by the fact that I now appear to have been bitten by the writing bug.
My first response was to acknowledge I need a mobile device that can go online so I can work on both the jewelry and the writing wherever I want whenever I have a few free minutes. (I am accepting donations to the "Save Rebecca’s Sanity" fund.)
My second response was to be very thankful that my two potential income streams are both easily portable!
I guess if I had to decide to work myself nuts this summer, it’s best that I did it with fields that I enjoy and are easily taken on the move with me!
Posted by Rebecca as Entrepreneurship at 12:27 PM EDT
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There has been a huge shift over the past ten years to focusing on projects requiring teamwork. There are many theoretical reasons behind this. When you split up the work, it is done more quickly. Splitting up the work allows people who are strong in one area but weak in another to contribute positively. Teamwork builds communication and trust. The list goes on.
If you cannot succeed in a team setting, then you’re "not a team player" and you can bet your presence won’t be tolerated much at either staff meetings or the break room because you don’t play well with others.
Collaboration has its place when used in moderation. It is not intended to be used as a crutch. It is not intended to be the new age efficiency expert’s miracle tool. It should be a union of two (or more) people with complementary skills working together to solve a problem that needs to draw on all of the skills present to be solved. It should never cause more strife than solution.
Class projects are the bane of every student’s life. Team projects are the bane of an effective employee’s life. The setting may change, but the need to not rely solely on collaboration remains the same.
Posted by Rebecca as Skill building at 8:44 AM EDT
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I spent a couple of hours tonight going through some supply boxes in preparation for camp next week. I’ll be doing this a couple more times this week as I contact my instructor, assign classes, and package her supplies to deliver to her.
The weird thing is, I really don’t think anything of it. To me, it’s just what I do. Who I am. Just like it’s been for so long. After years of being a volunteer managing other volunteers, it’s almost second nature at this point.
On Monday, I will step into my very first "real" supervisory role. Admittedly, despite how long I’ve done this exact same type of work, despite how routine the tasks seem, I’m feeling very nervous. I’ve dodged these positions for so long that it almost feels out of character to have finally accepted one.
After finishing the processing of the two boxes I worked on tonight, I finally had an opportunity to read through Bloglines. It’s often been said that if something is persistent in your mind, it will become persistent in your surroundings. I’m sitting here wondering if I’m ready for this. I’m feeling nervous. I’m trying to figure out if I’m even cut out for this, trying hard to think over all the management theory ever pounded into my head by experience (or the loving heart-to-hearts with my mother). I’ve wondered what kind of manager I’m going to be.
Of course, I feel after reading this like I’m being told to just be myself, the same girl who has led people successfully in the past. If I keep to my old patterns, then I should be fine.
Posted by Rebecca as Leadership and management at 11:51 PM EDT
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Time for this week’s Link Dump. I’m still working on clearing out the backlog of clippings in my Bloglines account, so there are still a fair amount of links here.
Let’s get started, shall we?
I’m still trying to decide how I want to present these dumps. Please be patient with me as I experiment with different formats.
Posted by Rebecca as Link Dump at 10:27 AM EDT
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