Leadership

No, I'm not going to philosophize about qualities of great leaders. Instead I'm going to write about my new leadership position. I'm sure at some point in my long and eclectic career(s) I've been in a supervisory role before, but I can't put my finger on a specific instance right now. When I was asked to take on a leadership role in my scoring job, my first thought was, "Are these people insane?!" While I've been scoring one program for thirteen years, and applied for a scoring leader position last year, which I didn't get, I haven't been scoring this particular program very long -- and I didn't think I was that good at it. Apparently someone did, and there was a real need for scoring leaders. So here I am, making a few dollars more per hour, and really liking it!

I've never minded scoring essays online. Sure, it gets tedious sometimes, especially on an eight-hour shift, but the money is pretty good for a job where I can choose which shifts I want to work and don't have to leave home. (Just because I choose a shift doesn't mean I'll be scheduled, so in that regard it's a bit sporadic.) Over the years, it's been a nice supplemental or sometimes even main income. In my new role, I've worked three shifts. On the first, I really didn't know what I was doing. The company gave all the new scoring leaders extensive training, and I printed out all seventy pages or so of materials for "easy reference". However, there was no "first do this; next do this" kind of guide. I think I did pretty well; it was a smooth day, my raters seemed to know for the most part what they were doing, and no one had problems or questions.

Yesterday, about an hour before my shift started, I received an email asking if I could work two extra hours, until 7:00 rather than 5:00. I said sure. But when I logged on, I had no one in my roster, so I was scoring at leader pay. It was a bit odd -- and kind of lonely. When I score as a rater, I have a scoring leader whom I can ask about tricky essays. As a scoring leader-rater (which I think isn't really a title), I had no one above me and no one below me. It was strange.

Today's shift was non-stop. I even said to one rater who called that I was reminded of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, for no particular reason other than the name. I then clarified, just in case she wondered, that the ride had been shut down. Truly I was trying not to babble, but with the group today it was one thing after another. One rater was in a different time zone and signed in late, two had computer problems, and one kept asking me to confirm her scores. And you know what? I loved it! I was giving guidance, helping with questions about the system, encouraging my raters along, and back-reading essays -- so much better than sitting and clicking scorepoint after scorepoint. Half of my raters thanked me at the end of the day for my kindness and encouragement, and said they hoped to be on my team again.

I have to admit, I was dubious about my leadership abilities in this context, but I think it's going very well. My hope is that if I do a good job as a leader with this program, I'll get hired on as a leader with the other (higher-paying) program I score for. In the meantime, I'm grateful for the extra pay, the responsibility, and the interaction.