Week 8: Professional Leadership
Overall, I would call myself a natural leader. I think a lot of Wake Forest students are, and I definitely think all of the F. M. Kirby Experiential Learning Grant recipients are strong leaders. That’s why we’re here, trying out job experiences in our chosen hopeful-career fields. We are all candidates that showed strong enough potential and had strong enough resumes that we both got our jobs and got this stipend. So going into writing this blog, we all know a fair amount about leadership, myself included. I hold several leadership positions on campus, and I’d say that’s lead to a fairly strong resume. That said, there is always always always more you can learn about and do to grow your leadership abilities.
The more leaders you work under, the more ways you learn to successfully lead groups and encourage successful relationships and work environments. Everyone’s style is different, and if we can pick and choose components of leadership from everyone we learn from, we can tailor our leadership style to make it the best and most effective that it can be. That’s one of my continual goals: always learn something from those in charge of you and those you are in charge of, in every environment or situation you find yourself in.
As I’ve (hopefully) previously expressed, there is a pretty substantial leadership ladder that I work under in the TBI team and in Rehab Medicine. The Head of the Department is the PI of the study, and according to my paperwork my summer mentor (although I have a more specific summer mentor, he’s a contract employee so the paper work can’t reflect that I work under him). I see very little of him, and generally my interactions with him are very formal. He knows how to run an efficient meeting, which is something I admire with our team (we all love to talk). The lab manager for our protocol has a much lower education level than the rest of the researchers (just a bachelors), but he also knows how to take the reins and run a meeting. He also wanders around the office, and is very approachable, which is something else I admire. My mentor can switch his boss persona on and off, which is great. I feel totally comfortable walking into his office to joking chat with him about the recent installation of his fridge in his apartment, or walking into his office to talk about a professional concern that comes up in my project. I know that he’ll respond appropriately, and I appreciate that. Within our team, the two full time psychometrists are the obvious go-to’s when we have questions, because they have a much greater knowledge base, but we are all in charge of the work that gets done in our own cubical, which is nice. I enjoy being my own leader, but knowing that there are also all of these other leaders above me on the totem pole that I can turn to with questions, comments, or concerns.
I didn’t like when I first arrived that scientific research means working a desk job. I want to be working with people, I want to be constantly learning and doing what I can to expand knowledge, and that doesn’t lead me to a picture of sitting at a desk, typing and reading. But that’s the reality of it. And I’ve come to enjoy it. I’m not stuck here like I would be in a temp job. Yesterday, I took a file full of new papers out on a sun deck to read, then the lobby of the library, then a big comfy chair in a hide-away nook in the basement of the library. It felt much freer than being stuck at a desk, which I enjoy. I still love the science involved, I feel that I have learned so much this summer, and I definitely think this an environment I could see myself thriving in in the future.
Highlight from the week: I’m picking up my poster today! All the CC interns did mock presentations Monday and Tuesday so that we could see all the research that was done here this summer since we can’t leave our posters during our presentation time on Friday, and I’m so excited to have this concrete representation of all the work I’ve done here this summer. It’s a great feeling, and I’m very excited for Poster Day on Friday!
Until next time! (The final week.)
