Week 9: Leadership

Leadership involves inspiring initiative in a group. During my internship with Addison Whitney, I’ve learned that leadership is more than just being in charge. It involves collaboration and compromise within a group. A good leader listens to and takes cues from members of the group.

Within the verbal department, each project has a verbal leader. The leader provides information to the verbal team straight from the client. The team then works together to form a list of names to present back to the client. Without input and collaboration from the team, the verbal leader wouldn’t have a complete list of names to present. I’m glad I got a chance to be part of the verbal department and learn more about being part of a team.

These past nine weeks, I’ve also learned a lot about myself. Working in the verbal department, a large number of my tasks are repetitive from day to day. Although I’ve enjoyed my time with the verbal team, I’ve found that I would rather work on tasks that are more varied. For instance, the marketing team’s tasks are very different on a day to day basis and depend on the needs of the company. I also enjoyed learning more about the project managers who oversee cases from start to finish. I could see myself doing something like that since it’s varied and requires a great deal of scheduling and organization.

This past week I participated in mock interviews with higher-ups in the office. It was great experience for future professional interviews. I received helpful criticism from each of the four interview sessions as well as positive feedback. One thing I need to work on is making my voice sound more professional. When I get excited, I tend to sound younger than I am. However, it definitely improved my self-confidence in the workplace hearing that I was a strong interviewer!

I also participated in an office-wide trivia competition where each team was randomly assigned. This helped me make more connections within the office! Lunch was provided (yum!), and it was an incredibly fun way to break up the work day. My team came in fourth!

It’s hard to believe I have only one more week with Addison Whitney. This summer has gone by so quickly. However, I’m excited to have another week full of learning opportunities.