Week 1: Leader/Follower Relationships
Training went super well; I came out of training super motivated to help establish the Richmond chapter of TaketheFight and do as much as I can to create a community of support for cancer patients in this city. I have so many ideas and knowledge that I have gained through my Behavioral Econ class in Jepson that directly relates to what I will be doing this summer. This past week I began those projects, which included topics/projects very similar to ones I did for my Behavioral Econ class. The most exciting part of my internship, however, (being able to interact with the patients in the hospital) won’t be able to take place for another couple of weeks due to timing between TTF and the cancer center at the (VCU) hospital. I am eager to jump into working directly with patients and hope there is something I can do in the meantime that gives me a more personal connection with those TTF supports.
Given the Richmond chapter of this organization is just being established, there is barely any staff/volunteers. The CEO is the only person who runs this chapter full-time. There are many other staff members at the chapter in Wake Forest, but she is the only one running the Richmond chapter currently. She is extremely flexible and receptive to all of our ideas, and definitely is passionate about the work that TTF does. However, it is difficult to nail down exactly what I can do to help reach the goals we set during training and on our recent conference call. Some leaders are very direct, and others are very passive in their approach. This week I am going to try to ask more direct question and ask specifically what I can do to reach the goals we have set, since she has not outlined how/when we should do them.
Since this individual has been the only staff for TTF for some time, perhaps she is not used to having others with whom to collaborate, delegate, etc.; will be interesting to see if she gets better about this as time progresses. Seems – at the moment – that decision making is pretty centralized; again, this may change as your supervisor delegates more responsibility, as the organization grows, etc. I would encourage you to be proactive in regards to asking for work, but I would also encourage you (if you are able to identify items) to identify items you THINK might be useful to work on, then present those and check if indeed they are items to focus on. This can demonstrate initiative.