Women in the Workplace
Throughout the first few weeks of my internship, I have noticed a unique leader/follower dynamic at The Golden Word. For almost two years, my supervisor did the work for the entire firm on her own, with the help of interns here and there. It wasn’t until just a couple of months ago that she decided that it would be necessary to make two full time hires, as her clientele was growing, along with myself as an intern and another Richmond students as her second intern.
Although my supervisor has been her own boss for a while, being in charge of team that is her own is something new. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of getting to work with my supervisor during this time of transition. What I have enjoyed about my work environment is how we as a team of five women have tackled the task of learning to work together. My supervisor is extremely organized and makes time to meet with the whole team while also designating time to meet with each of her employees individually for projects and tasks that need clarification. She has made a strong effort to create opportunities for us to come together as a team outside of work as well such as taking us for lunch to celebrate the addition of a new client, out to ice cream for a brainstorming session, and team workouts.
As far as procedural operations at the firm, employees (full-time and interns) are expected to follow standardized procedures through our online task intel called Teamwork (essentially an online task list/blog), but we are each responsible for creating our own tasks and preparing our own agendas for the day to share at our morning stand up meetings.
What I have noticed thus far about leadership styles within the firm is that all of the implicit leadership bias regarding women has been stripped away since the firm only consists of female employees. I have found it refreshing to get to know each employee as an individual rather than taking into consideration the fact that each of them are women, but rather strong, productive, supportive employees for my supervisor. Being in this environment has challenged my own previous leadership styles as I find myself speaking up more and having a stronger presence during team discussions as I feel that I am listened to and valued instead of being implicitly judged. I look forward to seeing how this theory continues to dissolve throughout my internship experience as well as developing even stronger leader/follower relationships with the other employees at the firm.
Sounds like a really nurturing environment. Your supervisor may even exhibit some transformational leadership based on what you describe (if you agree, make certain to offer concrete examples of her behaviors/actions that illustrate individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, idealized influence). Don’t confuse implicit biases that individuals have regarding women as leaders and the research that talks about the type of leadership that women tend to exhibit (e.g. more communal/collaborative, etc,). Seems there may be some fuzzing between the two things here. Interesting to note how your own behavior/actions change in this environment versus others where there is a mix of genders.