Benedict Roemer – Leader/Follower Relations

I have already written a fair amount about the CEO of my organization and her leadership style, so this week I want to focus in one the leadership closer to me – my supervisor(s). I put an s in parentheses because I am supposed to have two supervisors since my position technically crosses two departments, but the second area of my internship and the supervisor that goes along with it have basically been absent in my internship so far.

Now, in regards to my other supervisor and the director of the department that I have done work for,  her leadership style is very different from the CEO. Where the CEO leads with charisma and intellectual stimulation, my supervisor does not have those strengths to pull on for leadership. She seldom speaks and often sounds unsure/uninterested when she does speak. She engages very little with her coworkers and has spoken very little with me. In fact, I receive most of my assignments from my supervisor’s associate. It is through the relationship between my supervisor and her associate that I can begin to understand her leadership.

Though the associate does not speak at great length about her boss and my supervisor, she has said some things in passing that have provided insight into her view of my supervisor as her boss and a leader. More than once, the associate has referred to my supervisor’s expertise in communications as something to look up to and as a source of authority. Through these remarks, and the lack of other signs of leadership, I gather that my supervisor employs a very passive form of leadership through her work and the respect that it commands.

I find it difficult to work under such leadership because I am not very familiar with my supervisor’s work or have not yet witnessed her expertise. And even if or when I do, I find that I am someone who needs to be able to engage with a leader. This is true for me in other areas as well, such as on campus when I want to be able to engage with my professors and administrators, and find it difficult to follow their lead and accept their direction unless I do.