Leader/Follower Relationships
I have been surprised by the leader/follower relationships that I have experienced since beginning my internship. On the first day of training, the founder of Youth Life came to speak to the summer interns. She explained her motivation for founding the nonprofit and improvements and growth she has seen since its opening. After her talk she left, and she has not been present at the office since. I am intrigued if she mainly works on the administrative side of the company, or if she has taken a step back from the organization in general. She is not as present as I would expect. There are other individuals that seem to run many of the programs and trainings, fulfilling that leader role.
For example, the Director of Operations organized many of the trainings and meetings we had this past week. The Director of Volunteers also seemed to have a strong influence on the administrative side of the organization. However, even with that, there is no clear person who is in charge of the organization. This may be due to the fact that Youth Life has multiple sites, and each is run a little differently. I’ve noticed this past week that while the two directors seem to do most of the operations work for Youth Life, each site has its own direct leader.
For example, at my site, Northminister/Highland, there are two main teachers that have taught us four interns how things are run. The oldest teacher (who has worked at Youth Life for ten years) clearly has superiority over the other teacher, who is much younger. We have the elder teacher check our work rather than the younger teacher, which is interesting. Much of our work is independent, and while we have a lot of freedom with what we do, we ultimately get it approved by the eldest and most experienced teacher in the classroom.
Overall, I think the leader/follower structure of Youth Life is really intriguing. The founder seems to be distanced from the day-to-day operations of the organization, leaving that work to the two head directors. However, the most hands-on work (in the classroom) is organized by the oldest/most experienced teacher, at least at my specific site. There seem to be many different levels in this organization, which can be somewhat confusing for a new intern. However, I think it is beneficial because the work is divided amongst the workers. Additionally, as an intern it is beneficial, since I have numerous people that I can turn to throughout the summer for help and guidance.
Yes, Youth Life has many, many arms…it is sometimes confusing for us when we are collaborating with them for the Justice class. To my knowledge, the founder has not stepped back from the organization; I believe she spends a good deal of time with fundraising, etc. Given the number of additional centers they have opened in my time at Jepson, they need significant fundraising to do that. So the centers themselves work fairly autonomously, as do you and others at the center – though there is a seasoned individuals who ‘signs-off.’ Good summary of the nature of the structure. Will be interesting to see if you and your peers have opportunities to demonstrate informal leadership throughout the course of the summer. Will also be interested to hear about the trust within the organization. Obviously, the founder has tremendous trust in the individuals she employs to run operations, volunteers, the centers, etc. Will be interested to hear about the trust between younger and older teachers, teachers and center directors, etc.