This past week, I had the opportunity to experience and participate in multiple tasks that enabled me to get an inside look at the role of leader follower relationships within my department and the office. At the beginning of the week, I was assigned my first task by the head of the membership department, who works above my supervisors. I completed it in a timely fashion, and I could tell she was pleased with the outcome because she took much more interest in my role as her intern. Over the week, not only did she assign me more work, but my direct supervisors were also more seemingly more confident in my ability and allocated me more responsibility and opportunity to contribute. It was interesting to see how once one person took more interest in my role, it created a domino effect – especially within her department. This past week was also our first full staff meeting since I’ve started my internship. I had the opportunity to meet the CEO of the New York office, and watch how he engaged with his staff members. There is certainly a divide between executive and staff, as I could see people close up and become much more reserved in his presence. Additionally I had the opportunity to speak with one of my fellow employees, who told me about his awkward experience earlier in the week when he found himself caught walking out of work with the CEO, as they both uncomfortably tried to maintain conversation. He explained the separation he felt from the CEO because he is lower in ranks, and it became more clear as I watched other staffers engage with him throughout the week. the office hierarchy I have observed is a perfect example of so much of what I have learned about leadership, followership, and the structure of the relationship within the two in a business setting. Experiencing it first hand made me question why this hierarchy exist so strongly both in and outside of the office. Labels create so much tension between coworkers, even when they step outside of the working environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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