Creating Positive Leader/Follower Relationships

My first week at East-West was filled with PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint presentation as my fellow interns and I went through hours of orientation. I immediately noticed how well-run and organized East-West is for a non-profit organization. The organization is broken down into many smaller teams of about 4-6 people, making everything more manageable. These teams operate under a manager who provides them with guidance and direction for each assignment, but ultimately trusts the team members to complete the task on their own. Major decisions are made by the executive board, which comprises the leaders of the primary departments, while more minor decisions are handled within the appropriate team. In this way, East-West fosters a collaborative work environment through involving individual team members in choices that directly affect their line of work, which also serves to instill each team member with a sense of ownership and pride in his/her work. After a decision has been made and communicated effectively by team leaders, the team members are entrusted to carry it out.          

Over the course of orientation week, us interns received overviews of each branch of the company including marketing, mobilization, IT, security, human resources, etc. Although sitting and taking notes for such an extended period of time felt rather mundane at times, each of the information sessions were led by the heads of their respective departments, including the founder, current CEO, and a variety of vice presidents. Interacting directly with the leaders of the organization gave me insight into how they treat their individual followers. Not only were they personable and welcoming, but each of the executive board members were sure to emphasize that their door was always open to talk whenever necessary. Additionally, East-West has a Member Care department, which serves as a resource for anyone seeking mental health assistance. It is clear that this level of courtesy and respect has had a positive impact on leader-follower relations and the organization as a whole by motivating employees to put forth their best effort on each project. By simply observing how comfortable staff members were joking around and being light-hearted with everyone from the CEO to interns, I could infer the kind of healthy leader-follower relationships that East-West cultivates.     

Furthermore, I was not made to feel inferior as an intern; instead, multiple East-West leaders went out of their way to resolve any remaining questions I might have had before traveling to the organization’s Southeast Asia site, making sure that I felt equipped and confident. Although I will not be staying at the main office in Plano, Texas, where orientation was held, this week still demonstrated to me what kind of organization East-West is and its values, as well as and how it cares for its employees. I can only assume that this work culture extends to East-West’s overseas offices and that I will feel equally as valued by the leaders I work with abroad.

One thought on “Creating Positive Leader/Follower Relationships

  • Nice reflection. It will be interesting to revisit this post as you continue with the organization to see if your initial insights continue to hold true in regards to trust, healthy leader/follower dynamics, etc. Seems that team members trust their executive leadership if they are amenable to having decisions made at that level then communicated down (though I get that giving team members a good deal of control over their own work helps this scenario). Will be interesting to see, as you continue, if any big decisions come down that are not well received by team members.

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