Leader/Follower Relations – Conflict Scenarios

During the last week, the pace of work has really picked up. I have two presentations to prepare for and am balancing numerous projects, each project involving a different array of individuals and demands. It has been engaging and I quite like staying busy. I don’t know what’s normal for Interns, but I have been given the ability to take charge and act on my own instinct. In addition, our supervisors responded to our requests for more work by giving us a list of scenarios, each of which we have 30 mins to reply to, based on real life incidents that they have faced in their roles as Project Managers.

The incidents focused on Leader/Follower relationships. Incidents ranged from supervisors or employees showing a lack of respect for one another, knowing how and when to take punitive action, and how to keep the identity of the individual that brought up the incident, while still addressing the issue. I drew a lot from what I had learned in my theories and models class, the internship scenarios we ran through, and other Jepson classes. One of the most powerful lessons I learned was about follower’s desire to be heard, and that simply listening and acknowledging that you recognize someone’s perspective can go a long way. Due to this, I approached many incidents first with the intention of hearing everyone out through active listening, but I still found a lot of grey area. I could see how many different approaches could be justified, depending upon the individual’s leadership values and styles. I would be interested in going through some of these workplace scenarios from the leader/supervisor’s perspective in the fall semester of the internship class.

I am kind of nervous about my presentations because it’s been a long time since I have presented in front of a large audience, yet alone in front of adults who have control over whether or not get extended a full-time position. In addition, one of my supervisors reached out to me to express disapproval that I wasn’t prepared for a meeting. I’m frustrated that I dropped the ball, especially because I believe that I have been very consistent in general, and especially with my interactions with other supervisors. However, I am thankful that she is able to confront me about issues she observes, as that’s the only way that I’m going to be able to correct them and improve.