Adapting to Covid

One of the biggest forms of Leadership I saw at my time at AGS was Heidi and Sam’s ability to navigate their self-owned business during COVID while managing fiver interns. Adaptative leadership is about “how leaders encourage people to adapt, it focuses on the adaptations required of people in response to changing environments. It’s simply about the leader encouraging followers to deal with change.” One of the biggest challenges coming into the summer was how I was going to have a successful internship that was worthwhile for both me and my employer and allow me to continue along my career path while achieving personal goals. Sam and Heidi made sure to talk to me in my interview about what my goals and aspirations are to make sure that we were both a good fit for each other. After our conversation, we decided that I would be a good fit at AGS and I would receive beneficial experience to help me along my career path. Sam and Heidi eased my worries about being able to properly complete an internship during the summer. They were able to adapt very well while also creating an environment where I truly felt like I was meeting my fellow interns and employees. In lieu of an office experience where socialization would happen naturally, they encouraged collaboration on projects as well as video meetings between interns. Through our work, we were able to get to know each other better and therefore do a better job of completing our work. Heidi and Sam also made sure we were well equipped for our next steps with training every week as well as opportunities to meet with them in a mentee capacity. They made sure that even though we weren’t physically in touch with them, that they were always an email, phone call, or text away from them and it really helped eased tensions. The way that Sam and Heidi were able to adapt to COVID while remaining productive and taking on five interns was truly inspiring to me and displayed a level of leadership I hope to one day match.