Week 1 – Leader / Member Relations

During my time at FLIP National, I find it interesting and refreshing how the leader/follower relations works. Our team is largely fellows who have not been on the team for the entirety of the existence of the non-profit, and quite a few are also students. Although COVID-19 has shaken up the whole world, this fellowship and all of its functionings were done remotely even prior to the pandemic. Thus, Slack Workspace and Zoom meetings have always been the way the members of the non-profit organization have interacted. As such, this inherently creates a bit more fluidity in the leader/member relations.

Oftentimes my supervisor, as the Executive Director, is the main “leader” figure in the fellowship. Given how our fellowship is structured, all of our check-ins require his attendance, and he holds a great deal of information on the back-end of things in the organization. In addition, while I as a Chapter Establishment and Development fellow does not know the work done by the other teams, my supervisor has to be briefed on essentially everything going on in all teams. Thus, there is no denying that within the hierarchy/dynamic of the organization, my supervisor is very much respected and at a different level than the fellows, or even the Directors of the different teams.

The Directors of the different teams have varying degrees of seniority in their roles. Some were fellows just a year or so ago, while others have been apart of the non-profit for multiple years. However, only my supervisor has been a part of FLIP National since its inception, and even in the group that formed this one (Columbia FLIP).

While my description largely makes it seem like my supervisor has massive power over the non-profit, he actually places a great deal of social opportunities for all of us to simply feel comfortable. We have a “random” channel on our Slack where everyone can just talk, and we have weekly zoom sessions where he and the other fellows talk about anything besides work. He also gushes over Avatar the Last Airbender very often, and tells us hilarious stories. Thus, while we undeniably respect his place as a leader and there is quite the distance between us knowledge/power wise, he does a great deal to make himself be open, amiable, and kind.