Leader/Follower Relationships at ASTHO

Since this has been my orientation week, I don’t yet know a ton about ASTHO (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials); however, I’ve been sitting in on meetings all week and have gotten a chance to observe some leader/follower dynamics in my organization. Interestingly enough, ASTHO has actually been doing remote work since before the pandemic began, so one of the team members told me it hasn’t been a very big switch for them. I don’t know the exact reason for their being remote before the pandemic, but I would guess it has something to do with how flexible the organization is as a whole. However, there is structure within the organization, in that there are numerous teams within the organization. ASTHO is broken down into departments, within which are more departments. In this way, leadership is distributed pretty broadly across the organization, so that teams whose functions are close together are all working under similar leaders. 

While titles do mean something, observing and participating in interactions with leaders this week, it does not seem that leaders are untouchable gods at ASTHO, which is comforting. This week, I reached out to a number of leaders across the organization to set up meetings, all of whom were very willing to meet with me. This accessibility of leadership was present during the all-team meeting we had this past week. The CEO himself was very relaxed, and some other staff members ended up running the meeting instead of him. Overall, all of my meetings have been quite relaxed, and, while they are all structured, each opens with introductions of some sort. In fact, if it is an internal team meeting, it is frequent that there are icebreakers at the beginning of the meeting, which allow people to build camaraderie before delving into official business. In general, people are free to communicate freely across Teams and the organization’s message board with each other, which means that there are open lines of communication between everyone at the organization, regardless of titles. 

Although I haven’t had a ton of exposure to the variety of leadership styles at ASTHO, I would say that there is structure and authority, but not so much that it feels autocratic. My boss has told me that I am expected to present what I am working on to other members of my team during team meetings, and I was able to assist another team member in editing his writing. While I am an intern, I know that my work is expected to contribute positively to the organization’s mission; just because I am an intern, it does not mean that my work cannot have value. As I continue to learn the ropes, it will become clearer to me the degree to which employees work independently versus collaboratively, and how much weight my work and suggestions will carry. However, my boss has mentioned that she will have collaborative working sessions with team members when need be, so collaboration is certainly a facet of ASTHO and happens between less/more senior employees. Of course, everyone is responsible for working independently when possible, but collaboration does happen as well. In other words, while leaders do play an important role in the organization, this neither means that followers’ contributions are unimportant or that leaders do not “get in the trenches” with employees. 

Generally, ASTHO is invested in cultivating everyone within the organization, regardless of their position. During the all-team meeting on Thursday, they mentioned several opportunities for professional development, aimed at various levels of leaders throughout the organization. However, there was one session that was open for anyone within the organization hoping to improve their “people” leadership skills, so it is clear to me that ASTHO sees potential for leadership in all its employees, not just ones that have a formal title.

Taking all this into account, I would consider ASTHO to be structured/organized when necessary, yet collaborative and more democratic when flexibility allows. Overall, it seems leaders in the organization are communicative and committed to their followers’ success; while they do exercise authority in their positions, they do not do so in a way that is stifling or overly heavy-handed.