Final Blog Post: L/F Relations at the Brunch

After taking time away from my internship for a family matter, I returned about a week and a half ago to help with the final push toward our biggest event of the year, the County Chairs’ Brunch. It was a very busy time, and one of my only opportunities to work with everyone in person. Having now finished that process, I have thoughts on the leader-follower relationships at that event.

Dan, our executive director, takes great pride in the event’s success — so the time leading up to the event is a whirlwind for him. As such, he’s fairly task-oriented in his leadership, and willing to quickly delegate tasks as they arise. During ticket check-in, for example, he would occasionally pull the other interns and me into his office to deal with side issues as they arose, including making phone calls to attendees and assembling packages for those who couldn’t make it to the pickup. Despite this structure, in which he was the clear leader of the group, he also trusted us to make our own decisions when the circumstances required judgement calls. He was even willing to take direction from one of the other employees or interns if we needed help with a situation.

At the event itself, his leadership shone. He gave us all assignments, and (when possible amid the chaos) would check in with us to make sure we were all on track. He also delegated certain “team leads” to ensure there were multiple levels of leadership people could go to with questions — whether they were staff, interns, volunteers, or attendees, everyone had someone they could ask for help. This structure requires significant mutual trust between leaders and followers at all levels, and that trust was certainly there. Followers clearly regarded leaders quite highly.

Once it was finished, he resumed his hands-on style to tie up loose ends, from takedown to packing up to answering final questions from attendees. Though he was task-oriented at this part, he also made time to convey a genuine message of thanks to everyone — and even took us all out for a drink upon the event’s conclusion, where we could converse in a more informal setting, the weight of the event finally behind us. His leadership these last two weeks were a major reason for the success of the brunch.