Week 5: Theories in Action

Now that I am five weeks into my internship at Six One, I feel that I have had sufficient time to analyze and determine what the predominant leadership styles are within the agency. As an intern, I have had the chance to spend a lot of my time working closely with the agency’s founder, Kilee, helping her with her day-to-day tasks. From the very beginning of my internship when I first met her, I’ve always known that Kilee is a natural leader. She has a sense of self-assuredness about her that puts everyone at ease, and she is extremely confident and personable. After closer examination, though, I’ve determined that her main leadership style is transformational leadership. 

By definition, transformational leadership (in the context of the workplace) is “a leadership style in which leaders encourage, inspire, and motivate employees to innovate and create change that will help grow and shape the future success of the organization/company”. Transformational leaders inspire and motivate their followers without micromanaging everything that they do, completely trusting each of them in the process. This concept is extremely ingrained in the company culture at Six One, on all levels. For example, when I was going through the interviewing process as an intern, I was interviewed by several members of the team, and ultimately hired by a senior account executive –  all without ever having talked to or interviewing with Kilee, aside from a few emails.

During my onboarding process, I had my first one-on-one call with Kilee. She explained to me that she likes to let all members of the team, regardless of how new or young they may be, feel that they are capable of making decisions that impact the company – such as hiring an intern. The agency itself is a passion project of Kilee’s after a long and incredibly successful career in PR at major companies, and she’s always been transparent in sharing that one of her main goals is to teach and help shape the next generation of top PR professionals. This is something that I’ve seen her work at every single day throughout my internship. There is very rarely a zoom call that Kilee is on that she won’t impart some kind of knowledge or valuable lesson to the rest of the group, encouraging us to learn this or that and instructing us how to lead in specific situations. These are all central aspects of transformational leadership, and it’s extremely rewarding to work for someone who values the importance of bettering their employees and doing whatever they can to help them grow in their careers.