Communication and Leadership

This summer I am interning with Guidehouse which is a consulting firm that is based in Washington DC. I am specifically in their National Security Sector with three other interns, but in the entire internship program, there are about one hundred twenty interns. This past week mainly focused on adjusting to the firm and I attended different orientation events to learn more about internship-wide and sector-specific activities and tasks. The first onboarding event that I attended was Monday morning where we met Kelli Cottom who runs the internship program with the firm. It was great to learn about the firm from an internal perspective and get a better idea of how the firm did throughout the past year even with COVID-19. I was impressed with what I learned in this session about the internship program and the efforts that were made to make its kick-off run smoothly. I understood there are many moving parts within the firm such as HR, the C-Suite, Consultants, and other positions but it was insightful to see a breakdown of the various leadership roles everyone has.

Over the past week, one of my biggest realizations was the importance of communication. There are over one hundred interns that needed to receive a Guidehouse laptop and a client laptop, as well as get a security clearance. This required a lot of effort from so many different individuals, which depended on clear communication. Even though we could not be in person, the Guidehouse team prioritized meeting deadlines and using emails, phone calls, and other forms of communication to make the internship possible. This communication was not just a transaction, but more relationship-based. While joining the Microsoft teams calls, I witnessed the positive feedback that the leadership gave to one another. Even though they were not in person to organize the program, I was able to observe how much they supported one another to ensure that each individual was fulfilling their role.

Overall, everything I learned this week about the firm was positive and I am excited to continue with the internship. Even though it was a bit of a slow week because I am just getting started, I am hopeful that it will be a positive experience and I will continue to learn about leadership through the firm.