Personal Contributions: Settling in and Learning

Before diving directly into my personal contributions thus far, I feel as though it is important to address a portion of my blog from last week (as it relates to my contributions). When discussing the idea of improving leadership, I said that more direct contact/meetings/explanations from my supervisor would be beneficial to organizational leadership. Well, this week, I made a strong effort to approach my supervisor, asking directly for explanations and asking questions I viewed as valuable to my work. As a result of this, I found this week that I was more engaged in my work, and I believe my contribution to the organization has improved as a result.

Anyway, getting into my contributions, I can honestly say that the work that I have been doing and will continue to do is not the most exciting thing in the world. This work, however, is valuable to the goals of the company (my department specifically), and I have been able to learn from it. One particular project (and the one of the main projects I will be working on this summer) that I have worked on tirelessly has been the examination and filing of performance data as it relates to asbestos insurance claims for different companies. In this role, I have found various pieces of information (i.e., company ID numbers, settlement/defense costs, trends in filed claims over x years), and organized them neatly into a “master sheet”. As I said, this is not the most exciting work, however it is of great value for senior analysts who do not have the time to sort through all of this information. While I myself am not responsible for in-depth analysis of this information, through conversations with my supervisor, I have picked up on certain pieces of information to look for in analysis, and what they mean. For example, when looking at data trends, it may be important to ask “why is there a variance in 3 year and 5 year data trends–what happened in those two years”? By asking these important questions, I can begin to learn more and more from the rather simple work that I am doing.

Specifically regarding my insights about leadership, I believe that my understanding of leadership in an organizational context is valuable for group efforts. Through various courses, I have learned that leadership is just as much about followers as it is the leader themselves. As a follower in this organization, I understand my actions can have consequences for the group as a whole. This is why, despite not loving what I do on a day to day basis, I work very hard to make sure I am efficient and effective in my role. This also stems back to the fact that I have great respect for my supervisor and other experts I work with, as if I did not, I am sure that I, and others, would be less inclined to work as hard as we do on tedious activities. Going forward, I am excited to see what else I can contribute to the organization, and how I can connect these contributions to leadership in society.