Leader/Follower Relationships – Caroline Corry

Since the nonprofit, The Virginia Holistic Justice Initiative, has only been in operation for about two years and last year’s interns were virtual this is the first time they have had interns work in person. While this organization is new and I am sure there was a bit of a learning curve for the leaders of the nonprofit, there is no noticeable gaps in communications or operations between the interns and the full-time workers. Because the nonprofit is so new and small there is just the intern team of eight people, a caseworker, Han, and Tom, the CEO and founder. The interns all work together in the same area and on the same project, but we were also all split into smaller “support” teams of two. The support teams are somewhat informal, and interns communicate about the project both in their support teams and with the whole group. All the interns report to Tom directly every few days about our progress and challenges at impromptu team meetings. The caseworker, Han, feels as though he is in a superior, non-formal leadership role but does not engage directly in the interns work and does not ask for any work to be competed for him. Maggie Fox, one of the interns has worked with Tom to create this intern team for the summer and so is the primary point of contact before anyone reaches out to Tom since he is extremely busy. While she is not in a special or different formal position than any of the other interns, it does feel as though she has influence over the other interns since she often communicates what Tom wants from the interns. However, Tom often does communicate tasks and organize the work we are doing directly. Tom often is not in the office because of court dates, client meetings, and other obligations and therefore places a lot of trust in the interns that they can execute the tasks he has given. Additionally, Tom has communicated to us on the first day that he trusts us as capable adults and urged us to trust each other as well. My feelings about Tom as a leader of this organization as well as the other intern’s feelings as far as I can tell are very positive. We all regard him highly as an intelligent, communicative, clear, focused, and attentive leader. One of the strengths of Tom’s leadership is his apparent interest in each inters success in the project and our personal growth. He checks in often during the week with each intern at our team meetings about what we have accomplished, how we are progressing, if we have met any challenges, and how he can assist us in overcoming them. Additionally, Tom has taken an active interest in what we want to learn about his work and the criminal justice system in general. He has designated an intern who volunteered to be the “experience chair” who will work with Tom to coordinate speakers, visits and “ride-alongs” with Tom, Han, and other professionals working in the criminal justice system. Tom cultivates feelings of trust and reciprocity which allows him to cultivate good relationships with his followers.