Theories in Action: Relationship v. Task-Oriented

The second theory in action I want to address in relation to my internship is the relationship vs. task-orientated leadership style. This theory allows us to see how leaders work with their followers primarily displaying their leadership qualities and traits. While both traits are important, there is often a clear division between the two qualities.

During my internship, I had two main supervisors, who each had different roles. One leader, my direct supervisor was in charge of the projects I worked on, ensuring that I knew what I was doing, giving my tips when necessary, and also connecting me with other resources. While a lot of this was task-oriented she did take the time to ask me about my goals, interests, and the skills I wanted to gain throughout my internship. She then made an effort to find opportunities based on these interests. For example, I told her I was interested in rotational programs for undergraduate students because the ones I was introduced to were only for graduate students. With this information, she found an entire list of schools and programs that support pre-law students and sent this to me. In addition, when I informed her that something I really wanted to do during the internship was seeing a court trial she made sure to find one that  I could virtually attend before the end of the summer. These efforts showed me that not only was she task-oriented but also relationship-oriented. She made efforts to find opportunities that fit my interest and what I told he I wanted to do; this was important to me. Beyond these things, our conversations on the Microsoft video always began with a debrief of our week, telling each other about the stressors as well as the positives. This, I feel, helped us to build a relationship that was not only work-based.

My other supervisor showed similar characteristics but seemed more task-oriented. While I only saw her once a week (if that, because she was not my direct supervisor), the conversations were always structured and focused on debriefing the week. We would talk about challenges we had for the week, how we planned to improve on them, and anything we wanted to learn more about. While this could’ve transformed into a relationship-based connection I believe our remote setting got in the way of that.