It’s week six and this past week has been a long one. For the majority of my past week, I have been gathering information and ideas for the owner of my company, Ronan, who has a very serious and professional determination for his window displays. The majority of my daily work comes from a list of things we conjure up the day prior and then the next day, I work through the list and at about 3pm every afternoon, or whenever he can find an opening in his busy schedule, we have a discussion about my findings and make a new list. My focus on the company’s website has lessened in the past week tremendously, as Ronan is determined to get this new window display up by the end of the month of July. He showed me numerous folders of his ideas, and they were all more creative than I ever would think of myself. So, his current idea that I need to come to life by the end of the month, or at least until the last day I’m at my internship, is all revolving around bees. The main slogans going on the two large display windows will read ‘Hi Honey, I’m Home’ and the other reading ‘Home is Where Your Honey Bee’. He has huge folders of drawings and bee quotes to match the theme, he is a professional calligraphist, painter, artist, along with being a business owner, auctioneer, and sales and lettings professional. I have been working with him more than my supervisor which has been super interesting to see into the mind of someone with so much responsibility, especially over the entire company. 

While my mind has been majorly consisting of bees, it’s been elsewhere as well. Although this past weekend was not as climatic as I had anticipated, it was still fun. I found out I was sick and had to go to urgent care. Other than that slight downfall, I went to Dun Laoghaire on Saturday which was beautiful. It’s on the eastern coast of Ireland and we spent about half the day there just exploring and roaming around. This and the urgent care were the highlights of my weekend! I also saw Sza on Wednesday at Malahide Castle and Gardens which was a cool experience as well.

In terms of leadership skills and style, I would certainly say my ways of being a leader have altered ultimately for the better during my time here and throughout my internship. Before this internship experience, I would describe my leadership style as slightly dictative. I do not always like or appreciate working in a group or team because I like things done a certain way and know the only way for them to be that way is if I do them myself. Working in groups in the past has also been disastrous as there are always the people who do not put in the work or effort required for their portion of what the assignment asks for, so you have to pick up the slack to complete the assignment, all whilst not getting the right credit for it, because they still get the same grade as well. Other past instances like me being an older sister and leader for her also make my leadership skills a little forthright more than some people would like. 

My internship abroad has challenged my view and approach to leadership tremendously. I think now taking a step back from my past ways, I can be more of a team player. Especially when working on the website for my company, I had to listen thoroughly to the specific objectives my company coworkers wanted on the website, and I was responsible for communicating that to the web designers. Listening and understanding what is important to others, as well as coming to a consensus when it comes to priorities in assignments and projects is super important as a leader to guide people in the right direction. In my position, I had to give my input on website recommendations, especially as an outside, young eye. While I was happy to give my own thoughts on what should be added and subtracted from the site, I also had to keep in mind that this is very much not my own company and I have only been here for a couple of weeks so in this situation, I really had to listen to what the others wanted to be done and prioritized. I am becoming a better leader as a result of this experience as I now understand the importance of seeing everyone’s insight for projects to make a really great outcome that pleases everyone involved.