Ahoj! This past week flew by with work, planning for post-grad and my future, exploring Prague, and even getting to travel and visit Rome over this past weekend, I was one busy bee. A good deal of my coworkers are beginning to take off for holiday and they stagger their vacations so this past week I have been supporting the backup of their files and orders. My main responsibility has been to order, schedule, and process all the requests for orders from our customers that go to the people who are out of office. Furthermore, as this past week marks the point halfway through July, I felt the need to buckle down and focus on identifying future career paths, potential deferred MBA programs, and beginning to research the information of companies.

When it comes to my leadership and leadership style, I would not say that this international internship experience has drastically changed my style, but rather it has developed and enhanced it. As a leader, I fluctuate on my leadership style depending on the needs of the situation. If the situation calls for someone to sit back, be a third-party democratic mediator in the room, that is the position I will take on. On the other hand, if the situation is in need of someone to take charge of the room or problem, I will do this and delegate aspects to fellow team members to ensure we can complete the project at hand in an effective, timely, and efficient manner. The one leadership style I would say I have had the least amount of exposure to is the coaching style where I have the ability to develop other people’s skills and essentially hold their hand until they learn how to fly.

This is not from a lack of ability, but I believe from lack of exposure or opportunity. I am thrilled that this upcoming semester I will be serving as a potential new member advisor in my co-ed professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, to help guide and coach the potential new members on their way to become successful business leaders. I believe that this opportunity can strengthen my coaching style and allow me to further develop my leadership style as a whole.

This summer I have utilized and been exposed to a more Laissez-Faire style of leadership – of being more hands off with projects and allowing team members to do their work without a great deal of oversight. I am able to do my projects and complete my work without the guidance of supervisors or mentors. This has allowed for a great deal of growth as it has both pros and cons associated with this type of environment. Often I feel as though there is so much room so that I can do the processes and be productive, but it comes with sometimes too much room. This can be seen when I am done with my work as I may not know what to do next or I feel worried as though I messed up on my tasks because there was not a great deal of in-depth instructions. These differences come from a different cultural and business expectations between peers and from exposure to a leadership style I am more unfamiliar with.

While participating in the Deloitte Future of Work Institute, I had the opportunity to take my Business Chemistry assessment (if you want to read into it, I highly recommend as it is a riveting assessment of workplace personalities!). I received back the results that I was Number 1) a Pioneer and Number 2) an Integrator. This means that in the workplace, I am high-energy and optimistic, very adaptable and collaborative with people, and that I have highly expressive traits in excitement and working with people. Some other personality and leadership tests that I have done over the years have resulted in very similar results with my Myers-Briggs being an ENFJ and my Big 5 Personality assessment stated I was highly Extraverted, highly Open, highly Conscientious, highly Agreeable, and low on the Neuroticism scale. Combining all of these various work and personality tests (although none are completely accurate or comprehensive), can paint a pretty good picture about who I am as a person and how I work in the workplace. The international internship has challenged my leadership style by encouraging me to listen more and speak less, which in turn has strengthened my ability for effective communication, setting boundaries with regard to work and life (which I believe is a great trait in a leader), and tested my adaptability with the international perspective and foreign language.

Čao! With Love,

Eliana Goodman