I went to Paris this week on the weekend. It was very nice. First, the plane landing was very violent. It shocked all the passengers. I looked up the age difference in hires across a few airlines and found that the average age of Ryanair captains was significantly lower than that of say American Airlines. When we got out of the plane, we saw farmland. Ryanair seems to always require passengers to walk to the plane and get on board outside. When we looked around, we realized we were in a very small airport. I thought we would have landed in Charles DeGaulle Airport, one of the biggest in the world. But, instead we landed at Beauvais Paris airport which was nowhere near the city. To get into Paris and to the hostel we were staying at, we had to take a bus to Saint Denis, and then a metro from that bus station, and then walk a half hour. We took the opportunity of the walk to go find a place to eat. 

While we were there, my friend and I made two new friends. One was from Australia and the other was from New Zealand. We ended up walking just about everywhere in Paris. We walked from our hostel to Notre Dame to the Louvre, to the Arc de Triomphe, and then also to the Sacre Coeur. To leave, we took a train from Paris after saying goodbye to our new friends. We arrived in the town of Beauvais late at midnight, and were there until things started closing down. We then walked to the airport since our flight was very early in the morning. It took an hour to walk there. We waited around for the flight then got back early in Dublin. The Dublin airport is around an hour from UCD campus. All this travel was very worth it to travel to Paris, it was a very fun place to go and the St. Christopher’s hostel was amazing for making friends.

Before the internship, my leadership style was more laid back. I kept this from when I did a lot of active leadership during wrestling in high school. The approach was to essentially lead by example and get to know everyone, and let them know they can come to me for anything. While this approach is not the best, it has its advantages. Being a leader requires you to be the representative of everyone’s concerns, while making decisions that need to be enforced. I was confident and final on decisions. As wrestling captain I was taking a hard approach. This comes with disadvantages as I was trying to be everyone’s friend, yet at the same time, unchanging when objections came my way. There are a lot of ways to be a leader, and many of them are great, successful strategies that are completely valid. 

During and after the internship I have been a research analyst working under a supervisor, gaining leadership skills in an unconventional way. I am being held accountable for my projects and I demonstrate self leadership and responsibility for deadlines. I also have to communicate well with my supervisor over the past weeks on the program. Now my leadership style has adapted to my new experiences being independent and having these unique, longer time frame responsibilities. I believe that the best new strategy I can employ is to try and apply more of a perspective view, as opposed to perception. Everyone has their own perception, but perspective is how you step into other people’s shoes and see the world through their lens. As wrestling captain I was always coming from things from my perspective and not considering others as much, especially after decisions were made.

There are a lot of different leadership styles, and from organizational behavior in my coursework and real-world experience, I’ve learned that effective leadership is not really a one-size-fits-all. Some leaders thrive through collaboration and team building, while others lead by setting a strong vision or modeling high standards. During my internship abroad, I came to appreciate a more solitary style. It was instead leading through my own initiative and communication in a solo research environment. Organizational behavior theory helped me recognize that taking ownership of tasks is an even more powerful form of leadership. This perspective shift has made me more confident in my ability to lead in both individual and team-based settings.