Before this internship experience, I would consider my leadership approach to be very direct and hands-on. Most of my leadership experience has come from being a Team Lead at my food service job back at home. Because my job can get very busy very quickly, especially during the lunch and dinner rushes, I am used to having to make decisions on the spot and stepping in when things need to be done. I would usually take the lead by delegating tasks to my coworkers and helping them out if they were struggling.
Working an internship in South Korea has given me a new perspective on leadership. At my internship, I was primarily working in an office setting. However, towards the end of the week I got to work the taproom of my company’s brewery as well, and help through the beginnings of the dinner rush. Being able to work in another country and interact with people who had different experiences and approaches to work broadened my view of leadership. I had to observe the environment around me and understand how other people communicated before relying on the same leadership style that I had developed working in the United States.
At my job at home, traditionally, I would be direct with those who I’m training and give them feedback immediately. For example, if they were doing something incorrectly, I would immediately step in and remind them how to do it properly before letting them continue. However, when I was being trained working in the taproom, I noticed that most of the time I would not get feedback like that unless someone was explicitly teaching me how to do something. Most of the time, they would step in and finish the task for me if I, for example, pressed the wrong button on the espresso machine by mistake. If I am doing something incorrectly, I am the type of person who would like to be told that as soon as I do it so I can correct it. Working the taproom made me realize that my personal leadership style operates under the assumption that other people also want to be corrected immediately, and that the approach that I take won’t work for everyone. I reflected on this, and moving forward I am going to take greater care to observe my trainees in order to adjust my leadership style to what they specifically need.
My time abroad working in a different country has also made me more comfortable with being uncertain and asking questions. At both work and school, I always felt like I should have the answer and that I should know what to do. In my internship, however, I had completely new experiences from so many different angles. That was my first time both working an office job and a taproom, so I had a lot of questions and uncertainties at first. I have been working at my job back at home for three years, so I am extremely comfortable with how to do everything, interacting with customers, and helping my coworkers with whatever they need. Experiencing a completely new job threw me off balance at first, but I quickly learned that is normal to encounter situations that I have never experienced before and to ask for help.
As a result of this experience, I think I am becoming a more flexible and understanding leader. I still value the qualities that make me a good leader as a Team Lead, such as willingness to step in when something needs to be done and being dependable, but I learned that leadership is not always about taking charge. I learned that sometimes the best thing I can do is to simply step back and listen to figure out what people need from me, which has also helped me become better at adapting my communication style depending on the person and situation. My internship has broadened my view by showing me different types of leadership styles that I can learn and take from in my responsibilites and roles moving forward. Effective leadership is more than getting people to complete a task. It’s about supporting the people around you to work toward the same goal.
