Reflect on the leadership styles you have experienced at your internship (U.S. Department of State):
Leadership truly varies by person and their professional ‘upbringing’. My supervisor, Tom Fox, is on detail from the Department of Defense and has mainly commanded soldiers, not overseen policy experts or in my case, interns. His way of management is hands-off, assigning work and letting us work our way while providing feedback as we go. Additionally, he treats the internship far more as a learning experience, primarily because technology policy is such a new and emerging realm, as he learns we learn; he also started at State three months before my internship began, giving us a similar starting place as individuals new to the Department and how it operates.
Across the department, through working with other officials and hearing from interns, supervisors and managers trust those under them to do their jobs with little oversight. I have been tasked with leading meetings for my Unit and working with international delegations. At the same time, other interns in different offices have briefed principles, facilitated the creation of demarches for Embassy posts abroad, and undertaken other substantive roles.
I would say interns at State have far more independence in their work than at companies and organizations. While several reasons exist for this, I think it is mainly due to staffing shortages which pull interns into more substantive work, and because the environment encourages personal advancement and careers in public service.