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Abby Marcus -- Vampire Cowboys
Abby Marcus is the Managing Director/Producer of Vampire Cowboys in Brooklyn. Vampire Cowboys describes themselves as “geek theatre”. They produce original theatre in a “comic book aesthetic”, aiming to bridge the gap between mainstream mass media and the performing arts.
Make sure you check them out at New York Comic Con in October!
My Authentic Leadership
I will not begin my internship until Monday so I don’t have a great sense of how my leadership will apply specifically to my SME placement yet. However I feel that generally the way to develop authentic leadership is to continue to push yourself and see which roles you thrive in and which you don’t. In my past experiences, I have learned most from committing myself to a project or responsibility even if it was not something I was completely comfortable with. By leaving my comfort zone I was able to discover new capabilities and learn more about myself. Being aware of my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses is what will ultimately allow me to be authentic and successful. However, when I commit to something I want to be sure I can carry it out, so I feel that smaller steps outside my comfort zone will lead to better results than huge risks. This summer I am already out of my comfort zone in many ways living in a foreign, non-English speaking country. Thus my awareness of the steps I can take to make myself feel more at ease and confident will be extremely important in allowing me to step out of my comfort zone professionally. I will need to find a balance between immersing myself in French culture and the culture of the office and my personal habits and ways of working effectively. Because I like to travel and to throw myself into new experiences, I think adapting to life in Paris will be less difficult because I already have the skills to adapt to new situations. I will develop my authentic leadership through taking smaller risks and keeping in touch with people from home to maintain my comfort zone and support system.
Managing Myself
The section in Drucker’s article that most stood out to me was when he wrote that many people do not know what they want to do until their mid-20s, but you should get to that point knowing what your strengths are, how you learn, and what you don’t want to be doing. I currently am unsure about exactly what I want to do after I graduate and during my career, but I have learned about myself and what types of environments I work best in. Being at Rice and my past work experiences have taught me how I learn best, I am definitely a reader. Writing for my local newspaper last summer as well as some of my other experiences have taught me about what I don’t want to do as my career. I know what some of my strengths are, but it is hard for me to say what I am good at without feeling arrogant or overconfident. Over the course of the summer I hope to become more sure of what my strengths are and be comfortable telling future employers that I can add value in these specific areas.
I also hope to use my awareness of how I work best to make sure that I can be producing my highest quality work. I often fell that I get lost in a large group, but need a small group or at least one other person to bounce ideas off of in order to do my best. In my office, many people work from home some days and my mentor often travels or is out of the office. Every Monday there is a staff meeting where everyone is present, so I need to take advantage of that time to get feedback and suggestions on my work. I need to be ready Monday morning to present what I am doing in a clear manner and have it be at a stage of completion that makes feedback useful. This will also help me to work better as I am someone who likes to work under the pressure of a deadline. My assignments so far have not had strict deadlines, so creating my own is helpful in making sure I am productive and stay on task.
Developing a relationship with my mentor and other lesser developmental relationships has definitely been harder than I anticipated. My mentor is often out of the office and I typically see him only at scheduled meetings once or twice a week. One of the members of his research team was assigned to be my direct supervisor, so if I have questions I generally ask her. However she works from home about half of the time and so questions are generally asked and answered by email, not the best way to build a mentoring relationship. Generally I have very little supervision and I have learned that if I want feedback, need help, or want to build a network I have to take the initiative. At first I was nervous about being an inconvenience if I needed to ask a question or make sure my work is on the right track. However, I have learned that it is better to ask as I have generally gotten really helpful notes that make my work much better. My mentor and my supervisor both are very busy, but every time I talk to them I get the sense that they really want to get to know me and serve as mentors. I just have to make the effort to find a time when they are available and do what I can to facilitate a relationship. I also have been able to learn from the interns who have been at IFRI longer than I have. Since the other IFRI interns are generally graduate students, they are close enough to my age to relate easily while still having more professional experience that makes them great people to learn from.
Zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity. If I had to choose seven traits that I think are most necessary for a successful life I’m not sure this would be my exact list, and in analyzing what is necessary for success in my SME placement it is hard to see how some of them are relevant (gratitude, optimism, to some extent social intelligence). Yet although what is meant by the seven traits chosen is somewhat open to interpretation, I think they fit into three main abilities- the ability to be self- motivated (curiosity, self-control, zest), the ability to respond to setbacks (optimism and grit), and the ability to interact positively with others (social intelligence and gratitude). I believe I have all three abilities with varying strength in each of them. I have a high degree of intellectual curiosity and when I am interested, I throw myself into a project and am both passionate and disciplined. However my self-motivation is not strong if I do not find a project engaging and I find myself looking for external motivation which may or may not be available. In my work at IFRI, I have very little supervision and am highly self-directed so my high level of self-motivation is essential. When I ask for feedback, it often is not incredibly specific and mostly I just hear “oh that’s good. Keep doing what you’re doing”. My curiosity and genuine interest in policy research is critical to my success when external motivation is so limited. Although I do not necessarily consider myself an optimist, I am able to face setbacks and still continue towards my goals. I think that not being an optimist makes me more prepared for setbacks and better able to adjust. The final ability of being able to interact positively with others is also one that I feel I possess. It is not incredibly relevant to my internship as most of my work is independent, but my relationships with others whether in the office or back in the US are what sparks my interest in many areas and keeps me directed towards my goals.
Managing Your Boss
I did not have much interaction with my boss this week as he was working on a project that required him to be out of the office. The article’s emphasis on how a relationship between a boss and employee must be managed by both parties really resonated as it is something I have learned over the course of the summer. In previous work environments I have always had regular contact with my boss, clear goals and deadlines, and regular checking of my work. Currently I am working on two ongoing projects with only the end of the internship as deadlines and it is not uncommon for my boss to be out of the office four days a week. I came in expecting a mentor who I would see most days and who would actively be involved in helping me develop ideas for my paper. And while my mentor is very useful in helping me find sources and learn about the research process, he has given me a lot of independence and expected me to take charge of my projects. I’ve learned that I cannot wait for someone to come check on me, I have to be proactive in asking for feedback and in making sure that my work is what my mentor is expecting. I have also learned to be more explicit in the questions I ask. “Am I on the right track?” only garnered a response of “yes”, which was not incredibly helpful in determining the direction I should take my project next. I have to have ideas ready and ask which option would work best or ask what my next step should be.
At the end of the article it says that effective leaders leave their employees with a mindset not of success or failure, but of learning and experience. My mentor definitely has this attitude. Anytime I finish an assignment my mentor asks “Did you find this useful? What did you learn from this exercise?”. These questions help me to see my work from this summer not only in terms of specific assignments, but also what skills and broader ideas I have picked up and how my work fits into my other assignments and the department as a whole. Although the position I am in is one where it is almost impossible to fail, by analyzing what I learn from my work I gain some of the same insights that come from analyzing the successes and failures of trial and error jobs. I also agree with the idea that analyzing work is much better than praise and that praise can be a demotivator. After working on one assignment for two weeks, I sent it to my boss for feedback before continuing. My boss’s comment was “Good Work”. The lack of more specific feedback made it hard for me to know whether I had really done well or if my boss was just not interested enough in my project to get more involved. I agree with the article that active involvement of the manager helps creativity and innovation of employees.
