A Contradiction of Terms? Leadership and Internship?

One of the last things people think about when I mention I'm an intern is that the internship is an opportunity to show my leadership skills. And to a certain extent, they are right to assume this.

When people think of "the intern", they think of the guy who is asked to work for free, make a coffee or donut run for the office, do menial office tasks, clean the fridge, someone they can make jokes about, and pass off any unwanted tasks.

All of these examples are obviously stereotypes, but if you've interned with multiple places while you were in high school or college or even out of school like I have, you've had at least a handful of these experiences.

The internship I have in the city manager's office in Apache Junction is antithetical to this stereotype intern. The staff at AJ give me a tremendous amount of respect and allow a lot of input in what I do to help them on projects. The blessing is that they have all been interns before and have seen the benefit an internship has had on their careers. They allow me to lead and add my own creativity to the projects they have assigned to me.

In a sense, it's very difficult to be a leader and an intern. Why? Because you're the new kid on the block, per se. You're just learning about the organization and how everyone interacts with one another.

Are you going to become someone's supervisor in the first month of your internship? Probably not. But you will get to see other people demonstrate leadership abilities around you and ask a lot of questions.

I get to view two leaders in particular in my office: the assistant city manager and the assistant to the city manager. They have a couple dozen projects and items going on at a time and its impressive to see them balance so much work and be able to maintain relationships with people throughout the City of Apache Junction. They have a lot of responsibility and since the current city manager will be retiring soon, the pressure is on them to perform at even higher levels than their position requires.

This internship excites me more than others have in the past. I get to be involved in the city manager's office. Since they all are excellent managers, I get to be in the midst of leaders. Though I may not able to practice leadership, I have the opportunity to observe leaders close up and see what they do on a daily basis. I am excited for all the future learning experiences I have in AJ.