Why Going from Director to Intern can be Healthy
By: The Equation
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Youngadult, Internships, Business

Why Going from Director to Intern can be Healthy

How being the lowest rung on the ladder can teach you more about being at the top of it

When you’re faced with multiple decisions a day, that can be tiring. In the same way when you have multiple small tasks to complete, that can also be tiring. The mental taxation from these activities is what differentiates the type of tiredness that you experience.

With that being said, there are different levels of mental taxation when it comes to being in a lower vs. higher ranking position within a company. People too often get caught up in titles rather than the knowledge that they can gain in their position. Regardless of a title, there is always something to learn in any given position. Though the impact of your position may be different depending on the totem pole of your organization, it is always in your best interest to learn from those above and below you.

Photo by Arif Riyanto on Unsplash

Here’s what this is referring to:

In one of my positions as a Director at the McMillon Innovation Studio I make decisions daily to best support my team. I am one of the leaders in that organization. Being in a position of leadership naturally puts you in a place of having to make choices — keeping in mind these choices will affect other people.

In another position I’ve recently held at Seaboard Corporation, I am just another intern. How many decisions do I make?

About negative 2.

Do I make decisions daily?

Yes, I get to choose what I want to eat for lunch! Being an intern is not a bad thing or a negative experience, you just aren’t the decision maker for… well anything really. The hard part for me is I went from making constant decisions to making no decisions in a matter of weeks. That was a big adjustment, and it got even harder as time went on because the transition was so quick.

Both of these positions require different kinds of thinking, amounts of brainpower, etc. that make them mentally taxing in their own unique ways. The internship was candidly less mentally taxing because less people relied on me personally.

If so far it sounds like this internship was a negative experience or worse than being a director/leader, that’s not true. Though some internships can leave a bad taste in a young person’s mouth, I got to directly absorb unique experiences that will allow me to become a better decision maker.

How is that possible without making any decisions myself?

I got to analyze how decision-makers who are better and more experienced than me at leading make major decisions. Now that is what I call invaluable experience.

Outside of that I learned a lot more about several business industries including real estate, food processing, energy generation, and many more that the Seaboard Corp umbrella covers. That experience is fantastic for me because it is part of my mission to have an extremely diverse skill set and knowledge of many different business industries.

However, that experience does not provide as much value to me as witnessing Fortune 500 leadership make legitimately Earth-shattering decisions in the same room as me. This piece adds to another part of my mission to gain experience in leadership positions, but in this case I was not in the position. I was around other leaders who I took notes from.

Do I sound too excited yet?

Good.

Here is the difference between the decisions I make vs. the decisions that the Seaboard leadership makes which causes the shattering of Earth:

When I make a decision within the studio as a Director, here are the effects-

About 60 people will somehow feel it

A few hundred people will potentially see it or know about it

It will shift the environment of the overall studio

There may or may not be positive/negative consequences from it

When the Seaboard leadership team makes a decision, here are some of the effects-

About 12,000+ people will somehow feel it

A “few” hundred-thousand will see it or know about it

It will shift the environment of major areas including entire countries

There may or may not be positive/negative consequences from it

There is an incredible amount to learn from watching those types of decisions be made. Though my decisions don’t affect nearly as many people, applying what I learned as just the intern to my director role is key to becoming a better leader.

When I implement what I learned in my internship into what I do as a director I will instantly enable myself to make better decisions. I know this because I got a front-row seat to some of the best leadership in town, and get to filter in or out what I think is applicable to my organization and leadership style. That doesn’t mean I will always make the right decision and it doesn’t mean that leaders of huge companies always do either.

Learning from other’s mistakes is one of the best ways to sharpen your leadership skills, and it is healthy to observe other leaders that are multiple positions ahead of you (especially when you are currently a leader in some capacity). Does that mean you have to be the intern at some point to become the leader? Absolutely not, but it is invaluable experience to learn from those who are better than you at whatever you are trying to become.

Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

All leadership positions hold importance (not just positions in giant companies) and I am not trying to say ever leader is the best to learn from. There are certainly terrible leaders out there who lead with things like fear, dollar amounts, etc. I am encouraging you to keep learning from leaders that positively impact your life. One day you will become or already are a leader, and will appreciate the knowledge that you absorbed. Once you have been the leader of something for a long time and you get comfortable, it can be easy to just stay where you are. Sitting back and letting the people under you be the only ones growing is the fastest way to no longer be the leader. Even in the classic game of follow the leader the person in front has to keep moving forward or else someone in line that keeps moving will inevitably pass them.

I think that it’s obvious which is the better position to be in, but what’s not obvious is the fact that you can learn just as much (or maybe even more in some cases) from being “just the intern” in an organization than being at the top of the ladder. Climbing ladders is never fun, but each position presents a unique situation, so be sure to keep learning in every position that you hold. You truly never know what knowledge those around you may be able to give unless you’re open to looking for it.