Growing Leaders

After reading a post off of Tim Elmore's blog, Growing Leaders, I realized the importance in not only first impressions, but keeping that impression throughtout your intern experience. People say first impressions are everything, but what do they matter if you completely change the way you act a week after you get the job or internship? Tim Elmore told a story of a friend of his who had a bad experience with six college students doing an internship for him. After recieving the internship, the students quickly went back to their immature, college behavior, causing Tim's friend to want to end the internship a month after it began. Tim gave his friend advice, telling him to tell the interns that "An internship is a 12 week interview. It is a stimulation the job you will have one day." Doing so makes them realize that they are being observed, while observing their future career. After telling the interns that, they completely turned around and "had great work ethic, great passion for their jobs, and great hunger to grow as emerging leaders." When I finished reading this inspiring article, I felt compelled to make a change in my own internship experience, to focus on growing in to the responsible, initiative leader I know I can be. While in my mentorship, some concrete things I can do to to make sure I have a good impression all year long include being punctual, energetic, and eager to learn from my mentor.The thing I found to be most relevant in the blog is that the internship is not available to just blow off, it's there to help us learn and grow into the leaders we were called to be.

Tim Elmore's blog: http://growingleaders.com/blog/