Leadership Experience
The Sodexo Distance Dietetic Internship has a concentration in leadership. This is achieved through extensive coursework on leadership styles and skills, as well as practical experiences. The interns must begin to practice leadership skills as they must coordinate and negotiate the majority of their internship rotations. The internship projects are designed in such a way that the interns must take on leadership roles managing project assessment, development, implementation, and evaluation. Interns learn to develop facilitation skills with both peers and interdisciplinary teams. Leadership coursework is augmented with self-assessments, observation, reflection, and practical application to solidify learning.
Activities that fostered leadership development:
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Excerpts from Liz's leadership journals:
"
I am primarily a goal oriented, servant leader. The
values that guide my actions as a leader are commitment, humility, honesty, responsibility, trustworthiness,
enthusiasm, and a good work ethic. In the workplace,
the means is as important to me as the ends. I strive for quality work and
desire unity among workers. I have strengths in training, problem solving,
resource management, and forecasting for the future."
"I was able to utilize a servant leadership style in the food service management rotation. I was able to develop my skills at identifying operational problems, but also being able to take on some of the responsibility myself. Instead of just instructing an employee to wipe a dirty counter or work faster if they are running behind, I would offer to jump in and help to make sure the work was completed. This was an effective style, especially since the staffing level was fairly low. It is important, though, with a servant leadership style to be careful not to do too much for the employees so that you are promoting laziness for their responsibilities and you start neglecting the higher management functions of organization and oversight that are essential as well.
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Comments on Liz's leadership development:
It was a pleasure working with Liz! She worked well independently, yet asked questions appropriately. Actually, Liz did better than exceeding expectations with Jones Day. She made a huge impact on our whole operation, standing out to all of us here, but also to the client, Jones Day. Liz has the whole package to be an outstanding leader in the field of dietetics and food service. - Kevin Markert, CEC. |