One of my Davis Dollars interns in particular seems really promising - not only does Julia have confidence and good ideas, but she has the inclination to organize and coordinate, the ability to see the larger picture, and the action-oriented mindset required to get people moving in the right direction.
As a fairly new intern, she organized our first intern co-working session. The co-working sessions bring the interns together on campus, during the week while I'm away at work. They allow the interns to get together and get more done than has been possible in the past, but since I'm not around, they need someone to make sure the meetings have purpose and direction.
Ok, ok, so I've done something like this before - we've actually had intern meet-ups on campus. What's different this time is Julia's intuition when it comes to management, and our need for management now that our team is so much larger. Before, the intern team was all working on the same project, and didn't need much management. Now we have two, and soon three, different teams of interns - campus outreach, community outreach, and business development. All of them need to be coordinated.
On her first try, Julia did a really good job observing the sorts of things a manager needs to be aware of - the team had good morale, but spent too much time socializing. She thinks this is in part because there were several new interns who hadn't joined the team yet. She noticed that the teams formed up well, but that some of the teams weren't quite sure what they needed to be working on, so she and I need to make sure each team has a list of current and future projects so they won't have empty hands.
It's exciting to teach management. I'm learning a lot. Julia is a quick student, so I still have a way to go before I can prepare others for the same responsibilities, but this is a milestone in creating a self-sustaining growth organization.
Share any experiences you've had with teaching or delegating management!