I am back. After having been very quiet the last two weeks, I am trying to catch up with blogging. Part of the reason why I have not written any blog entries is because I have been very busy. I have now gotten the responsibility together with Njeri, another intern, of becoming “service managers”. This means that we are in charge of everything happening in the Sunday service. We oversee everything from cleanliness to the décor to lighting/sound to making sure the pastors have everything they need for the service. On Sunday, I got the first taste of what this might look like and set up the following guidelines for myself (to be taken a grain of salt (= nicht ganz ernst nehmen)):
- Never ask about anything that is not your responsibility – it might become yours.
- Do not show too much interest or empathy for someone with an administrative or organisational problem – you might be asked to be part of the solution (or even worse, it might become your problem).
- When having made the mistake of taking on extra responsibility, be sure to delegate the job to someone else.
- When being asked to solve someone else’s problem (e.g. “Please go look for XY and tell her to come to here”), have a good reason at hand why you are not available right now. – Look busy at all times!
- When faced with a problem, the best solution is not necessarily to ask your supervisor. Ask someone who you know will give you a clear answer, an immediate solution or realistic options. Ask someone you know will get things done!
- Do not give the impression of being reliable or trustworthy or you will be given more work than you already have. Other option: Make sure to delegate your work to others, but make sure they are trustworthy, otherwise it will all come back to you!
6 comments:
Glad to have you back, although I ought to write my own post and not spend all my time commenting on others'. Anyway, your advice on being a successful intern made me laugh and, I can assure you, will stand you in good stead in whatever job you do! I in particular like the comment about asking the person who will give a clear answer. Ha di gärn!
You can just hope to always have that kind of person around. Advice and opinions can be had anywhere, but good and clear advice is rare...
May I adopt your guidelines as my own? I have spent many more years arriving at almost the same conclusions! We educate people for one set of skills, then find that the person who can "see the big picture" and "get things done" ("take the bull by the horns," as they say in Texas) is the person who is most valuable to the organization!
On a more serious note, the culture here seems to be such that people are quick to pass off responsibility (because they have been given too much to do, because they just haven't done their work properly or on time, or for some other reason). From my own background I am used to helping and taking on that person's responsibility, but if you do that here, you will get lost in all the work and stress.
I told my pastor about the serious part of what I am learning, and she affirmed me in the need to say no and not willingly take on responsibility that is not mine (this is the practical outworkings of self-care and burn-out prevention).
And yes, one of the most valuable people to this church (in my opinion) is Maggie, an administrative/pastoral assistant, who really gets things done (she said she has had to learn this the hard way).
Great advice, Cornelia! I too often take on tasks nobody asked me to do if I see them not getting done, and then everyone begins looking to me as the new person responsible, whether there was already someone else who was supposed to be responsible for it or not. I can't stand to see things falling through the cracks, but that personality trait leads to burnout. Sometimes we have to say "no" and/or allow things to fall through the cracksk or else we'll end up cracking under the stress!
[Interesting trying to use Blogger in German; good thing I know the UI by heart already :-)]
I love your guidelines to being an intern. By the way I think those guidelines generally apply to anything at Chapel. I definately need to adopt them as my own (especially whenever Pst Oscar/Pst Gowi are anywhere within sight). I love the story I heard about Gedion telling Sam that whenever you see Pst Oscar coming you MUST look busy or he'll give you a job. Then Pst Oscar showed up a minute later and of course they didn't look busy enough so Pst Oscar actually had them move the canteen tent (like less then a metre from where it already was) and he himself supervised them to make sure the job was done properly. Talk about learning the lesson the hard way :) Needless to say, I've heeded the warnings! Keep up the good work!
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