I am a big fan of internships. I believe internship programs are an excellent opportunity for graduates to get a feel and sense of the working world. Further, it provides the chance to understand the culture of the company they wish to join. Over the years, I have come across many interns, seeking short-term employment opportunities to build a strong resume that they can use to look for a job when they graduate.
Many of the interns I have come across were enthusiastic and eager to learn. They bring with them attitudes that not only make them a valued contributor to the organisation, but also a welcome member of the team they work with.
I've been paying close attention to interns that are generally more valued by the team. I try to understand what makes them stand out. If you are an intern (or someone joining a new team or organisation), below are 7 winning ways you should adopt to be successful.
A willingness to accept tasks assigned not only conveys a positive impression to your superior, but more importantly, gives you exposure. Nothing is too small, boring or simple to do. If you are given a mundane task, find a way to do it efficiently or speedily. Recently, I assigned my intern a task to run some VLookup in Excel to match different worksheets. The data was pretty sizeable. Any ordinary intern would probably take this instruction and apply VLookup. Instead, this intern discovered that VLookup had a weakness and found a new way to match data. He Googled to learn the formula, and in no time, completed the task.
Not only did he take on the task with enthusiasm, he came up with a better way to complete it and the team and organisation as a whole benefitted from the new approach.
More often that not, if you are an intern (or new to the job), you will be forgiven for making small mistakes in the beginning. A small mistake is one where the impact to the completion of a task is low. You still have time to rectify the mistake and take remedial action.
Making small mistakes is beneficial because the cost you incur is not sizeable enough for you to be reprimanded, but the benefit you gain is a discovery of new information or new ways to complete the task.
Go ahead. Make small mistakes fast, and early, in the task. But learn from them and don't repeat them.
Internship is a great opportunity to broaden one's mind and exposure. But this benefit is only gained when you have a curious mind, and are willing to take the trouble to learn.
Always engage your superiors and colleagues with questions. Ask "who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how" questions to learn.
This means we face complex problems that require a mental agility to solve them.
So what do I mean by Mental Agility?
Being mentally agile in a workplace means having the ability to connect ideas, link concepts, and be able to see the relationships between information sets, to draw a conclusion. It is not enough to just complete an assigned task. In today's world, one must have the ability to "connect the dots".
How can you be mentally agile?
- Identify trends. Take a step back and see if you observe any trends. Write them down and consider what these trends are telling you. For example, if you are analysing data, create charts and graphs to get a visual sense of how the data is behaving.
- Ask "what if" questions to play out different scenarios and options to solve a problem. "What if" questions are a safe and great way to think out of the box and come up with creative solutions.
- Play the "devil's advocate". To play the devil's advocate is to come up with arguments against a generally acceptable position. The idea behind this is to test the arguments or propositions supporting a position so as to improve it.
How do you become a quick learner?
In school, my children have this program called the "learning journey". Its a program where the school brings you on an excursion (a journey) to impart knowledge (the learning).
You can create your own "learning journey" in the form of a journal that records your daily learning. Break your learning journey into three parts: Knowledge, Skill, and Attitude.
- Knowledge refers to information, data or content you have learned. For example, if you learned a new piece of information about your task, a new source of data, or a new concept, record this down.
- Skill refers to the way of doing things. For example, if you found a new formula in Excel (Excel skills), a new way to craft an email reply (Communication skills), pen them down as new skills you have acquired. Write down what you have learned and how you can apply it in future.
- Attitude refers to your beliefs, perceptions and response tendencies. For example, when you faced a setback, record how you reacted? Did you laugh it off? Did you feel a greater sense of determination to overcome the setback? How you react represents your attitude, and by recording them down, you gain a valuable insight to your triggers. In time, the more you learn about yourself, the more you will gain personal mastery over such triggers.
Why is this so?
The problem with showing confidence is that it can be perceived wrongly by others as either arrogance, or over confidence, both of which are career limiting. But when you are quietly confident, what you are demonstrating is confidence with humility. Its a disposition of self-assurance not borne out of false confidence, but one backed by ability and positive attitude.
Recently, I tasked an intern to build a fairly complex template in Excel. His Excel skills were not very strong. Average I would say. But he was quietly confident he could do it. Two days later, he showed me the first draft and I was impressed. With a little help, some brainstorming with me, he tweaked the template and after several iterations, we are now confident we have something to show management.
I think what made him successful was his quiet confidence in his ability to solve problems. He is someone that will take the trouble to Google to find a solution, and when he was stuck, would reach out to ask for help. He regularly came back to me to ask questions, and was humble enough to take feedback onboard, some which required him to re-start all over.
Go ahead and be confident. But at the same time, have the humility to ask and receive feedback. Even if the suggestion goes against what you think might be the right approach, sometimes it is better to take a step back, listen, and consider the message behind the feedback.
A person who shows an attention to detail conveys to others that he/she is a mindful person that is conscientious in his/her job.
Why is this important?
This is important because having someone like this on the team means your colleagues can trust you to get a job done and they don't have to worry about dealing with carelessness. Further, if you pay attention to details, you don't have to re-do your work. The opportunity cost of rework can sometimes be high for the organisation in terms of lost productivity. Worse at a personal level, you may have to stay back to re-do the task, eating into your personal time, which you can spend with your family.
How can you pay attention to detail?
- Start slow, check frequently. Every time a portion or part of a task is complete, check for accuracy before continuing. In this way, if a mistake is made, you can remedy it immediately, and lower the cost of an error.
- Create a step-by-step workflow to complete your task. Before starting the task, identify the steps. For example, if you are doing data entry work, organise your data into one single worksheet, label your worksheets / columns / rows appropriately so that you don't forget what they are meant for.
- Be mindful. This is important. If you are performing a task that requires an attention to detail, remove as many distractions as possible so that you can concentrate and be mindful. Find a quiet spot to do your work. Do not respond to emails whenever you see the prompt that a new email is received.
While I write this post as a reflection of how an intern can succeed, the ideas can also be applied to individuals who are joining a new team, entering the workforce, or joining a new organisation
Go ahead! Try the 7 ways mentioned above and take that little step to be a valued contributor.
Taking one little step at a time,
Aslam Sardar
Many of the interns I have come across were enthusiastic and eager to learn. They bring with them attitudes that not only make them a valued contributor to the organisation, but also a welcome member of the team they work with.
I've been paying close attention to interns that are generally more valued by the team. I try to understand what makes them stand out. If you are an intern (or someone joining a new team or organisation), below are 7 winning ways you should adopt to be successful.
1. Willingness to Accept Tasks Assigned and Do It Better
The whole idea behind being an intern is to gain experience. Experience that you can confidently share with a future employer. What better way than to expose yourself to as many projects or tasks as possible?A willingness to accept tasks assigned not only conveys a positive impression to your superior, but more importantly, gives you exposure. Nothing is too small, boring or simple to do. If you are given a mundane task, find a way to do it efficiently or speedily. Recently, I assigned my intern a task to run some VLookup in Excel to match different worksheets. The data was pretty sizeable. Any ordinary intern would probably take this instruction and apply VLookup. Instead, this intern discovered that VLookup had a weakness and found a new way to match data. He Googled to learn the formula, and in no time, completed the task.
Not only did he take on the task with enthusiasm, he came up with a better way to complete it and the team and organisation as a whole benefitted from the new approach.
2. Willingness to Make Small Mistakes Fast
Everyone makes mistakes.More often that not, if you are an intern (or new to the job), you will be forgiven for making small mistakes in the beginning. A small mistake is one where the impact to the completion of a task is low. You still have time to rectify the mistake and take remedial action.
Making small mistakes is beneficial because the cost you incur is not sizeable enough for you to be reprimanded, but the benefit you gain is a discovery of new information or new ways to complete the task.
Go ahead. Make small mistakes fast, and early, in the task. But learn from them and don't repeat them.
3. Having a Curious Mind
I enjoy working with interns that have a curious mind. They are the ones who ask questions, and always want to understand "why" things happen in a certain way. They don't simply accept what is given. Some even go the extra mile to do their own research to understand more.Internship is a great opportunity to broaden one's mind and exposure. But this benefit is only gained when you have a curious mind, and are willing to take the trouble to learn.
Always engage your superiors and colleagues with questions. Ask "who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how" questions to learn.
4. Being Mentally Agile
Globalisation, working with different cultures, and changing regulatory environments all mean today we work in a far more complex environment than before. Being in the supply chain industry, I see this complexity increasing as companies compete aggressively for market share and as technology increasingly become a competitive advantage.This means we face complex problems that require a mental agility to solve them.
So what do I mean by Mental Agility?
Being mentally agile in a workplace means having the ability to connect ideas, link concepts, and be able to see the relationships between information sets, to draw a conclusion. It is not enough to just complete an assigned task. In today's world, one must have the ability to "connect the dots".
How can you be mentally agile?
- Identify trends. Take a step back and see if you observe any trends. Write them down and consider what these trends are telling you. For example, if you are analysing data, create charts and graphs to get a visual sense of how the data is behaving.
- Ask "what if" questions to play out different scenarios and options to solve a problem. "What if" questions are a safe and great way to think out of the box and come up with creative solutions.
- Play the "devil's advocate". To play the devil's advocate is to come up with arguments against a generally acceptable position. The idea behind this is to test the arguments or propositions supporting a position so as to improve it.
5. Being a Quick Learner
If you have not realised by now, our world has become smaller and is moving faster. I remember, while studying abroad, in my first year of university life, more than 2 decades ago, I used to write letters to my parents to keep in touch. Today, I can stay in touch through Facebook, and Watsapp. Email is too slow. This is an example of how our world has evolved and the speed is astounding. Being a quick learner can be advantageous.How do you become a quick learner?
In school, my children have this program called the "learning journey". Its a program where the school brings you on an excursion (a journey) to impart knowledge (the learning).
You can create your own "learning journey" in the form of a journal that records your daily learning. Break your learning journey into three parts: Knowledge, Skill, and Attitude.
- Knowledge refers to information, data or content you have learned. For example, if you learned a new piece of information about your task, a new source of data, or a new concept, record this down.
- Skill refers to the way of doing things. For example, if you found a new formula in Excel (Excel skills), a new way to craft an email reply (Communication skills), pen them down as new skills you have acquired. Write down what you have learned and how you can apply it in future.
- Attitude refers to your beliefs, perceptions and response tendencies. For example, when you faced a setback, record how you reacted? Did you laugh it off? Did you feel a greater sense of determination to overcome the setback? How you react represents your attitude, and by recording them down, you gain a valuable insight to your triggers. In time, the more you learn about yourself, the more you will gain personal mastery over such triggers.
6. Quietly Confident
Confidence is good. But quiet confidence is better.Why is this so?
The problem with showing confidence is that it can be perceived wrongly by others as either arrogance, or over confidence, both of which are career limiting. But when you are quietly confident, what you are demonstrating is confidence with humility. Its a disposition of self-assurance not borne out of false confidence, but one backed by ability and positive attitude.
Recently, I tasked an intern to build a fairly complex template in Excel. His Excel skills were not very strong. Average I would say. But he was quietly confident he could do it. Two days later, he showed me the first draft and I was impressed. With a little help, some brainstorming with me, he tweaked the template and after several iterations, we are now confident we have something to show management.
I think what made him successful was his quiet confidence in his ability to solve problems. He is someone that will take the trouble to Google to find a solution, and when he was stuck, would reach out to ask for help. He regularly came back to me to ask questions, and was humble enough to take feedback onboard, some which required him to re-start all over.
Go ahead and be confident. But at the same time, have the humility to ask and receive feedback. Even if the suggestion goes against what you think might be the right approach, sometimes it is better to take a step back, listen, and consider the message behind the feedback.
7. Attention to Detail
Last but not least, an attention to detail is important.A person who shows an attention to detail conveys to others that he/she is a mindful person that is conscientious in his/her job.
Why is this important?
This is important because having someone like this on the team means your colleagues can trust you to get a job done and they don't have to worry about dealing with carelessness. Further, if you pay attention to details, you don't have to re-do your work. The opportunity cost of rework can sometimes be high for the organisation in terms of lost productivity. Worse at a personal level, you may have to stay back to re-do the task, eating into your personal time, which you can spend with your family.
How can you pay attention to detail?
- Start slow, check frequently. Every time a portion or part of a task is complete, check for accuracy before continuing. In this way, if a mistake is made, you can remedy it immediately, and lower the cost of an error.
- Create a step-by-step workflow to complete your task. Before starting the task, identify the steps. For example, if you are doing data entry work, organise your data into one single worksheet, label your worksheets / columns / rows appropriately so that you don't forget what they are meant for.
- Be mindful. This is important. If you are performing a task that requires an attention to detail, remove as many distractions as possible so that you can concentrate and be mindful. Find a quiet spot to do your work. Do not respond to emails whenever you see the prompt that a new email is received.
While I write this post as a reflection of how an intern can succeed, the ideas can also be applied to individuals who are joining a new team, entering the workforce, or joining a new organisation
Go ahead! Try the 7 ways mentioned above and take that little step to be a valued contributor.
Share This Post
If you are an employer or if you work with interns, share this post with them and make a difference by helping them to succeed.
If you are an intern, share this post with your friends who are also interns and let me know some of the winning ways you employed to succeed in your internship.
If you are an intern, share this post with your friends who are also interns and let me know some of the winning ways you employed to succeed in your internship.
Taking one little step at a time,
Aslam Sardar
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