An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student’s field of study or career interest. An internship gives a student the opportunity for career exploration and development, and to learn new skills. ~UMBC
So… your supervisor sucks as a coach. She’s stuck in an unresourceful place, feeling frustrated that she is incompetent as a mentor and under the magical misconception that an intern is the same as hiring an already full-trained and skilled professional (at a much higher price, of course…)
Tap tap tap accepting the reality of her limitations. They are what they are. Wishing she was different won’t change her, and it’s okay. You have NOT reached the limit I don’t feel of what you can do here.
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Remember you are there to learn. They are trading off what you get paid for you having an opportunity to learn. They pay you something, but not as much as if you were already as fast as she is (or you’d be being paid what she is paid).
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Pause. Lots.
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After the pause, practice self-coaching. Coaching is predominantly about developing powerful questions!
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Aware: She’s saying my speed is insufficient.
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Question: Am I following the same exacts methodology and steps as someone who can do this at “full” speed? If so, I might be able to boost my focus and vitality a bit to move through the same steps more quickly. Or, am I still unskilled and learning, and what I need is clearer direction and training on the steps themselves so then I can boost the speed?
You can imagine, for example, chord changes on the guitar.
- Do they know the finger shape and place on the fretboard? If not, that’s step one, right?
- Can they mechanically switch from one shape to another?
- Are they in that “I have to think about it” stage where actually SLOWING DOWN is better than speeding up?
- Do they actually have a strumming or finger picking issue, and they lose track of their chord hand because of focusing on the other skill they are learning?
Business tasks are a lot like playing the guitar. Faster isn’t always better. There are multiple facets to both learn the basics of and then build muscle memory, mind clarity and ease, and yeah… speed. Speed is generally LAST, and a mentor who doesn’t “get that” is a poor one, indeed.
You can learn the questions and see if your supervisor is capable of “rising” into more of a mentor role.
"I really do want to learn the skills necessary to do the work both accurately and with speed. Would you be willing to provide more mentoring on how you go about this particular task? I could even record it so I can replay it and practice to get my speed up to a professional level – that is, after all, why I am interning.
Rick
P.S. I get that most corporate work is often based on PRESSURE. There’s pressure to produce more and more and more. There’s pressure to work longer, harder, be seen as the star performer, etc. Your supervisor may, in truth, be utterly a “slave” to that dynamic. She may know nothing else but to pass the pressure down to others, because that’s all she’s ever experienced. If so, and she cannot help you win at this, you can still learn a LOT to help you make better and more profitable choices in the future. I believe all work holds the seeds of growth, as long as we also feel free to upgrade (and look for those).