Look for a person who is actively interested in what you do, and who is willing to learn the business – the glamorous side and the not-so-glamorous side.
A small investment of your time as a Mentor can create the necessary structure for a successful internship. Keep in mind that this internship might be an opportunity to groom a future employee, so your level of professionalism will set the proper tone for what could be a long, fruitful relationship.
On your Intern’s first day, it’s important to share your vision. Explain your philosophy, your successes, your challenges, and where their support can help launch your brand. Then, ask your Intern about their expectations and career goals (and listen).
Setting clear performance expectations provides an important foundation to an internship. Meet face-to-face with your Intern to establish reasonable, measureable goals that can be realized throughout the duration of the internship. Instead of saying, “We’ll just figure it out as we go along,” instead say something like, “I want you and I to get the most out of your internship, so I’ve outlined five task areas that I’d like you to focus on. Let’s review each area and then I can answer your questions.”
Establish a schedule for discussing performance (daily, weekly, or monthly) and stick to the schedule. Check-ins could be as brief as fifteen minutes. During the discussions, structure your feedback in a way that’s understandable and motivating. Recognize the positive contributions first by saying something like, “We were all a little panicked last week when we had to gather the shipment for London. Sometimes we have to work fast in this business, and I really appreciate you making that happen in such a short time.”
Mistakes will be made by Interns and it’s up to you to share your observations. When giving constructive criticism, focus on the issues and structure your feedback so it doesn’t seem like a personal attack. Instead of saying, “You totally messed up that project, now it’s a nightmare,” say something like, “When you packaged the shipment without getting my approval, it meant that we had to open all the boxes again to make sure we included the invoice. Moving forward, please get my final approval before sealing the boxes, so we won’t have to do rework. I know you want to get the job done right the first time.”
Although it might be tempting to delegate all of your boring tasks to your Intern (addressing invitations, cleaning, trips to Starbucks), you should also consider some of the areas where your Intern could use some professional development. You can re-frame some of the mundane tasks by saying, “When you’re finished addressing the invitations, I’d like to take you to the Buyer meeting, I think it would be a good opportunity for you to observe the process.” You also want to leverage the skills that your intern already possesses. If you don’t know about their strengths, ask them about areas where they’ve demonstrated results in business or leading school projects. You might also get some innovative ideas from your Intern (maybe your Intern is tech-savvy and can help you clean up your client database, for example).
Remember, your Intern wants to build their resume and build skills, not just be used as a Temp or coffee-fetcher. Sure, some Intern tasks won’t be as exciting as others, so allow your Intern to earn your trust by assigning tasks of increasing responsibility. Allow your Intern to demonstrate that they can handle more responsibility before assigning anything too difficult or stressful. Set them up for success (and prevent someone else on your team from having to un-do the mess if you’ve given them too much responsibility too soon).
Finally, you want the internship to end on a positive note. Express your sincere gratitude to your Intern for their hard work. Know that when he/she leaves the internship, they take with them some insider knowledge of your brand and your work style. Interns contribute to the buzz about your brand – and you want it to be positive. When you take your Mentor role seriously from the beginning to the end of the internship, you’re ultimately contributing to the positive buzz about your brand and helping one ambitious person get closer to their career goals.
Holly Landau is a leadership expert and CEO of Landau Leadership, an innovative consulting firm providing customized training solutions to boost individual/team productivity and improve workplace communication and innovation. www.landauleadership.com. Contact Holly: hollylandau@landauleadership.com .
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