Leadership XP: Laying the Groundwork for an Internship Program
Before we created Leadership XP, our internship program here at Life.Church, we needed to lay the appropriate groundwork with our staff. First, we established the goal of the program and made sure everyone was on the same page. If your goal is to grow leaders, make sure everyone knows that. If you're goal is to create a hiring pool, let your team know.
Then, we spent some time training mentors on staff; creating a positive intern experience requires intentionality and time. If a certain staff member doesn't have the passion or margin for leading an intern, they probably won't make the best mentor.
Finally, we planned ahead, creating some big goals or projects that the intern could be involved in so they'd feel needed from the start.
What we've learned:
We view our internship program as more than "free help" or "babysitting." Our interns are expected to contribute in a meaningful way, and we expect our mentors to invest in the leadership development of every intern, because the goal of our program is to create leaders. Decide on the goal of your internship program, and build a program that supports it.
Leadership XP is the internship program at Life.Church. Learn more here.
