Developing leadership skills

The Marketing Partnership Program doesn’t have a specific group of people working full time for it but it is coordinated by my supervisor, the Public Information Director and a team of City employees who work in different departments. Thus, as the intern of the program in order to get the information I need, I have to work with people in different departments. I consider that one leadership skill I am learning, as my supervisor emphasized in the interview I made to her, is being a good listener because for example, the partnership with Service Line Warranties of America brings lot of questions and comments from Phoenix residents, which I have to do my best to answer them. I also consider that because all the members of the Marketing Partnership Program team are very busy with their own position responsibilities, I am encouraged to take the initiative in working in the different projects and requesting information and setting up meetings to keep working on some of the partnership opportunities.
I can definitely see  my supervisor being a good leader. For instance, we have a weekly staff meeting where she always encourages everybody to give their opinion in different issues and also to come up with innovative ideas. I think that giving space to employees to give their opinion is a valuable leadership skill. What I also see in the PIO office is that everybody works in a very collaboratively with a positive environment, and I guess this has to do with having a good leader. 

Two great profiles

I decided to do two interviews because I think they represent two different profiles but with the same passion of serving the community and wanting to have a positive impact with their jobs, which I find definitely interesting and inspiring.

The first interview I did was to my supervisor, Toni Maccarone, who is the Public Information Director of the City of Phoenix. As a Director, she is in charge of the communication and public relations for all the departments of the city government. The main skills needed for the position are writing, strategic planning, multitasking, and constantly learning new technology. Toni, got her degree in journalism with emphasis in public relations at ASU and her first internship was at a non profit organization. Then she got another internship in the private sector in a public relations agency where she continued to work after the internship. She then worked for another public relations agency and afterwards decided to go to the public sector because of her strong interest in serving the public by providing information. She definitely considers that her experience in the private sector has helped her to prepare for the public sector. Toni considers that the new trend in her field is certainly social media because is a 24-7 news cycle. She believes that the most important skills needed as a leader are being a good listener, patient and being flexible. Her advice to anyone interested in this field is to be interested in being a good writer, multitasking, learning constantly and being willing to have a busy profession.

The second interview I did was to Jon Brodsky, who is the actual coordinator for Fit PHX program but was previously in charged of the Marketing Partnership Program, thus I could also consider him as my supervisor. Jon is responsible for overseeing Fit PHX, which is a new program with the goal of making the City of Phoenix one of the healthiest places in the country by improving the health and wellness of the people. Two main duties of this position are getting grant funds and making partnerships. The main skills needed for the position are good writing, juggle multiple projects at the same time, understanding the big picture and knowing the assets from the different departments in order to reach a goal. Jon’s major was in American history but during college started doing internships in TV stations. He worked in broadcasting, as a TV reporter for many years, and there was when he started developing his interest in “cities”. He had to cover many stories concerning issues and events in the city so he learned a lot about government. He also worked in a school district for 2 years. Then, he decided to work in the public sector, so it has been 9 years since he is a City employee. During the last period he worked in the school district and the beginning of the period in the City he pursued his MPA at ASU, which he says is definitely helpful because for example, there are many positions at the City, which people can’t get without an MPA. His decision to work in the public sector was primarily made because of his desire to serve the community by having an impact. He believes that the new trend in local governments is that employees have to become more entrepreneurial due to current constrains, like budget cuts. Jon recommends to people that want to work in this field to enjoy the job, being able to work hard and don’t be afraid of being creative and innovative. He believes that the most important skills needed as a leader are to know how to motivate people, have ideas and trust people. 

Working without high inflation

This week my supervisor asked me to calculate the 2013-2014 revenue estimates for the Service Line Protection Program (one of the City’s partnerships), and I thought about the benefits of doing this task in a country where the inflation rate is very low. If I had to do it in Argentina I would have two main obstacles. First, I would have to adjust prices for expected inflation based on the current inflation. Second, the real inflation rate is higher than the official rate calculated by the national government. The government says that the annual inflation rate is 10% whereas private estimates state that the annual rate is around 27%. Thus, this fact would contribute to make the revenue estimates even less accurate. Besides specific calculations like the one just described, in order to perceive inflation, it only takes a person to go to the store once a week to see how prices are going up. I can say that inflation definitely makes everybody’s life more complicated.