Key Events

Meeting My Post-Grad Boss

In October of 2019, I attended a Sport Business Conference at Robert Morris University. This was an event that allowed for current students to connect with industry professionals and learn through round-table discussions, panels, and group activities. This was a great experience and I was fortunate enough to be invited to the networking event and dinner the evening before. I was able to introduce myself in front of the conference along with the other students invited that evening.

After the presentation portion of the evening, people began to converse, but several professionals began to pull me aside. However, there was something different about the first team I spoke with. It took me a little while to figure it out, but I had a feeling that there was something different about that team. I ended up interviewing with them at the conference and met other managers with the team a week later where they offered me a job for after graduation that I later accepted. As someone that has never been super into baseball, I get a lot of questions as to why I chose to work for this team over other teams I got offers from. The short answer is the management. I wanted to work for and with people that I trusted with my career growth and inspired me to better myself and the team as a professional.

This brings me to the key event that helped shape my understanding of leadership, meeting Alexis. Alexis is going to be my direct supervisor, and I met her the first evening of the conference. She has shown me not only immense opportunity, but also characteristics of leadership that I would hope to display as a professional. Our first conversation stands out to me because she was talking to me and getting to know me as an individual rather than a prospective employee. That conversation, and those that followed, proved that she could inspire and encourage those that work for and with her. She demonstrates leadership by supporting others.

This experience taught me that people will respect leadership when they feel respected. People will work hard when they feel their leadership is supporting their endeavors and growth. Leadership does not always entail leading, rather following. Alexis reinforced my passion for others and supporting those to become their absolute best. She helped me set future career goals of doing what she did for someone else in the future. She someone that I am so excited to work for and learn from, and I hope to inspire people to grow and invest in their careers like she has done for mine.