Hi everyone,

Here is my fourth reflection

The theme for this week of my placement was Management and Leadership which was quite a different flavour from the last few weeks as it was focused far more on operations than advocacy itself. However, I really enjoyed learning about what management and leadership looks like in this setting. I've definitely walked away from this week with the sense that the advocates cannot go in and support someone without the work of these people. 

One of my favourite conversations I had as part of this week was with the data manager- the person who does the maths that provides the evidence of the charity's work. Using and synthesising data was completely unfamiliar to me and so I didn't really know what to expect from this conversation. During this conversation, I gained an insight into how to bring people and data figures together, and this is a lesson I am keen to integrate into my research project next year as well as into my leadership activities. 

This week I also got to follow through on my hope to not overcommit / be more conscientious about the timings of my projects, and I'm pleased to say that I feel I actually made progress! I achieved a lot in my projects, took on more but not too many new tasks, and also was more realistic about what I was working on and what that involved. 

This week promises some more shadowing and project work, so the goal is to keep developing the skills I've identified so far. 

Speak soon, 

Cornelia