My name is Tyler Baird.

I'm a dual degree
at the Gerald R. Ford

School Public Policy
and the School for Environment

and Sustainability here at the
University of Michigan.

I think summer coaching is a

must for first year students,

especially those who
don't have a lot of

work experience before coming
into their internship.

The coaching was
designed to really help

me to assess what
my own values were

and the way that
I was interacting

with the people I was working
with during my internship.

I was explaining to my coach

that when I'm
talking to my boss,

sometimes I feel frustrated by,

you know, small talk
or things like that.

He kind of turned the situation

around and started asking me,

why do you prioritize
productivity so much?

Why does your boss
bring this sort

of small talk thing
to the table?

And we started
talking about how,

especially in In dealing
with the public,

being able to communicate and

converse like a real
person and not just be on

productivity mode
all the time is

a really valuable trait to have.

And so I started
immediately, like,

reframing these conversations
that I was having with

my boss and being like, this
is actually kind of nice.

My leadership coach was

talking about the
value of feedback,

and I learned how to ask for

that feedback in the
process of my internship,

which was something that I
didn't really do before.

I sort of thought that maybe,
oh, I'm just an intern.

If they have feedback
me, they'll tell me.

I really was able
to apply asking for

that feedback and expecting
that two way relationship.