Intern Finds Communication and Teamwork Key to Success

To me, being a team player means being able to work cohesively with other people and being able to work toward a goal even if your idea isn’t chosen. It is about putting the end goal first and realizing that you all want to be successful and in order to do that you need to be able to collaborate with others and be flexible.

I would say that I do fit this definition. I do my best to not take offense if my idea is not chosen and realize that for the overall company or for the overall project, there could be a more efficient way of doing it or a way that’s slightly better, and it’s nothing personal against me. It’s about what’s best for the organization.

I also do my best to work collaboratively with others to make sure that everyone feels included as I feel that when everyone is working together as a team, work gets done more efficiently. While I mostly work on my own and only interact with my boss, there was one project so far that I felt I was more part of a team than I am now.

It was for the organization’s annual polar plunge event, and I was put in charge of finding a band to come play at the event. While I didn’t have anyone else working with me to book the band, I was still part of a team in a sense because if one person didn’t deliver on their job, the polar plunge event would not have come together as well as it did.

With this task, I did my best to work with my boss to understand the audience that would be there so that I could book an appropriate band that everyone would enjoy. While it did take me some time to find a band that was available, I communicated with my boss and made sure to inform her as I came upon new bands that would possibly be able to come play.

Communication is a very important aspect of teamwork to me because if one member of a team won’t communicate, there is no way for the task to ever get done. Kayla Steefel ’19

Eventually, I was able to find a band to come and play and the rest of the event came together. We all attended it, and we were able to put on a great fundraising event for the families of the victims of homicide. I think that for this task specifically, I did fairly well, however there is always room for improvement.

I could have emailed my boss more regularly, and I also could have sent her the music from the band to make sure that she liked the music that the band would be playing. In the future, I think as long as I continue to stay in contact with my boss and email her regularly and other members of a potential team if another project like that comes up in the future, I should be able to handle it well and be successful.

The Bergami Summer Internship Program is funded through the generosity of Board of Governors member – and former Board Chair – Sam Bergami ’85 EMBA and his wife, Lois, and the Division of Student Affairs. The students are blogging about the experience throughout the summer.