When young people hear the word “teamwork,” they automatically think of sports. But why is that? Is it because nearly every sport in America is made up of teams? I started thinking a lot about collaboration during my internship. We worked together constantly, whether it was redrafting press releases or brainstorming as a team. With this in mind, I think our perception of teamwork is centered around sports because as young individuals, we’ve yet to work on a team outside of the football field or basketball court.
Teamwork is a subject that school, in my opinion, does a terrible job of replicating. In a class you may be assigned one group project over the semester. The group then chooses a leader, who is responsible for the culmination and finalization of the project. While the latter does reflect how teamwork functions in the corporate world, the frequency of teamwork in school does not. At Castle, teamwork is crucial. There is not one person responsible for a single client. Every client has a team of experts that cater to their specific needs. Each of these smaller client teams fit into the larger public relations team. And the public relations team fits into the even larger Castle team. There’s a reason the company is called The Castle Group, not The Castle individual.
One of the last projects I worked on as an intern was the “Day in the Life of a Castle Intern” video. The video highlighted the ideas and opinions of the PR interns, the events interns, upper management, and even our sister company MK3 Creative. Each opinion held an equal weight in finalizing the content, regardless of the participant’s title. Working with higher ups allowed me to learn from their thought processes and in turn, improve my own. The project was truly a team effort in every sense of the word. And it directly mirrors the format of many projects in the professional world.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, teamwork is everything. It is the core of nearly every company out there, and is the driving factor behind their success. Real teams are made up of members with complementary skills that work together to maximize productivity and success. And when teamwork functions at its best, it reveals the hidden strengths of each member. You may have heard this cliché before, but no one can do it alone. All of life’s greats had a supporting cast that brought some essential skill or ability to the table. So while you’re busy completing all those tedious individual assignments in college, know that it won’t last forever. And remember, it takes more than one set of skills to be a champion.
