What an Internship at PHOS Taught Me About Leadership

Leadership is not limited to management roles. Everyone at PHOS is called to be a leader, including the interns.

Hello, my name is Mitchel Sinon, and this is my internship story at PHOS.

I interned at PHOS when it was just a little startup, still growing into the well-developed, amazing team it is today. PHOS taught me a lot about marketing, but most importantly, it taught me about responsibility.

As a young college student who never held an office job before, I was new to the game. But from Day 1 at PHOS, I was given tasks that affected the company, and I’m not talking about getting coffee. I never once made coffee for anyone on that team. In fact, I still don’t know how to make coffee to this day. But I digress.

My First Day

I walked into work, excited to start my first summer internship. After an orientation on company culture and job-related qualifications, I was put to task. Brandon, our CEO, asked me if I could write. Um, I got a 4 out of 5 on my AP English exam in high school, so yeah. I think I can write.

He then promptly assigned me to write a blog for one of my clients.

My first draft was not the best blog they had ever seen, but it was quite possibly one of the worst.

After working with me on what strategic content looks like, I was able to catch on and make 2nd, 3rd, and 4th drafts before publication

We used the 4th draft of that blog. During my first week at PHOS, I already had some tangible work that directly helped one of our clients.

Lessons From Writing a Blog

I was a sophomore college student, and my resume was filled with business club involvement and classes I had taken in school, so needless to say, I didn’t have much prior experience. That blog was important.

Throughout the rest of the summer, I was given more tasks, and I worked with all departments of PHOS. I learned about blog writing, SEO, website-building, and management as a whole. By the end of the summer, I had a hand in directly improving processes for many of our clients.

My point is this: responsibility fosters leadership.

My experience with PHOS taught me that anyone could be a leader. The responsibility I was given strengthened my self-confidence and improved the quality of my output. That responsibility made me a better team member and a better worker in all aspects of my life.

Application for the Business World

In the business world, the higher the rank, the more leadership and responsibility is assumed. However, leadership should be assumed of everyone in the company.

When I was given important work as an intern, I worked harder to match the difficulty of the tasks. People naturally step up to the challenge, or they step out. Good companies should want those that step up.

In marketing, responsibility should be placed on everyone’s shoulders to ensure that the customer is getting what they need. Every company, not just marketing firms, has responsibilities to its employees, customers, environment, and community. That should be understood from the bottom to the top of the hierarchical chain of command.

The Value of Leadership

One of our core values is Leadership; here’s how we define it: “Leadership is a behavior, not a position. Within our team, within our industry, and with our clients, everybody at PHOS is called to be a leader.”

PHOS taught me about the importance of responsibility and how it builds everyone up. It crafted me into a leader in my own right and strengthened in me a spirit of confidence and capability. Hard to imagine that all it took was writing a little blog.