Hardly will you ever go through life without having to work with someone or a group of person to get a shared result. Since that is a definite, you should agree that knowing how to be a Team player is a life skill. Now, that sounds important, right? Yes, it is.
What then do you need to know?
The Concept of a Team
A team is a group of people that come together to achieve a common goal. In a team, as much as there are forms of individuality in terms of division of labour, the big picture is that the team is a whole.
When the team succeeds, everyone on the team does and when the team fails, everyone on the team has failed too. It is a shared responsibility.
Reliability
This is one attribute that is important to have. A good team player is that person that can be trusted to deliver quality work and not just deliver but deliver in time. They are not people with bad track records such that whenever they are given a task, the same task is assigned to someone else as a backup plan.
Communication
No one can know or understand what another man’s idea is except it is explained to them. A team player must learn to communicate ideas and opinions as clearly as possible while being aware that it can be criticised. It is also important to learn to listen to the ideas and opinions of others giving them due consideration.
Commitment
This majorly stems from the understanding that as a team, the wins and losses are shared. A team player should understand the common goal and desire to see it achieved. This means that there is no room for passiveness. Contributions in terms of ideas, opinions and actions must be made.
Many big ideas around the world have, over time, been executed by teams and not an individual. This is because the Ethiopian saying is true, ‘when spiders unite, they can tie up a lion’.
So, when next you are asked to team up to carry out a task, now you know better so you can do better.
Related: 11 Ways to Become an Effective Team Player
What does being a team player means to you? Feel free to share in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to not miss a post.
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