Learning to be a great team player is a valuable skill for every professional. All a good leader needs is mature, well-prepared people to help him improve his team’s performance. The problem is that few people can work as a team. So if you are a good team player, you will surely stand out!
If the organization recognizes your performance, you are likely to receive more invitations to join high-performance teams, opening doors for outstanding career opportunities.
In another article, I wrote what you, as a leader, can do to improve teamwork. In today’s article, the focus changes, or rather, your position changes. The focus is on what you can do to become a valuable team player, one who helps build high-performance teams.
Honestly, I believe that the most difficult role in leadership is precisely to lead peers, or at least, to interact well with them. In these situations, there is no hierarchy among group members. This means that many times you will be in open professional competition with your colleagues and at the same time being required by the organization to cooperate with each other.
So? How to go along? Here are some suggestions for you to think about and understand that, depending on the situation, it is very advantageous to become an excellent team player. By the way, the same is true for your colleagues, okay? Help them in this regard!
While this is the responsibility of your boss, the absence of a common goal makes it very difficult for a group to become a real team. Your responsibility as a team player is precisely to alert and help your boss to find a goal that unites everyone in one purpose.
Your help here is critical. Unlike the boss, you can bond informally faster and your colleagues can open up more easily with you. This knowledge is very valuable in helping to understand the common factor that will unite all of you. And, believe me, when your boss realizes you can do it, he’ll value you even more.
Important: this does not mean becoming a “messenger boy” or a “snitch”, okay? If you end doing this, your peers will notice quickly and they´ll boycott it.
You’re a team player, right? Well! That means you´re not alone. Understanding the relationship of your work with the work of others in the group is critical to becoming a cherished team player and valuable to others. Find out in which aspects team players are most dependent on you.
Identify critical deadlines and the quality needed for your work to be efficient and to help them. At the same time, figure out who you depend on most and make it clear to them what you need. Combine beforehand whatever is needed, okay?
Having this understanding, communicating well and fulfilling the agreements are essential steps to avoid conflict and become trustworthy to the group. This will help you establish true relationships with your peers, critical to surviving hard times.
Solving a conflict with a colleague (Photo: jacoblund / iStock)
Conflicts often happen because of poor communication or simply by imagining that someone on the team is harming you. The solution depends on whether people try to work things out. In my experience, being the first to take a deep breath and reach out to the other person to honestly find a solution for the problem helps to solve it more quickly.
To take the initiative can seem difficult. But it´s not! A conflict is only resolved when the two parts involved cooperate. So, taking the first step in a humble way already shows your goodwill with the other. As I usually say, you only create a relationship of trust with another person when you go through problems together. In these moments, you can feel if the person has stayed with you and helped you. Solving conflicts are good opportunities to do this.
Working in teams with a lot of diversity of thoughts, styles and opinions is not easy. Although they are potentially more able to cope with a greater number of situations, interaction with colleagues becomes more complicated. People think differently, and communication tends to be more difficult, which greatly complicates the scenario.
My suggestion is that you practice and encourage others to practice empathy. Put yourself in the other’s shoes and try to understand how he sees reality from a different point of view. What does he mean? Why is he suggesting this? Think about how this helps the team, how this unique point of view brings new solutions to the problems of the group. And so on …
It is easier to relate to people who are alike, just as it is easy to criticize and disqualify who is or thinks differently. Get away from this and encourage your peers not to behave this way too.
The saying says that “what is combined beforehand is not expensive”. Yeah! The rules, procedures and arrangements between your boss and the group help establish standards that will benefit the team in the long run. These standards provide clarity and establish standards of behavior.
So, be a guardian of these arrangements, set the example and stay on top of the others so that they follow the same rules. It may sound silly, but it’s one of the simplest things you can do to help the team have a common vocabulary and build trust among people.
In order to establish trust-based relationships open communication is required. The usual feedback practice is a good sign that this is happening. This initiative helps you workout pickles, clarify scenarios, signal what´s working well and what’s not. Impossible to imagine a high-performance team where members do not practice feedback!
When there is trust, feedback is even more effective. But there is a right time and a way to do it. That is, have common sense and sensitivity when giving feedback, okay? If at the beginning of the conversation you feel that the other person has become defensive – or if you are- it is a sign that it´s not being effective.
To be a valuable team player for your team, my suggestion is to practice a lot! Feedback is critical.
Analyzing workload alternatives (Photo: Cecilie_Arcurs / iStock)
This is essential to your motivation! Believe me, there is nothing more exhilarating than being able to influence your own work. Request this space to your boss, encourage colleagues, create forums and ways to make it happen. If they can make it a routine, it’s going to be a huge plus for the team spirit.
Be mature and understand, however, that the responsibility and final word will be your boss´s. Sometimes opinions will diverge, and in that case, it´s his responsibility to have the final word. In those cases, even if it’s not what you wanted, go ahead and act on the decision as if it had been yours. This helps to strengthen the cohesion of the team.
Sounds obvious, but not always. Your boss is neither omniscient nor has a crystal ball. Be clear about the resources you need to deliver your work on time and with the required quality. If you practice this well and encourage your colleagues to behave like this, it will help the team to not get stuck in the middle of the way because of the lack of basic resources.
Moments in which the team meets formally or informally, such as in a business meeting or a happy hour, are rich for the interaction among everyone. Participate in these events, say your opinions frankly and be mature to listen to what others have to say.
It is precisely in these encounters that the team is formed, that common commitments are established, where it weeps and celebrates together. It is what helps to create the esprit de corps between you. Participate with an open mind and encourage others to do so as well. Everyone will gain.
As I said in the beginning, it´s not always easy to reconcile being a good team player with competing for space with your colleagues. Remember, though, that if the team shines, you shine along with it, okay?
It’s more or less like this: you know that photo of the champion team in the newspaper? If you have been part of it, your face will be there along with your colleagues. And this is good for you. Now, do you remember any pictures of the teams that ended up in second? Yeah, me neither.
Cover photo credit – Helping a co-worker (Photo: AntonioGuillem / iStock)
