Teamwork
Andrew Carnegie said, “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision; the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” Being on a work team is very similar to being a member of an athletic team, such as, baseball, basketball, soccer, or any other team sport. Much of what you learned as you played on an athletic team can be transferred to a work team. Let us use the game of basketball as an example. In basketball, one person can dribble the ball down the court, shoot, and make a basket. The five individuals who make up the team can play the game in the singular manner. However, each of the five players on the team has a different set of skills and abilities. So the individuals who make up the team, work together to put different individuals into positions in order to take advantage of the skills each possesses. The following eight items can illuminate your path to becoming an effective team player.
Listening1
Teamwork means working with others, so putting only your ideas forward and not listening to others is not teamwork. You will need to take the time to listen to other people. Having other individuals’ input, and not just your own, is important for making the best decisions, and for the team to respect each other.
Other team-members may be able to spot flaws in your idea, which will mean improvements can be made. You can also discuss their ideas, looking at the pros and cons. Listening is an essential skill that you will have to learn if you want to improve your teamwork skills.
Sharing2
While listening to other people’s thoughts and ideas is essential, if no one is willing to share their ideas with each other, the team won’t get very far. People will have to be willing to share an idea; don’t leave it to everybody else, make sure you have some input. It will not only give you more confidence within the team but can also help to encourage others to put forward their ideas. Don’t hold back because you want the credit for yourself, and you don’t want others to steal the limelight, it’s not the end of the world. Just be more laid back about it and care more about helping the team out, not just yourself.
Communication3
For a team to work effectively and for team working skills to be made manifest, communication must take place, whether we like it or not. Not just communication, but effective communication. It’s no good talking about the weather when you need to be dealing with the situation at hand; although, it’s good you have the confidence to talk. Teams come up against problems and obstacles, but without effective communication, how will a team overcome these?—it simply can’t. So try to communicate.
Don’t Let Sore Relationships Affect Your Input4
When working with others, it’s not uncommon for people to not get along with each other. Maybe something outside of the team has happened between these people, maybe you just don’t get along, however, don’t let this put a downer on your input team. When you let sore relationships get in the way of making the correct decisions, or you refuse to help the team because of this, you’re only hurting the team. Not only that, but people will lose respect for you if you can’t be mature enough to put it behind you.
Willingness to Accept5
A good team member will be able to have all of the other qualities on this list, as well as having a willingness to accept team decisions and roads of development. It can be very easy to not run with the idea that was chosen over yours, but having the ability to do so will allow the group to make better progress. Believe it or not, it’s also good for keeping team morale up, as things run much smoother when all team members are willing to accept and participate in the idea 100 percent. It’s no good to have somebody on the team who hinders rather than helps.
Support6
A good team that works together shouldn’t just be a group of individuals working together, but should in a sense form an individual as a whole, made from all of the individual team members. Different individuals of the team will have different personalities and characteristics, meaning different levels of encouragement and support will be needed. Being able to recognize when somebody needs encouragement or support is a skill that will come over time, but is great for team morale. It also allows you to become closer to that person or people, showing that you care what is happening to them, further tightening the team together.
Patience7
As discussed in previous points, working in a team will require you to work with different individuals. Different individuals will have different personalities; some will be loud and boisterous, others will be quiet and timid. As a member of the team, patience will be needed on your behalf. If you were to lose your patience and become angry at other team members, it could affect team relationships and make it awkward for the group as a whole. Patience will be needed for working with everybody; it takes time for a group to find its footing and can take even longer for a team to work and gel together nicely.
Hard Work8
It’s great if a team can listen to one another, it’s great if a team can share ideas with each other, and it’s great if a team can communicate effectively, but without hard work—what’s the point.
Hard work is where the ideas presented are put into practice and are tackled head-on. Hard work is great for getting a team to gel and great for encouraging other team members to do the same.
William G. Dyer, W. Gibb Dyer Jr., and Jeffrey H. Dyer in their book, Team Building: Proven Strategies for Improving Team Performance, identify what they call the four Cs of team development. Those four Cs are context, composition, competencies, and change.9 The discussion that follows will assist in the development of your team building skills as you continue on your journey to become an exemplary follower.
First, the organization must develop a context for developing effective teams.10 This means managers are more likely to achieve successful team dynamics. Within the context of team building within an organization, the type of team needed must be determined. Dyer, Dyer, and Dyer indicate there are three types of teams: decision teams, task teams, and self-directed teams. The first two types are self-explanatory but a self-directed team is an autonomous team without a designated leader. Without this proper context within the organization to support team work it will be very difficult to develop teams. Therefore, it is important for you to learn team building skills.
Now that the context of teamwork has been established, and there is a culture of team building and team performance in the organization, the next requirement is to answer the question about the composition of the team.11 In other words, who should be on the team? The team members must have the experience and skills to accomplish the task at hand whatever it may be.
The experience and skill of the individual team members is of utmost importance as these skills can eventually develop into team competencies.12 These team competencies should be nurtured and shared with all individual members of the team. One way this development can take place is by shifting from management to leadership. Remember the adage that you manage things and lead people. The team is made up of people and they will need leadership. This leadership can come from several sources; the designated leader is not the only team member capable of leading.
The final C is associated with change.13 Change is inevitable when working with teams. As an exemplary follower, you may be called upon to help implement change within the context and competencies of the team. Therefore, your goal as an exemplary follower or team member is to help the team become aware of the situations within the team that keeps it from functioning properly.14
The reason I put this book together is to share with you what I have learned from over 40 years of work experience about leadership and followership, and Euclid was correct. We began by sharing information about leadership theories (most you were familiar with) and followership theories (probably not so familiar). After these two foundation chapters, we discussed how to prepare for the job you have right now and the one you would like to have next. Remember it is important to make your boss’s job easy. Next we discussed how to gain an understanding of what is required of you in any job that you may have, now or in the future. We then touched on the need for good communication, the display of initiative, and the need for maintaining a positive mental attitude. Next a discussion of what it means to accept responsibility for the things you can control. Finally, we wrapped up with a few words about problem solving and teamwork. Both are very important to an exemplary follower.
After you have read this book, one thing should be abundantly clear is that it all comes down to you and your definition of success. Take a few minutes and give some thought to what success means to you in your chosen career path. And keep in mind that these important skills will serve you regardless of the job or position you have, as everyone has a boss, and we all work for someone. Even if you are the boss, you work for someone and someone works for you and these are the skills that you and your employees should learn. Keep in mind that true principles are true regardless of the circumstances. The more experience you have with true principles and the more exposure you have to true principles the better able you are to pick and choose in order to refine and sharpen your skills as an exemplary follower. There is no one correct way to lead or follow, but you should make your way an excellent way. Be as good as you can be in the situation you find yourself in right now.