During the course of life, we are a members of many different types of teams. Some exapmles are being a member of a sports team, being a member of your family, being a member of your class, being a member of the company you work for, maybe even a member of a group who provides service to others….the list can go on and on. Therefore, I love the concept of teaching ourselves and our children to be a “great team member.” If you are a parent, coach, teacher, co-worker etc, this will be a good post to read.
This post will assist you in learning the basic concepts of “how to be a great team member.” There are so many situations in life where you will find yourself being a team member. So, why is it important to be a great team member? Well, a team that can’t communicate or work well together can jeprodize the outcome of the goal they are working towards. Whether your team is your family, your sports team, the group you serve with, we wouldn’t want to do anything to jeprodize the outcome of the goal we are working towards, right? In this post we will be going over some positive behaviors that help a team, as will as behaviors that sabotage a team. Hopefully by the end of this post, you will be able to identify how a strong team supports eachother and why that is important. You will also be able to list how you can be a great team member, as well as ways to support other team members. I have also included some questions we can ask ourselves and / or our team members, as we strive to learn and grow together. Feel free to use the concepts and questions in this post to help run a team meeting. ( ie: team sports meeting, family meeting or family council etc)
TEAM
T ogether
E veryone
A chieves
M ore
This is really a great concept! Team = Together Everyone Achieves More. First off, we all need to have this team mindset, “together everyone achieves more.” Here are five basic things to start doing now, to not only help you but your team also.
1. Meet your deadlines – Be there. Be on time. Take responsibility.
2. Be candid – Its ok to share where you’re at. If your struggling or need help, let someone know.
3. Adapt quickly – Our days don’t always go as planned, so we want to be sure to adapt.
4. Appreciate other’s styles of play or work – Not everyone has the same skill set
5. Avoid politics – Stay positive
What is teamwork?
How we define it: The combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficent. Here is an example, with whatever team you are on (a family, sports team etc) More than likely one person cannot accomplish the task at hand, alone. Several people must cooperate to accomplish the task. The better the cooperation, communication and coordination among team members, the better and more efficent the team will be. Look at your current scenerio. Is there are way that your team is working really well together? Is there something that your team needs to work on?
What Makes a Great Team?
- Great communication and social skills
- Are you a positive information sharer? Or do you keep things to yourself. Do you have a positive attitude? Sharing information is part of having good communication and social skills
- There is no “I” in team
- You need to have the “we” mentality instead of the “me” mentality. Do you communicate with the team and work to be a part of the solution? If you arent’ communicating, you may be a part of the problem.
Great Team Atributes:
- Personal responsiblity
- Do you know what your role is?
- Do you know what the roles are of those that are a part of your team?
- Shared goals
- What goal is your team working toward?
- Process for Conflict Resolution
- How do you share concerns? Try to share and resolve them.
- What do you do if you are having issues with a team member?
Your Team
- Think about who is on your team?
- Why is each person there? And what is their role?
- Successful team members will build each other up. Enjoy the quote below.
Tips for Helping your Team
- Get accuainted and feel comfortable with your fellow team members. – find out what is important to them.
- Communicate and work cooperatively – listening and active listening is very important. Give full attention instead of coming up with a response while the other person is still talking.
- Develop norms for the team – things that they can count on as a group.
- Facilitate the sharing of information.
- Begin to trust each other.
Fundamental Team Skills
- Trust – make sure you meet your commitments and maintain confidentality.
- Coaching – use your skills, knowledge and experience to assist others in a gentle / friendly way. On the reverse side, its also good to know when to ask for help too.
- Sharing information – empowering your team members to do their job / role.
- Flexibility – showing a willingness to cooperate and help others when possible.
- Great manners – doing the small and simple things, such as thanking those that have assisted you. Things like that go a long way.
Great Communication Behavior Tips
- Assertiveness
- Communicates clearly and honestly
- Respects and listens to others
- Admits errors or mistakes
- Gives the same rights to others as you would claim for yourself
- Listening Tips
- Listening responsively
- Listening is a part of assertive behaviors
- How can you use questions to check that you have understood?
- Speaking Tips
- Team members will contribute with honesty and integrity even though they may disagree.
- Disagree with an idea, not the person who thought of it.
- Acknowledge other peoples ideas and contributions and build on them.
- Speak with enthusiasim not emotion.
- Conflict Resolution Tips
- Often the inability to resolve conflict may splinter teams and lead to resentment and / or the inability to work together.
- Anticipate conflict – know why it arises and have personal and team stratigies to deal with it.
Negative Behaviors
I thought I take a little space to touch on negative behaviors. These can include the following:
- Gossip
- Unwilingness to be a part of the team
- Uncooporative
- Sabotage
- Constantly giving up
- Not getting along with others
If you do see any of these negative behaviors, try to nip them in the bud. Many times, just sitting down and talking things out using conflict resolution will help. I personally love positivity. Bring a postive attitude to practice, school, church, work or family life every day. Being that person who is inspiring others, really can make for a positive experience. Just be the best person you can be!
10 qualities of an excellent team member
I just wanted to close with these 10 qualities. Many of these come from things discussed throughout this post.
- Show ginuine commitment
- Be easily and quickly adaptable
- Confident communication
- Be reliable and responsible
- Actively listen
- Share your opponions
- Always be ready to help – even if its not your job! We are all in this together.
- Support and respect others
- Use problem solving
- Compromise