Importance Of Being A Great Team Member

Teamwork is the thin line between business success and failure. Besides, no individual or group can attain greatness or success without a?good team?or collaboration.

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes teamwork, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

Being a good team player?enables you to work seamlessly with others toward the?same goal. That way, your organization gets to accomplish its business objectives.

What Makes A Good Team Member: Know Your Strengths

As a strong team player, it’s required to collaborate with other team members to accomplish goals in the?workplace.?But then you must identify your strengths to work well with others and become an?excellent team player.

Whether you are an old?team member?or a new one, playing to your strengths improves productivity. Also, developing?strong team?skills can help you succeed in your career regardless of your level or?team environment.

To cut a long story short,?what makes a good team player?is his ability to ignore his weakness and focus on his strength.

Furthermore, a?good team player?is willing to sacrifice his aspirations for his team’s vision. Therefore, he must exhibit a positive attitude, strategic thinking, and commitment toward the team’s?overall project.

It’s noteworthy that you may not know what areas to improve on to?be a team player. Hence, ask your hiring manager, coworker, or colleague for their honest opinion about your teamwork skill.

Also, I suggest you seek out a coach or teammate who has strong teamwork skills to help you improve and have a meaningful life.

How To Understand A Team Objective And Help Accomplish It

The best team consists of people with strong communication skills and a deep understanding of the organization’s objectives.

So how can you?describe a team player?

A?team player?should understand his group goals and take the necessary steps to help reach its set objectives.

Also, a?great team player?must ask critical questions like the below:

• What’s the objective here?
• What are the steps to take to do a successful project
• What’s the deadline
• How do you know a project is successful
• What’s our budget
• What’s each?team?member sole responsibility
• Who is in charge of the recruiting and hiring process?

Additionally, make sure to identify?what makes a good team player.?This allows you to handle tasks much better and, in the long run, help your organization reach its objectives.

13 Qualities Worth Fostering in Yourself

There are specific attributes you need to cultivate while?working as a team member.?The paragraphs below provide 13 qualities you should foster to become an?effective team player.

Self-Awareness

Lao Tzu once said: “He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”

Self-awareness refers to a person’s ability to monitor their own emotions and reactions. Also, research shows that an employee with high self-awareness is a better?team player.

So why is self-awareness essential?

There’s no doubt that self-awareness can make you a?strong team player.?So you must know your strengths and the strengths of your colleagues on the team.

In 2002, the Corporate Leadership Council carried out a global study involving nearly 20,000 people across multiple industries and organizations.?It was found that people’s performance increased by 36% when they were asked to focus on their strengths. Meanwhile, their performance went down by 27%, when they paid more attention to their weaknesses.

Internal Motivation

A financial incentive is a decisive motivating factor for many employees in today’s world. This economic reality is an absolute fact.

There’s nothing wrong with doing a task for financial gain. But if you’re only attracted to a job for money, then you will never be an excellent?team player.

Besides, it’s challenging to get motivated about a project if you only have extrinsic motivations like money, fame, and praise.

So if you lack the internal motivation to perform the day-to-day tasks in your team, then know you’re in the wrong work environment or vocation. In either case, make a change as soon as possible!

A team player needs to show that he’s passionate and motivated to do his job. Such positivity is infectious and can easily lift the atmosphere of a workplace.

Responsibility

Responsibility is a positive quality that can distinguish a?team player?in the workplace. It refers to the obligation to do certain functions to accomplish specific outcomes.

The essence of responsibility is the subordinate’s obligation to do tasks assigned to him by his team leader. Moreover, the result of being responsible for an action is accountability.

Also, when a team player is responsible, it shows he can manage time, complete tasks, and deliver results as promised.?

So one of the tools that could be used is online timesheets that could help to manage employee’s time effectively and improve their sense of responsibility.

Quick tips to be more responsible

• Stop complaining. Most complainers talk too much and do nothing.
• Learn how to manage your finances
• Do not make excuses for your failures. If you make a mistake, accept it.
• Be consistent and stick to your schedule.
• Avoid procrastination.

Positive

Being positive means looking at the bright side of things. It also means showing optimism that future events would turn out well.

A?strong team player?sees and expects the best in all projects. An example of being positive is showing a good attitude and expect the best results for a given task.

Flexible

The word “flexibility” in the workplace is the ability to adapt to changes in the direction of a project without causing stress or drama.

Being flexible in work helps you to alter your strategies and flow with new changes.

Flexibility is crucial in today’s business world. And some of the advantages of being flexible include:

• Adaptability to change
• Life satisfaction
• Staying employed
• Managing the unexpected

Good Communicator

A most desirable quality of a team player is impactful communication skills. Good communication skills allow you to give constructive criticism and explain your points clearly.

A good communicator is more likely to reach the top of functional departments, manage teams, and attain leadership roles.

Problem Solver

A problem solver can quickly identify problems and proffer effective solutions for them. Furthermore, a problem solver is good at analyzing both simple and complex challenges.

Hence he’s able to come up with creative solutions regardless of any business constraints like the limit of team members.

Every employer value an employee with problem-solving skills like the ones listed below;

• Decision-making
• Creativity
• Evaluation
• Analysis
• Communication

Confidence

Self-confidence is both a professional and personal asset. This asset allows you to take a risk and build a constructive relationship with others.

But, not everyone has the same confidence level. Some people seem to have everything but have low self-esteem.

But, at the same time, others have a high self-confidence level despite having faced considerable setbacks in life.

Also, your confidence level improves when you know that you can do something and how much each task will take. Use some tracking tool to know how many hours each task will take.

The paragraphs below provide some solid tips to increase self-confidence:

• Get around positive/uplifting people
• Remember the good times
• Be okay with failure
• Dress for success
• Exercise
• Look others in the eyes

Multitasking

Multitasking is the ability to do or handle more than one activity at a time.

The multitasking debate has often been misleading, with many people saying it shouldn’t be encouraged.

However, life is becoming more competitive and hectic. Therefore, multitasking regularly is crucial.

Often you will find yourself checking your email on a laptop during a conference call on a mobile phone. This is a perfect example of a multitasking activity.

Below are some of the advantages of multitasking;

• Multitasking helps to keep you active.
• Multitasking allows you to do a lot more within a limited time.
• Multitasking allows you to carry out your work faster.
• Multitasking serves as a tonic for the brain. The more you multitask, the better your brain becomes efficient at multitasking.

Note: Too many tasks and varied tasks make time management necessary.

Detail-Oriented

Studies show that 61% of recruiters will throw out a resume if they spot a typographical error?

Why’s this so? Is it that the recruiter is an unforgiving and difficult person?

However, a single spelling mistake shows that you lack a trait that is crucial to most industries. That’s being detail-oriented.

A detail-oriented person will;

• Complete the job while carefully following the company’s standards and protocols.
• Review and examine documents and report accuracy.
• Establish procedures to maintain high-quality standards.
• Pay attention to every detail.
• Create an error-free deliverable that requires little or no editing.

Here are a few tips to become more detail-oriented:

• Get organized with a task management system.
• Ensure always to track your time.
• Always write everything down.
• Communicate well and always review tasks.

Persistent

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, persistence is the quality that enables someone to do or try something, even when it is difficult or rejected by other people.

Persistence keeps the team going when the odds are not in their favor. It’s an important quality every team player must possess.

Most people do not know that you do not have to feel good about persistently working to achieve a particular thing.?

So wanting to persevere while waiting for your mood to stabilize is like waiting for the wind to calm down so you can sail.

Therefore, it’s important not to allow challenges to weigh you down while performing your duties.

Adaptable

Can you learn new things quickly? Every employer would prefer an employee that can adapt to new things.

For instance, your I.T managers might want to teach how to utilize different software for a project? How do you react? Do you whine and complain? Or do you remain calm and learn quickly?

The importance of being adaptable to new demands cannot be overemphasized.?

Adaptability allows you to quickly learn new behaviors and skills in response to changing situations. An adaptable employee can handle workplace change regardless of how serious it is.?

Autonomous

If you are a team leader, do you want a group of autonomous people who will act as they see fit? Or, do you want a team that will not act without first gaining approval or consensus??

Autonomy will enable you to complete the project assigned to you without waiting for approval to proceed.?

Besides, when people lack autonomy over their project, it removes their sense of ownership of the result of the project. And this is likely to affect the quality of the job.

Lastly, a team needs to be time conscious and self-disciplined to take full advantage of their autonomy over any project.?

A lot of time tracking tools on the web offer some form of team productivity reports for you to analyze the results achieved by your team.

Conclusion

There’s no successful organization without teamwork! Thus it’s necessary to work well with others to become a?great team player?and help your company achieve success.

Moreover, cultivating the 13 qualities mentioned above helps you become a?strong team player.