The Morning Ascent

The Team Members Grow Together

Once the members of the team care for one another, have a common goal, and communicate with one another, they are ready to start growing. Growth within a team is much like growth within a marriage. It is important and necessary. Without it, the team and its individual members do not improve. But like marriage, the growth should include shared experiences and periods of communication so team members stay connected to one another. In a marriage, when growth is not continuously interactive, eventually the two people’s lives develop parallel but very separate courses. They cease to function together as a team. If much time passes, their two courses move further and further apart until each doesn’t know what the other is doing. Finally they won’t care for each other, their goals will be different, and they will stop communicating. Their team is likely to fall apart.

There is a Team Fit

As people who care about each other grow together and work towards a common goal, they get to know each other better. They start to appreciate each other’s strengths and become aware of each other’s weakness. They begin to recognize and appreciate player’s unique qualities. And that leads to the development of a team “fit.”

A team fit requires an attitude of partnership. Every team member must respect the other players. They must desire to contribute to the team, and they must come to expect a contribution from every other person. Above all, they must learn to trust each other. It is trust that makes it possible for them to rely on one another. It allows them to make up for each other’s weaknesses instead of trying to exploit them. Trust allows team members to begin working as a single unit, to being accomplishing the things that together they recognize as important. Once the players know and trust one another, and develop a fit, the team’s personality will begin to emerge.

Individualism wins trophies, but teamwork wins pennants.

[Excerpt: Developing the Leaders Around You ~ John C. Maxwell]

Make today your day to shine!