Team Members Are Another You

Working in a team is a wonderful thing.? You can amplify your effectiveness by being in communication with people who have skills that you don’t have, learning from them and finding solutions to make thing better for your clients and customers.? The communication between team members may be constant, or it may be periodic, but one thing is for sure: you are operating as an extended mind, as you lean into one another.

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It can be tricky, too.? The backbone of any team is the level of communication.? It has to be based on mutual respect and keeping an open dialogue going.? Wondering what another person is thinking slows things down, and more often than not, it stops the whole process in its tracks and can even destroy the team or the project itself.

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When there are questions about who is going to do what, get them out in the open and make decisions that the whole group understands. It’s important to remember that your team members are another version of yourself.? If there is something you admire about a person, let them know about it and learn from the qualities that they show, taking them in to your own way of doing things.

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If there is something that is bothering you about someone else’s approach to the situations you are dealing with, think carefully about how to bring that out. Sometimes a one-on-one conversation is better for clearing things up than bringing it up for the whole group.? Other times, you need to let everyone know.? Again, open commun ication at the right level is the way to get past blockages in your flow as a team and keep things moving.

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Remember that the things that are bothering you reflect your own energy in some way.? If someone displays a behavior that you have outgrown, it can be especially irritating.? Let the irritation go and focus on what needs to be done.

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