What is an Ideal Team Player?

After many years of leading teams and realizing how important it is to have a team that truly acts like a team, there are three traits each team member must have to truly be ideal team players. Patrick Lencioni’s central ideas in his book, An Ideal Team Player, is that an ideal team player possesses a  combination of three virtues — they are humble, hungry, and smart. 

 We often talk about whether someone is a ‘team player’. In interviews, performance reviews, or while sharing feedback, everyone agrees that being a team player is extremely desirable in an employee (or a potential hire). Despite widespread usage of the phrase and agreement on its importance, great team players are rather rare. 

 Lencioni also states, when a team member significantly lacks one or more of these virtues, the process of building a cohesive team becomes hard, and in some cases, impossible. Leaders should ensure that they hire people who demonstrate these attributes, and actively develop these qualities in the people already in their team. 

  The three virtues are defined below: 

 Humble: This is by far the most obvious and easiest to understand. Humility in a team member shows up as a lack of excessive ego, or concerns about status. They are quick to share credit, praise others freely, and sometimes even do not take credit due to them in the interest of celebrating the team’s collective win. They demonstrate strong alignment towards the team’s goals and prioritize collective wins over individual ones. Humble team players are self-confident, but not arrogant.  

 Hungry: Hungry people are always looking for more. They are intrinsically motivated, diligent, and have a strong desire to do more by going above and beyond. Hungry people do not have to be pushed by their managers to perform; they are constantly looking for more responsibility and thinking about the next step and the next opportunity (for the team). 

 Smart: By ‘smart’, this refers to emotional intelligence and interpersonal awareness: The capability to conduct oneself in a group situation and deal with others in the most effective way. Emotionally intelligent people ask good questions, listen to what others are saying, and stay engaged in conversations intently. Smart people exercise great judgment and intuition around the subtleties of group dynamics and are fully aware of the effect.  

 To be a real team player, one must have all these qualities. Lacking in any one of them will lead to undesirable effects on the cohesion of the team. Having great team players is crucial for effective teamwork, and it is solid teamwork that unlocks the true and full potential of teams.  

 People who are humble, hungry and smart demonstrate behaviors such as vulnerability-based trust, healthy conflict, active commitment, peer-to-peer accountability, and a focus on results — and these, in turn, will lead to incredibly successful teams.