How to tell if you are a Team Player
What qualities truly make you a team player? For example, think of a group of individuals that play a variety of musical instruments coming together as a group and what needs to happen to make them a team. All of the members of the musical group must blend all their talent and knowledge together to create the goal of producing music. Their conductor will provide them with the direction and what the final product of their music should look like. In order to achieve the goals of the conductor and produce music together, this group of individuals will need to learn to work together and rely on each other. When this all comes together, all members of this group become team players by producing beautiful music together. If there are any individuals that are not working together with the other members of the group, they will clearly stand out as not team players.
The basis of becoming a team player is the ability to work together with other members of your group and achieve goals that have been identified as the purpose for the formation of the team. Team players will recognize the need to build a cohesiveness between the members to help their team succeed. Individuals looking to gain personal recognition and not willing to work collaboratively with the members of their group are not team players. Team players understand the importance of the value of every member working together and having open and effective communication processes in place.
Team players recognize the significance of the resources they have by working in a creative and collaborative environment. Team players recognize the importance of giving each member credit and recognition for their ideas and how their contributions helped the team meet their goals. The important part of being on a team is that every individual and their efforts is recognized, no matter how small their efforts and contributions were. If you are an individual in a group and fail to understand the significance of these facts, you are definitely not a team player.
Team players will come together with their group to from a common vision of what they need to do to accomplish their goals. Every team player needs to have a clear set of objectives and what the expectations are for the group. If you are not willing to be part of this common vision, then you're not a team player.
It is vital that team members build behaviors that foster trust and a willingness to give and take. Team players look forward what needs to happen to accomplish the team's success. Team players understand that you cannot control how individuals feel about each other, but understand the need to establish accepted guidelines and values about how they behave toward each other. If you are not willing to adhere to these behaviors, then you are not a team player.
In summary, team players acknowledge and celebrate each member and their success of working collaboratively together to achieve their goals. If you do not have the willingness or ability to work together with a group of people, you will never be a team player.
