You hear the following statement all the time.
“There is no ‘I’ in team.”
People say this to emphasize the importance of teamwork and it is used across the spectrum of life. Anything that is relational will also require teamwork. Marriage requires teamwork. Parenting requires it as well. To an extent, living next door to other people will also rely on the ability to share space with them, or to work together.
The ultimate use of this phrase is in sports as it takes the entire team, working together, in order to find success. The workplace is no different. Putting together a team that is capable of functioning well and moving forward together is no easy task. However, there are warning signs to watch for in regards to who will not be a good fit for that team.
Patrick Lencioni writes that “some people are better at being team players than others. They’re not born that way, but either through life experiences, work history, or a real commitment to personal development, they come to possess the three underlying virtues that enable them to be ideal team players: they are humble, hungry, and smart.”
The ability to identify these qualities in an individual will give you an upper hand when it comes to building your team, whether it is in the workplace or just in your life in general. Finding a person with all three qualities is ideal. The fewer of the qualities that a person haves, the less likely you will be to want to build anything around them.
Lencioni goes on to state that “when a team member lacks one or more of these three virtues, the process of building a cohesive team is much more difficult than it should be, and in some cases, impossible….. Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot.”
Now, I would like to take this a little further as I believe this concept extends far beyond the workplace. Take a look at all the relationships that you are a part of. Who is on your team? Who are you building something with? Is that person humble? Do they put the good of others ahead of their own? Are they hungry? Do they pursue their passions or are they content to let life move on around them? And, are they smart? Now, this last one is not in regards to intelligence (though that is a plus). What we are looking for here is social intelligence. How do they handle being around other people?
If you find someone with all three of the qualities, latch on to them. Do not let them go. Just don’t be creepy about it. Build that relationship up. Then, find some more. I have read that we all are a composite of the five people who we spend the majority of our time with. So, with that in mind, find at least five people with these three qualities and make them your team.
You will become that person. You will become the ideal team player.
Life is Strange. Live it Well.
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