What Type of Player Do You Wanna Be in 2022?
January is in full swing; we are halfway done with the first month in 2022. So, the ultimate question is, “How are those resolutions coming?” There are some of us who love a good resolution and start preplanning our goals a few weeks before the new year. And then there’s what the majority of us do: end up either not bothering at all and don’t give resolutions a second thought, or we try really hard for a week with the few resolutions that we have and then forget the other 350-ish days of the current year.
It’s easy to want to give up when we know the resolution affects only us, but what if our resolutions affected everyone around us? What if they affected the small business we worked for? What if our resolutions were more work-centered? Have you ever considered improving yourself for the sake of others? Your coworkers? Have you ever considered being the coworker that everyone actually wants to work with?
When it comes to leadership, I think we put all the responsibility on the leader or manager, which by default has a lot of truth to it. How are they going to lead the team most effectively? When an issue arises what will they do? How will the leader handle it? While there is a major responsibility on the manager or leader, the team also plays a crucial role. Without the team, a job won’t get done efficiently or effectively. A team should help carry the weight of different projects or tasks and let’s not forget overall workplace morale. So how does one do it? How does a team member either in a local small business or a large corporation, contribute to their team?
In the book The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni, he lays out three major virtues that he believes should be in any team member and we think they are pretty great as well.
The first contender? Humility. Ideal team players are humble. This isn’t always easy, but a little humility can go a long way. Lack of ego or concerns about where they are in the company and more focused on the overall success of a team speaks volumes about a person. Humble team members love to praise and encourage others for their efforts and usually don’t point out their own successes. They share the workload and they share the credit.
Another virtue that can be challenging but incredibly supportive to have in a local business is people who are hungry. Now we are not talking about hanging out in the break room excessively or having an extended lunch. We are talking about motivation. People who are always wanting more. Wanting to learn more. More tasks to work on. More responsibility to take on. Hungry people are always thinking about what is next and planning for the future to optimize the success of their team and company.
And lastly, an ideal team player is smart. Smart with people. They have emotional intelligence and can understand, use, and manage their own emotions in a positive way to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. A smart team player knows how their words and actions affect others and can key into those moments when they need to add input, reel it back, or just be able to help out where they see is needed.
These three factors make up the ideal team player. There may be one or two that may come easy for you, but the key is to have all three virtues. Maybe you work for a local computer business in Knoxville, Tennessee or maybe you show up to some gated corporation with 5-layers of security to go work with your team of 100 plus employees. It doesn’t matter where you work, what matters is what part do you want to play on your team? How do you want to interact with your co-workers? How do you want them to view you as a person? So, are you ready to be an ideal team player and make the most out of 2022? If so, start below!
Want to see if you are already the ideal team player? Click the link for a self-assessment and start your journey to becoming the person that you want to be this year.
