Lōkahi Coaching: Exactly what IS a Great Team Player?

“Team player” is one of those very overused yet still highly nebulous phrases in our workplaces. We say it all the time without really articulating what it means to us.

Team Players…
We say we want them.
We’re sure it’ll be good if we get them.

Yet we don’t bother to explain what we imagine them to be, so that people who aspire to be OUR team players will rise to our expectations.

Even when something great happens, we tend to only talk about the result, and pat each other on the back in jovial camaraderie, in this display of sharing the credit. We buy-in to that show of team generosity that “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” Well, I disagree ... but that is a subject for another day (soon!)

When we achieve a great result, we are often so relieved that the task is done, we don’t bother back-tracking to see how our team may have pulled it off, and which characteristic of being a great team player was the catalyst, or made the defining difference. Because we don’t figure it out, we don’t duplicate it, and in the next project a team tackles, we leave it to chance — again.

See if you can focus on answering this question through our value lens of Lōkahi this month:

What are the specific qualities of great team players in the work you do?

FIRST:

Take your own workplace survey – ask everyone and then compile the answers. Seek to really understand, and don’t settle for business-speak words.

For instance, if someone says, “a great team player collaborates well” ask, “What do you mean? How do you define collaboration? For your particular team, what are the kinds of things you expect collaboration done on, and what things should everyone now know and continue (from collaborating on an older project that has already been completed)?”

SECOND:

Distribute them, and ask teams to get together, review and rank them from the most important qualities to the least important ones. The answers will not be as important as the discussion they’ll have in finishing the assignment for you: As before, ask good questions, and see how much detail you can milk from the resulting conversation.

THIRD:

It is highly likely that the answers will not be the same from team to team; see if you can figure out why. Value the differences. In fact, you might want to task each of your teams with writing a Team Manifesto which details what they expect from each other – what you’ll get is a statement of how they will commit to each other.

LAST:

Keep your lists for future reference; and DO refer to them often. There are a number of ways they will prove useful to you. Here is a Focus in Five for keeping your Team Manifesto(s) alive:

1. When a large project needs to be broken down into sensible components, aligning those components with the team player skills and talents which were listed will greatly help with the question of which individual on the team is best suited to take the lead on each component.

2. When a team gets stuck on a particularly vexing problem, your list will become a checklist of approaches they can take.

3. When personalities clash within a team, reviewing your list of attributes may reveal a reason why which was previously below your radar. Clashes are often the result of disconnects in expectations.

4. When you have a vacancy on the team, your list will help you further evaluate the fit of new-hire candidates when all other qualifications seem equal. It will also illustrate where you are hiring too incestuously versus going for diversity. Remember:

Same + Same = more of the same.

Individual + individual = the possibility of synergy.

5. Once you hire, your list will greatly help with any workplace-specific training that much be done within probationary periods. If new hires are coached to learn the high-priority items first, they will assimilate into the team must faster, and be more productive faster.

If you feel your team comes up with a great manifesto, send it to me: I would love to publish it here this month as we continue our study of Lōkahi — Let’s learn from each other!

A virtual team example You can have fun and get creative with this exercise too: As an example, take a look at something I played with at Joyful Jubilant Learning yesterday with the team I have there: A Lesson in Learning Leadership at JJL University. It was all for fun at first, but then I had to think deeply — and appreciatively — about the individual talents that shine there when people are truly engaged. The links I chose to add are of two types: a) to their home sites, to showcase their individual talents completely, and b) of articles they wrote for JJL, i.e. testament to specific "productivity" within our team dynamic. Be sure you read the comments, and you will see how the fun continues, but with a bonus! Our team players also start to volunteer other talents they have, which they feel will add to our teamwork and our camaraderie (and some they hope they never get asked to do!).

If you are just joining us, catch up with us by starting here: Lōkahi and Your Greatest Team.