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Are you labeled "not a team player" for your independence and self-starting nature? Sometimes the flip
side of being a loner or self-motivated employee is the perception you're not
one of the team. Yet there are many
ways you can meld your talents with others' so as to be recognized and
appreciated as a valuable member of the team.
Success Is Not An Orphan
Team players use the opportunity
of their own recognition to spread it around. When you are praised for work you've
done, remember to temper your acceptance of it with appreciation for those who
contributed to your success. Even the pitcher who throws a no-hitter is
supported by teammates who score runs and whose defense saves runs their
opponent tries to score.
Help You, Help Me
When you voluntarily mentor a new
employee you are giving of yourself on behalf of more then the mentee. You are investing in the future success
of the work group and company.
Your willingness to guide and advise another employee cuts down their
learning time, helping them become productive quicker, while also strengthening
the company's culture of caring. You're forging a strong relationship with
another employee and modeling cooperation instead of competition. These are
positive behaviors for you and the company.
Eventful Efforts
Efforts of yours that improve
office moral are also positive team behavior. When you organize a recognition event for a co-worker such
as honoring a birthday, work anniversary or the successful completion (or even
survival) of a complicated project, you are bolstering the team and
facilitating team building.
Other moral boosters can include office outings, inter-departmental
lunches or special events, or even off-site meetings combining fun with
business.
A fast growing company didn't have enough office
space for full cubicles for all new hires. One unfortunate hire's assigned
cubicle had a giant pole in its midst.
She was stoic, never complaining about her plight. Co-workers felt for her. One night they hit the streets,
collecting various fliers from telephone poles in their neighborhoods. The next
day when the new employee reached her cubicle, the offending pole was now
covered with notices about missing pets, renters seeking apartments and even
GRE study groups. Not only did the
employee know her co-workers felt her frustration, it bonded them as well as
they pulled together to help one of their own.
Form Your Own Team
In unofficial ways you can build
your own teams and form your own groups for the benefit of the department. Consider the following:
- Record everyone’s
birthday and take the lead in honoring each when their day arrives. This
doesn’t mean you do all the cooking or pay for all the supplies,
just that you alert people in advance, help get a card and/or appropriate
gift, and rally everyone to recognize others. (Recognizing others is one
sign of good team spirit. The individualist recognizes his/herself first.
Team players recognize others first.)
- Create a program, tradition
or tool to help newcomers to your group fit in. Not only are you helping the group, you’re also
building newcomers’ allegiance to you. They will remember all that you’ve done for them,
how you made them welcome when they were new and afraid. You’ve
lubricated the mechanism whereby new employees become integrated into the
fabric of your group, department or team. That’s the sign of a great
team player — doing work for the good of the team.
- Find a void and fill it for
your existing team. Is there
something that can help your existing team: A piece of equipment,
reorganizing the office furniture to increase efficiency or comfort, a way
you can get your team recognized within the company? Find needs you can fill, solutions
you can provide, and improvements you can make for the betterment of the
team. Ask others for
their ideas. Then see if you can improve it for them. Are employees complaining of backaches,
feet aches and headaches?
You, through HR, can bring in a chiropractor or a foot nurse to
help your group feel better.
- Conducting a quarterly survey
of the team to find out what they need the most and then share results
with management in a nice way.
- Coordinating your
department’s Centipede in the annual Bay-to-Breakers race.
- Take the lead on any project
that can benefit all of your team members.
- Last but not least, bring in
a fun, motivational speaker to both entertain and educate employees about
ways to enliven the workplace, be more productive or work better as a
team.
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