I am concluding this series of “the values a leader considers in deciding to support his employees’ career growth” with the above topic today. Let’s face it – the world we live in is highly competitive. Increasingly, everyone is trying to out do the other person to rise to the top of their career and achieve a higher propensity for comfortable living and financial emancipation. As a consequence of this, we are witnessing the attitude of “everyone for himself,” and inadvertently destroying the very laudable principle of “one for all; all for one,” that many of us grew by.
This competitive nature, with its attendant attitude of selfishness and sometimes, inordinate ambitions, has crept into the fabric of our corporate life. Interestingly, if there was ever a time that employees must pull in one direction and relegate personal ambitions for the good of the company, it is now – in a recession. No leader can tolerate acts of self-aggrandisement or self-promotion as replacement for a winning team spirit.
There is no doubt that group effort is much more powerful than individual effort. To be in your boss’ good books, therefore, you must be a strong team player. How do you achieve this?
- Participate actively: You must play your part to make the team function effectively. Being active is not about being loud-mouthed; you can be soft-spoken but not passive. You need to have “presence” in the room always. Your contribution to the team must deliver value. You must also be authentic in the team. There is no need to say half your mind when at team meetings and the other half gossiping outside the meeting. You could start off as an expert in one area of the team’s deliverables, but being a good team player requires you to expand your horizon by learning about other areas relevant to the success of the team. I remember in my CEO role in Ghana,
I started with an executive team, where each member was an expert in their subject area, but contributed only marginally to conversations in other functional areas. The marketing director for instance, was always very comfortable in his own skin when it came to marketing matters, but went utterly silent when the subject was manufacturing, thus failing to create quality inter-dependencies with the supply director, at meetings.
This continued until I warned the team that by not contributing outside their “comfort zone,” they were indirectly pushing me to convert exco meetings into one-on-one sessions with individual directors. They subsequently stepped up.
- Treat others with respect: Being active in the team should not be understood as needing to be domineering. Your attitude in the team matters a whole lot. You must understand that each person deserves equal “airtime,” unless they offer not to fully utilise theirs. Mastering and manifesting listening skills during team meetings is a great sign of respect. Additionally, you must manage the tone of your contribution such as to show respect for others. You mustn’t be so opinionated that you shoot down other members’ contributions, or get upset that yours is not adopted by the team. Support a team-working philosophy that ensures that the “aggregate output is better than the sum of the individual parts.”
- Own the team’s decision: If and when your view on a subject matter is not adopted by the team, there should be no cause for alarm.
As I said last week, once the debate is over, you must own the outcome of the debate, irrespective of whether or not it is in agreement with your opinion. Someone asked by email last week, “What if you know that the decision of the team is wrong should you still support it?” My response is, “by whose judgement is that decision wrong?” If eight out of 10 people, for example, decide they see something one way, and you are one of the two that think differently, you must align with the popular position; and execute according to the outcome.
- Show commitment: There are some team players that are renowned for doing more talking than acting. This is not how to be a good team player. When you commit to something in a team, you must honour your word. Among other reasons, there’s the possibility that another member’s ability to perform his role, within the critical path, is dependent on your own result, so no excuses. I recall that in one of my international assignments in the past, I had a non-executive member of my board who would come across at board meetings as having answers to all the challenges raised by the executive. This continued until when the chairman asked him to support the executive in dealing with those challenges. He did not accomplish any task. The board consequently lost confidence in him, and he was rotated out.
The point is, a good team member would not criticise loosely, but be sure of his facts and consistently honour his word to the team.
- Make a sacrifice: There are times you need make sacrifices for the team. Think about yourself in one way like a footballer. In football, for instance, there are players often described as “utility players.” They are so versatile, they can play in more than one position on the field even if they have a best position; implying that at times, they are played “out of position” for the benefit of the team. The key is a good team player doesn’t have to be the one in the limelight.
To buttress this further, when you try to outdo every member of your team at the expense of the team, the team risks losing the plot, and the manager potentially looks bad; and under those circumstances, he can hardly support your career. Back to football, remember that the Most Valuable Player in a football match is not necessarily the one that scores the most goals, but he’s typically the one whose contribution is most decisive to his team and the game – generally.
Have a great week.
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