3 Must-Have Traits Of Every Great Team Player, And How To Foster Them In Your Employees
If you want to create a successful and effective team, it’s important to know what makes someone an ideal team player.
According to The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni, there are three essential traits: humility, hunger and people-smart.
Humility allows members of the team to be open to new ideas and to admit mistakes without feeling threatened or embarrassed.
Hunger is the desire and drive for hard work and excellence.
People-smart means having empathy for other people and the ability to read their emotions in order to work with them effectively.
These traits can be fostered in individual employees by encouraging initiative even when tasks aren’t explicitly assigned, making use of average team players as well as star talent and looking beyond mere job qualifications when evaluating potential hires – things like how they interact with others can tell you a lot about whether they will make a good addition to the team or not!
Three Traits To Look For In Effective Team Players And How To Improve A Dysfunctional Team
A team of star players who can’t seem to work together is a perfect example of a dysfunctional team.
Maybe they don’t care about the team’s overall results or lack accountability, or struggle with committing to collective decisions and fear conflict, or lack trust – all of which prevents them from succeeding.
By understanding the five traits that lead teams down the road of dysfunction, managers and leaders can better recognize and address these issues in order to create effective teams that strive for excellence.
The first trait is an absence of caring about the team’s performance as each member focuses too much on personal success.
Second is a lack of accountability whereby team members are not called out for their mistakes, lowering the overall standards.
Next is difficulty in committing to collective decisions due to certain members having their own agenda that disrupts the planned strategy.
There’s also fear of conflict within the team which keeps issues unresolved from being discussed openly.
Finally, there’s an absence of trust between members – members don’t want to ask for help even when it’s needed because they don’t feel like other members will have their back when needed.
To prevent such dysfunction, organizations must proactively seek out team players – those with good social skills and drive – while coaching any employees who lack these traits while in service; if they won’t change then they shouldn’t stick around either.
Three Essential Traits To Look For When Choosing A Team Player: Hunger, Willingness To Take On Extra Responsibility, And The Ability To Inspire Others
An ideal team player is one who is both hungry and passionate about their work, willing to do more than what is expected of them.
They will go the extra mile and put in extra hours to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and push themselves beyond any limits they may come up against.
They are always looking for challenges, never content with the status quo and strive for success.
Conversely, there are less enthusiastic workers who only do what is necessary of them.
While these employees don’t ultimately hinder your team’s progress, they can hold back its growth if more motivated workers aren’t around to pick up the slack.
It’s easy enough to identify a hungry worker by looking at their dedication – such as how much time they spend at work or their overall output – but it can be difficult to create hunger in others, since some people prefer a less demanding workload or just don’t wish to push themselves harder.
That being said, hungry players have been known to inspire their less motivated coworkers, so an ideal team should be made up of multiple hungrier individuals!
Smartness Is Essential In Building Effective Teams
Having social smarts is a critical factor when it comes to having great team players.
Having employees who understand and appreciate the interpersonal dynamics of a team, as well as being able to successfully interact with different personalities, is paramount in fostering an effective work environment.
When team members can demonstrate empathy while working with their peers, they will develop trust amongst each other.
They will also be better able to navigate conflict without it escalating into gridlock or becoming aggressive and hostile.
Knowing how to navigate conversations and manage conversations helps make sure everyone gets heard and points of view are properly explored.
People who don’t have good social skills often try to hide behind specific technical expertise or by appearing humble and hungry for success.
It is up to the manager or leader to recognize those who may not “fit in” with the group dynamic and provide these people with help so that they can improve themselves.
Offering this kind of assistance can be highly rewarding for individuals, because it gives them practical solutions on how they could become better team players – solutions that are often welcomed with open arms due to the unhappiness one may feel from not ‘fitting in’ naturally within the group.
It cannot be overstated how important it is that teams embrace this level of intelligence; without social skills, teamwork just isn’t possible since all five dysfunctions we discussed earlier will occur more frequently – preventing any team from reaching its full potential as well as stifling individual growth opportunities.
The Key To Being The Best Team Player Is Humility
Great team players know that humility is key to success.
They understand that the team’s goals and needs come first, before their own ego or status.
This means they are capable of recognizing the contributions of others and working together in order to achieve common goals.
For example, a humble team player will focus on what is best for the team rather than seeking attention for themselves.
When a teammate makes a great suggestion, they will be the first ones to applaud and give the credit where it is due instead of jealously criticizing it in an attempt to reclaim the spotlight.
On the other hand, someone who isn’t humble can create problems within a team and ruin any chance of successful collaboration.
They might compare themselves to other members, putting themselves on a pedestal, not realizing that every member of the team deserves respect.
The lack of humility can often manifest itself in small ways too- think about times you’ve seen people competing for attention with their teammates rather than celebrating collective successes.
Just like the soccer player who put his own needs ahead of those of his team by refusing to pass the ball!
Humility shouldn’t be used as just another way to court favor either – real humbleness comes from genuinely caring for your fellow teammates ahead of yourself.
How To Identify The Qualities Of A Team Player During A Job Interview
When you’re interviewing a prospective hire, it’s essential to check that the candidate displays the three key virtues of an ideal team player – humility, smartness, and hunger.
It can be difficult to ascertain this from the short period of time we have in an interview so its important to pay attention to small details.
For instance take note if the candidate thanks the secretary for coffee served during their session which will indicate humble behavior.
You should also ask questions that focus on personality such as inquiring after four adjectives that best describe them as well as having them talk about their experiences with competitive sports or studies in high school which can be a good indicator of someone who is hungry for success.
It’s also helpful to provide scenarios to test the candidate’s responses and provide context into how they would react under pressure and if they meet expectations in terms of adhering with team standards.
Lastly remember it’s always beneficial to have more than one person conducting interviews or have people present when interviewing so you can get different perspectives on how they display these virtues while being able to assess their interaction with others better.
How To Turn Valuable Employees Into Great Team Players
If you want your company to become an ideal team player, the first step is to detect and develop the three virtues among your current employees.
You need to come up with criteria for each virtue and ask yourself how many of them are evident in any employee.
Consider having them do a self-evaluation, too, so you can get an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses as they relate to these virtues.
The next step is helping them build up on any of the traits they may be lacking.
With some dedication and effort, almost anyone can cultivate these qualities and be a successful teammate.
Give your employees feedback so they know what they should do to continue honing their skills.
Once you feel that employees have truly achieved this level of excellence, it’s time to embed those virtues in company culture.
You’ll want explicit communication from leadership about what behavior is acceptable or not, as well as highlighting positive examples when team spirit shines through.Of course, everyone looks toward management for role models, so you must practice team player behaviors yourself in order for others to genuinely adopt them.
Wrap Up
The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni sums up your guide to creating the perfect workforce.
According to the book, there are three key players that are essential to any successful team: a hunger to go above and beyond, the social smarts to interact positively with a group and humility to subdue one’s ego for the greater good of the team.
If even one of these traits is missing from an individual member, it can drastically reduce team performance.
When addressing a trait an employee may lack, it is important to talk about change in a positive light instead of focusing on problems or faults; this will help them take ownership over improving themselves and make them more likely to pursue hard work if they believe it will have positive results.
In conclusion, The Ideal Team Player provides actionable advice on how to build successful and dynamic teams in almost any workplace setting.
Acknowledging potential room for improvement while still celebrating everyone’s unique talents is key – focus on helping individuals grow through teamwork and unity.
