“Team Player”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
After working as part of a dysfunctional team on a project this past month I realized that sometimes we take good team work and team atmosphere for granted. The team was dysfunctional for a number of reasons: (1) lack of effective leadership; (2) lack of common goals. There are probably many more, but that’s enough.
The team leader had a selfish agenda, not what was best for the team or team members. It can be said that the coach must be the ultimate team player, or there is no team. In sports, the coach cannot run out onto the field and take the snap from under center, or make the big shot. The coach needs to communicate a vision and plan to the team, then cheer the team on toward execution. The coach who will not delegate the authority and responsibility of execution to the team will not build a winner. Read “control-freak”.
Team members must be incentivized to share the common goals of the team. Unlike the production workplace, in academia there is wide liberty given to establish collaborative teams to get things done. A faculty member once said of building these collaborative teams, “You’ll work with who you’ve worked with in the past.” There are at least 2 obvious reasons for this: (1) You have common goals, or; (2) You like working together. If you have common goals essential for your individual success, you will find a way to work through potential differences to achieve mutual success. Your individual existence relies on team work and synergy. It’s hard to deny the power of this association.
If working together is a painful, uncoordinated experience, the ends eventually will not be worth the means to get there. Even if the project is successful, it won’t be rewarding because all that was gained will have a very temporary feeling and will not satisfy. However, if everyone on the team genuinely enjoys working with the team, successes will be made even larger, because the team was made stronger and individual members were made better through the work and through the success. I guarantee you will want to work with this team again in the future.
You already know if you’ve got a good vs. dysfunctional team. If your team has good chemistry and is cranking along, keep working hard and making the needed sacrifices to keep this team together and productive. And if your team is dysfunctional, it’s time for the “manager” to “manage”.
