In today's workplace one of the key requirements to success for most jobs is being an effective teamplayer. What are the intangible assets that define a great team player who fosters the conditions necessary for effective teamwork and contributes actively and meaningfully to the team's success? Below the career experts at Bayt.com have identified thirteen key attributes that help single out effective team players who are able to tap into the dynamics and synergies in professional team settings to achieve superior results.
Team players are skilled at working with others in a cohesive, collaborative manner with the intention of achieving a common goal. They pitch in where required, respond to requests for assistance from the team, contribute their own ideas and viewpoints, add positively to the group dynamic, make an effort to understand conflicting viewpoints and agendas and try to lift the team's spirit and morale. Cooperative team players understand that the group effort may be considerably better than the sum of its parts and work consistently towards tapping into the synergies that result in superior results.
Essential team dynamics include being proactive and approaching the group effort in a responsible and contributive manner. For the team to be successful each and every team member must contribute to the overall effort and take personal responsibility for their actions, decisions and viewpoints. Being proactive means taking the initiative to constructively share in the discussion of problems, participating in offering and discussing creative solutions and pitching in to work on specific tasks that contribute to the group effort.
Team members are often agents of change, sometimes dramatic change, and must have an open mind, creativity and a willingness to analyze, engineer and embrace that change in order to succeed. The need for adaptability encompasses both adaptability to change management in the macro scheme of things as well as adaptability to the group dynamic as it shifts and changes. Successful team members are willing to alter or modify their viewpoints if necessary and if the facts support that, and do not cling stubbornly to outdated, redundant or suboptimal stances where the team has proved them unjustifiable. Successful team members are not resistant to change and are flexible enough to modify their thinking to accommodate different perspectives in pursuit of a better outcome and superior returns. The most adaptable employees are open to learning and highly teachable as well as being emotionally secure enough to not feel threatened by alternate views or change in the way things are done. Adaptable employees are more concerned with the welfare of the team and organisation than the enforcement of their own agendas.
Successful team members are committed to the team and strongly and visibly dedicated to achieving the team's goals. They do not throw in the towel when the going gets tough nor do they exhibit a wavering commitment to the team agenda or a disposition to abandoning the effort. Committed team members show up to work and meetings on time, work very hard, display responsibility, exhibit they are in it for the long haul and demonstrate they are truly concerned about the job at hand and the team as a whole. Their overriding objective is to see the project through to its completion and achieve optimal, maximized risk-adjusted returns for the team and the organization as a whole. They are steadfast and tenacious in pursuing the team's goals, take personal pride in their own work as well as the team's and put in a maximum amount of effort to achieve superior results.
Team players exhibit the golden rule - they treat others as they themselves would like to be treated and display the utmost respect for all other team members at all times regardless of differences in viewpoints and agendas. Team players respect differences, are open to ideas that are not their own and try to understand and accommodate divergent viewpoints in a professional and courteous manner rather than rudely and stubbornly dismissing them at face value.
Strong team members have learnt to listen attentively and with genuine interest to others on the team, with the intention of truly understanding the different viewpoints, not with a faked superficial interest or the egocentric intent to simply move on to their own agenda. Attentive listening involves being truly engaged in trying to understand the other members of the team, listening fully and actively without a stream of constant interruptions until the others have finished voicing their opinions and showing a sincere and genuine desire to accommodate alternative stances or at least discuss them constructively and completely. Effective team members have perfected the discipline of hearing others out and not listening superficially, listening selectively or interrupting at every opportunity.
Effective communication in a team setting means the confidence to put your point across in a clear, cohesive, concise manner that is professionally worded and displays utmost respect for the group dynamic and viewpoints of others on the team. Good communicators can talk confidently and with ease to people across the organization regardless of rank or seniority and are not afraid to make their point across or discuss and debate issues pertinent to the job openly, constructively and professionally.
Effective team players can be relied on to complete tasks allotted to them in the proper manner, to arrive to meetings on time, pull their weight in active debates and discussions and contribute positively and meaningfully at all times to the team effort. These team members always have the welfare of the group in mind and never waver in their sincere and professional commitment to the company, the project and the team.
To lift the spirits of the team, hike the morale and increase the energy level and productivity, every team needs its members to be keen and enthusiastic. Genuine enthusiasm in a job well done is contagious and very soon manifests itself in the group as a whole working on an elevated, more rigorous plateau. Dedicated, enthusiastic, energized employees who respect other team members and agendas are an asset to any team they work on.
Effective team members are solution-oriented and approach problem solving in a constructive, efficient and creative manner that carefully weighs the pros and cons of alternative solutions and seeks to identify the most optimal, profitable, resource-effective and appropriate solutions.
Effective team members are always prepared. They do not come to meetings without a sound knowledge base and sufficient preparation to participate fully and constructively in the group discussions. They do their homework, complete the work assigned to them to the required standards and arrive at meetings open to share their work and results with others and learn from the work, experience, knowledge base and background of others on the team.
Effective team members are steadfast and tenacious in pursuing the team's goals regardless of the hurdles they face and work had to overcome any obstacles no matter what they are. They do not allow anything to come in the way of pursuing their goal and accomplishing their mission and are skilled a t tapping into the combined strength of the team to achieve a forward-moving momentum that creatively eliminates obstacles.
For a team to succeed, individual team members must be supportive of each other. Lack of trust, selfishness, big egos and superstar mentalities hamper the free flow of information and create a negative dynamic and tension that impede effective problem-solving. Team members must be ready and willing to positively reinforce each other, give credit where credit is due and feed the morale and self-esteem of the team as a whole.
