By Jyoti Sah:
Are you a good Team Player?
All of us have one thing common in the strengths’ column on our resume i.e., Team player.
We have all written it because we agree that this particular strength gets a lot of preference in interviews. Also, interviewers always keep an eye out for people who could be a good team player.
Even during our performance appraisal, our performance as a team player come under scanner/review.
These are some basic pointers which are I’m sure obvious to most of us, but in the long run we forget taking care.
1) Work on your abilities than comparing yourself with teammates. When you are busy comparing yourself with others, the others are busy working on themselves & proving their capabilities. This shows to the manager that you’re jealous. Working on your strengths & weaknesses which will eventually show in your work & improve your performance should be what you should focus on.
2) “Have faith in your team.” Just thinking that this person can’t think through and is of no help, will not help your case. Believe in them, as they are where they are for a reason. Give them space and time to prove themselves like you would want for yourself.
3) Don’t ask personal questions if they don’t tell you themselves. This could be taken as “poking your nose in others business.” This is fine once you have worked with them and have that rapport. It is not only applicable to the manager, but for your other colleagues or teammates as well.
4) “Praise when you genuinely feel a certain way.” Fake appreciation is easily visible & could be seen by others. Imagine yourself in this place, would you prefer the genuine or fake praise & which one would give you more thrill and inspiration to do better.
5) Don’t stick to team members like Bee does on honey; Give space. This generally happens when we think sticking to them will earn us a better rapport with each one of them. “Flattery only takes you all the way down.”
6) Managers can play a key role in making sure that his/her team sets the ideal cord & help & support each other. This can easily be done by making sure that each member interacts with each other on a professional & personal level.
7) As the manager is the person who knows the strength & weakness of each member. He/she should arrange a way in which everyone is helping each other in overcoming their weaknesses & enhancing their strengths. This can help in creating “inter dependence” of the team member & will also increase the respect for each other. This does have a plus point for the manager, as this will move people dependence from him to each other.
Hope this helps you strengthen your relationship with your team members & make each one of us a better team player. This will also help us to do justice to our strengths on the resume.
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