Great Teammates!

Great teammates are such an important part of any team, department, or organization. Great teammates lift the attitudes, enthusiasm, and performance of those around them by their mere presence whether in in the locker room, on the front line, in regular meetings, or in the boardroom.

What do I mean by Great Teammates? Here is my bullet list of characteristics of a Great Teammate:

Great teammates are such an important part of any team, department, or organization. Great teammates lift the attitudes, enthusiasm, and performance of those around them by their mere presence whether in in the locker room, on the front line, in regular meetings, or in the boardroom.

What do I mean by Great Teammates? Here is my bullet list of characteristics of a Great Teammate:

·       A Great Teammate arrives at work every day with a smile, a warm greeting, and a positive attitude, regardless of what may be going on in their personal life.

·       A Great Teammate is, first and foremost, trustworthy relative to their honesty, character and competence.

·       A Great Teammate puts the needs and goals of the team ahead of their own.

·       A Great Teammate shows genuine interest in their teammates and those around them.

·       A Great Teammate is reliable and dependable when it comes to showing up for practice or their shift or important meetings and they always come prepared.

·       A Great Teammate demonstrates a tremendous work ethic, often showing up early and staying late, working hard and rarely coasting.

·       A Great Teammate never whines or complains about circumstances but rather they have a core principle of controlling the things they can control and not letting things beyond their control bring them or those around them down.

·       A Great Teammate sees the good qualities in those around them and helps their teammates play to their strengths while helping and influencing them with their weaknesses.

·       A Great Teammate recognizes when their teammates are struggling physically, mentally, or emotionally, and demonstrates sincere empathy in wanting to know what is wrong and offering to help or provide support.

·       A Great Teammate is humble and doesn’t seek the limelight. They regularly accept the blame and share the credit. It is just part of their dna.

·       A Great Teammate is courageous and doesn’t shy away from facing up to the hard challenges. They set a great example for others on the team to show courage in the face of hardship.

·       A Great Teammate regularly volunteers for the “dirty” jobs, others shy away from.

·       A Great Teammate is never duplicitous, behaving one way in one compartment of their life or around certain people while behaving far differently around others or in other parts of their life. In other words, they are who they are, regardless of the people they are with or the circumstances they face.

·       A great teammate never harbors a “hidden agenda” appearing to support team goals and values, while plotting secretly for outcomes that benefit self over teammates.

I’m sure you may be able to add a few more characteristics, but this is a pretty good list. I encourage you to use this list for a self-assessment report card. Go back through the list and grade yourself on each item with a score of 1 – 10 with a score of 10 being a perfect score and 1 being as low as you can go. Once you have completed this part of the exercise, identify those items where you scored below an 8 and write out how you plan to improve in this important aspect of your behaviors to make yourself a better teammate.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I have work to do on a number of these character traits/behaviors. Striving to be a better teammate is a mindset. First you must want to improve. Good luck!

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