How to Be a Great Team Player
The success of a business or organization often hinges on the performance of its employees. Depending on the nature of the job, teams of employees that work together are often imperative to a company meeting its goals and objectives. However, with teamwork can come problems, such as personality conflicts, differing views on solutions, varying work ethics, public or private resentment between employees or dissatisfaction in team approaches. To be a better and more productive team player, there are a variety of steps you can take.
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Instructions
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Be organized. File relevant team work in online or paper folders, and keep this information on hand if you are asked for it by a coworker or manager. Keep your desk clutter-free to avoid losing important documents that are important to the team's success. Keeping work organized will demonstrate to your team that you are dependable and can be relied upon with important paperwork or files.
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Be patient when problems arise. If a team member makes a mistake or sets the team back a few days on a project, your first reaction may be to respond with anger and frustration toward the employee. Avoid being unprofessional by using inflammatory language or sarcasm, which will only aggravate the situation further. Instead, stay calm and use positive, problem-solving language to fix the problem. Do not chastise or berate fellow coworkers in public or private.
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Contribute ideas and solutions. A team usually works toward a common goal, and all team members are generally expected to contribute ideas and concepts to reach that goal. While certain team members may be more vocal than others, do not allow others to drown you out if you are more naturally introverted. Speak up and demonstrate that you have clearly thought-out ideas which can add to the team's strategy. If you are uncomfortable with speaking in front of others, send a mass email to all team members outlining your ideas. Team members who don't contribute at all may be viewed as too lazy to prepare any, or unconcerned with team goals.
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Demonstrate commitment to the company and your team. You may illustrate this by staying after hours to finish specific projects on time, offering to help other team members who may be behind deadline, treating your team to an in-office lunch to boost morale, or consistently delivering solid results on the team work assigned to you. Showing you are committed to your team can increase productivity among other members of the team, since they will see they can rely on you and that you take your work seriously.
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Be enthusiastic about every work day. There may be days that seem harder than others, where the project your team is working on seems to have come to a stand still or gone down a wrong path, but remain positive even on these days. Not only is enthusiasm usually infectious, but a positive attitude often leads to better answers and stronger team ties over a pessimistic attitude that may belittle situations or people.
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References
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