The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate

Who is a team player?

A team player is one who works well with other people in a group, to achieve a common goal.

What Qualities make a good team player?

A team player is always ready to work with others. For whatever role you need people, if they are good team players, you’ll find that:

• Reliability: The ideal team player is the one on whom you can always rely. They always deliver tasks at hand and never miss a deadline. Keeping to their word is never a challenge.
• They easily adapt: Ideal team players can easily deal with changes. They always find a way to work with challenges and others.
• They are very committed: They understand their job and are devoted to it. Ideal team players seldom give leaders cause for worry because they have a passion for the job.
• They hardly compete: Competition can be unhealthy, and ideal team players hardly engage in competition with colleagues. Instead, they encourage an excellent performance of their colleagues understanding that when one wins, the whole team wins.
• They are open and supportive: Ideal team players do not keep ideas to themselves. They hardly have secrets and are never led by selfish interests. Also, they are highly supportive of their teammates. They care about the team and the success of everyone in the organization. They never condition themselves to help at certain times. They are always there for the team.
• They are great communicators: They always share their opinions and ideas clearly but with respect for everyone involved. Ideal team players believe in being heard, and they constructively and respectfully make their thoughts known.

How do you recognize and cultivate the ideal team player?

There are many ways to find the ideal team spirit. Three essential virtues notable of typical term players are:

• Humility: The perfect team player always keeps ego at bay. This trait helps him work with anyone. It also helps him avoid conflict, maintain decorum, and get the job done.
• Hunger: The ideal team player is always enthusiastic for more. He is always driven to work and even does more. It also makes him encourage others to be their best.
• Intelligence: Not just by the books, but also on the field. A good team player is smart, understanding his colleagues because he’s also emotionally intelligent. He is full of ideas on how to execute his duty, assist others, and gets the job done impeccably without delay.

As a leader in search of people, you should be able to study who is ideal, who has what quality, and who lacks which.

Cultivating your ideal team players

Some team players can possess all the qualities significantly, some greatly possess two compared to the third, while some can greatly possess one compared to the other two qualities. It is your duty as a leader to identify which proper blend of qualities should be applied in the work environment. You need to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your employees and engage them in improving themselves.

Of the three virtues, the most sensitive is humility. An employee lacking this virtue needs to be continuously reminded. He can be helped to develop it by sticking to a list of desirable behaviors and keeping track of their actions over time. This will aid his development.

Employees lacking hunger usually finds it difficult to change, but that’s not impossible. Lacking desire can be useful in the sense that it makes these team players devoted to one line of action. They can improve and cultivate the virtue of wanting to do more. This can be done by exposing them to the reason behind the work, so they find more value in it. Expectations can also be set, and these set of team players can be held responsible for them.

Those who lack intelligence and are not smart with people can always be reminded and called to order each time they act in a way that’s not smart.

There are many ways to develop the work environment, from the employees to itself. Learn a lot more and better your results. You can also search for prospects on Jobsora to fill in open opportunities at your firm.