Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
by Janet Farley, Ed.M.

Are you truly a good team player? Or is that just some soft-skilled catch phrase that you put that on your resume without giving its meaning careful thought?

Maybe it's time to step back and give it some meaningful thought. Let's try again.

Are you truly a good team player?

When you look up the word, teamwork, you'll see an expected definition: “the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient.”

Translate “combined action of a group of people” and you might sense that the concept of collaboration is somehow involved and you would be right.

Teamwork involves collaboration and that is something you have to be good at in our current workforce if you want to be successful. It will be a one you absolutely must have to thrive in the workforce of tomorrow where soft skills are predicted to make a stunning comeback in importance in world where automation will be king.

When you join forces with others to achieve a common goal, on the job or not, you reap notable benefits, individually and as a team:

You become so much smarter. It's true what they say. Two heads are better than one. More heads are even better. A network becomes genius but as members of the NMSN, you probably suspect that already. Pooling those braincells can produce creative and far-reaching solutions for nearly any project making you a much better problem-solver. Icing on the cake? Employers likes to hire people who can fix things.

You develop an appreciation for others who don't think like you. You may be brilliant but you can still learn so much from someone who thinks differently than you or who comes from a different background than you. Living la vita military may have already taught you that. We'll call that a win if so!

You extend your reach. When you are a real team player, you get around organizationally speaking. This means your network is bigger and you can reach further outside of your cubicle to gain valuable assistance when you need it to advance yourself professionally or a project you may be working on.

You can accomplish more tasks faster. Once you get in the groove of working with others on a team effectively, you can get more done. Or not. It may mean that you can spend more time on one aspect you enjoy without sacrificing progress on the overall project and that's a cool thing, too.  Each team you work on may have a unique dynamic. It is key to identify what that dynamic is and how you can best work with it as soon as possible to be the most effective as a whole.

You communicate more effectively with those around you. When you work with others to achieve a common goal and you succeed, that's a sure sign you communicated well. Words are so important. They control everything.

Whether you are looking for a new job or trying to advance in your career, the ability to be a good team player is more important now than it has ever been.

Janet Farley is the MilSpouse Career Program Manager at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center in Colorado Springs and a member of the Colorado Governor's Coaching Corps, a Skillful/Markle Foundation program for job coaches.

 

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