“A snowflake is one of God’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!”
~Author Unknown
My definition of TEAM: Together Everybody Achieves More or Together Everyone Acquires Money! Take your pick…
Here is my five-point plan to build strong, lasting TEAM spirit I call the ‘RAPID’ formula:
★ Resist
★ Assist
★ Persist
★ Insist
★ Desist
Resist: Resist the temptation to serve your own purpose by exploiting others. Resist self-centered politics from taking roots in your TEAM. Resist the temptation to carry another person’s load in the spirit of help. I offer two powerful reasons: #1. Motivate the other person so he or she may learn the techniques to carry out the assigned task. Your guidance should be the motivating force, not your physical involvement. By completing the task, the team member earns not only experience but also a resolute confidence he or she can do it again, as needed. #2. The resulting diversion pulls you away from your personal responsibility. Your physical involvement might create an enormous demand on your capacity to complete your own assignment/s. Helping with advice allows you to keep pursuing your own responsibilities with little hindrance. Let us all remember the time-tested proverb:
“Give someone a fish, he eats once; teach him how to catch a fish and he can eat whenever he wants.”
Resistance can work wonders when applied in the right proportion at the right time.
Resist the urge to help one team member at the cost of the entire team or even your own responsibilities!
Assist: Assisting another TEAM member does not imply spoon-feeding. The need to develop an uncanny passion for assisting others forms one of the founding principles of TEAM spirit. By assisting others in the completion of their assigned tasks, you are extending a hand of friendship across the vast dunes of unfamiliar or ‘could-not-care-less’ territory. Your singular voluntary act of help generates the feelings of respect in the other person’s mind.
Whether you are the boss, the commander, the team leader, a coach or a politician, helping those under your command elevates your persona. It builds an aura of reliability around you so others trust you beyond the norm. Because you project the image of a trustworthy individual, more challenging tasks fall upon your shoulders. Your team’s confidence in your willingness to help gives them the courage to take up any challenge. Completion of the same, in an efficient manner, backed by your assisting nature brings you laurels.
The continuous cycle of assisting others, whether at work, play or events helps you stand out and gain recognition seeking no limelight. This results in your growing popularity as a selfless individual, a reliable manager/boss/captain or friend.
How could you ever overlook such a simple formula for creating a niche for yourself?
Persist: Persistence is the name of the game. Merriam-Webster dictionary gives us the following definitions of persistence:
- “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning”
- “to remain unchanged or fixed in a specific character, condition or position
- “to be insistent in the repetition or pressing of an utterance (as a question or an opinion)”
- “to continue to exist especially past a usual, expected, or normal time”
Persistent TEAM Leaders build the strongest teams and enjoy the benefits of collaboration the most. Not laying down your arms is the strongest tenet of persistent individuals. They go beyond the norm because they know the immeasurable compounding of strength in a team environment. Let us keep in mind the above definition of TEAM…
Persistent TEAM Builders generate appropriate momentum to handle extraordinary challenges!
Insist: In a team environment, members complete the assigned task to support continuity. One weak link can jeopardize the entire setup and cost the team. As a team leader, your job is to see that each member has a specific task to complete, though the level of difficulty may vary. You need to delegate responsibilities per your own perception of each member’s ability. The judging pattern may consider experience, time with the team, performance level and understanding of the bigger picture and so on and so forth. Newer members could shoulder lighter duties in the beginning before they prove their mettle for things more tedious.
To generate an atmosphere of mutual trust and reasonableness, make sure distrust never has time to raise its ugly head in your team. Insist upon your associates the necessity to complete the assigned task within given timeframe. Partiality in your dealings with individual members is a sure recipe for downfall. Your primary duty is to see that each member remains answerable for his/her action in the same fashion.
Lack of transparency in your dealings sends a wrong impression. It takes away the message of collaboration at an even keel. Your resolute determination to keep harmony through the elimination of discontent can help you meet this goal with little resistance.
Result-oriented TEAM Leaders insist on cooperative behavior among members, bar none!
Desist: Never ever get tempted to exert your influence or ability when rendering help. It undermines your noble intention and pushes others away. The way you communicate with others helps them form an opinion about your personality. This makes them to either trust you or detest you. Likable persons build bonds; the not so likable ones destroy relationships or lose good, often great contacts.
Being in a superior position, you must make every possible effort to build a strong foundation for continued growth. Those below you need to see value for your leadership, your guidance, and trustworthiness before they will accept your orders.
Dictatorship does not work. History offers us innumerable examples to support this statement. Your offer to guide those under your charge helps create new channels of communication. The team members feel encouraged to discuss challenges and seek your aid in finding the most suitable solution to any assigned challenge.
Your higher position is an opportunity to be humble and show empathy, not to shower orders and disrespect those under your charge! Why not treat them as humans and build strong bridges of mutual trust?
“Remember: upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.”
~Alexander the Great
TRY IT, YOU MIGHT LIKE IT!
