You know how hard you work and how much your clients need you. In fact, the success of your company or organization is built on your efforts as an employee. Many administrators admit that their workplaces would fall apart in a very short time without you…. the employee.
How to be a great team player
To be the best team player that you can be, keep these important things in mind:
- Be sure you are clear about what your supervisor expects from you. If you have questions about your assignment, don’t be shy. ASK!
- Remember that your fellow team members are counting on your input. Be sure to tell them when you notice changes – good or bad – during your daily interactions with your clients.
- Pull your own weight by fulfilling your assigned duties. However, as a professional, you should remain flexible too. Your assignment may change from time to time, so it means the rules of teamwork are not arbitrary.
- So, when someone asks you to help with a task that is not one of your regular duties, try to avoid saying, “That’s not my job.”
- Use your observation skills to watch your coworkers as they go about their daily work. You can learn a thing or two from watching others.
Being part of a professional team
Whether you work in a large organization with hundreds of other people or spend your days working in a private setting with just one client, you are part of a team. Every workplace is made up of a variety of disciplines.
In the past, each discipline had its own specific tasks to perform, but no one really worried about how all those tasks came together. Everyone focused on their own area of specialty. Sometimes the same task got repeated by two different people because the disciplines did not communicate with each other.
But many workforce have experienced a new paradigm shift. The client as a whole is now the main focus. Tasks are performed with a plan in mind and all the disciplines must work together on the same goal – meeting the needs of each client.
Going Beyond Organizational Boundaries
Cross-functional teams work best when the voice of the customer is brought into organizations. Customer input is especially valuable to product development teams. A cross-functional team that includes customers, suppliers, and distributors goes beyond organizational boundaries and it is only one way in which businesses have changed to interact with other companies.
In the new global economy, the distinguishing feature of this new marketplace is that clients or consumers become a new source of competence for the corporation. Business globalization has also resulted in the creation of global work teams, a rather formidable task. Within the concept of teamwork, global companies have a responsibility of recognizing differing attitudes and competencies in the team’s cultural mix and the technological capabilities among team members.
Having teams creates an environment in which learning can happen because most learning happens at the peer level-peers who have an interest in helping each other along. Empowerment works when people volunteer to share their knowledge with their colleagues. For example, team members are required to:
- Understand their own job and how it fits into the team.
- Have a basic understanding of their coworker’s job so they can all work together.
- Focus on how their actions are affecting the client.
- Realize that working with a dedicated, focused, and functional team develops an affinity or bond that holds the team together and also allows to work effectively.
Diversity Determines a Team’s Success
Diversity goes beyond differences in race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, abilities, and religious affiliation. At least a third of Silicon Valley’s scientists and engineers are immigrants. The mixing of people is central to the success of teams, even businesses in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
If people are to work in teams, they have to learn to work together with people who have different personalities, different priorities, nd different lifestyles. In the past, companies or organizations tended to look for people much like those who were already working internally or within subsidiaries controlled by the company. Today, such recruiting would probably be illegal, and it certainly would be less than optimal.
Furthermore, it is often quite profitable to have people in a team from many different cultures who also match the diversity of customers, work together so that the company as a whole can understand cultural differences and match them effectively.
Do something that makes you different from everyone else who does the same job. For example: Celebrate major wins with them. Find a saying or a joke to share with your clients and coworkers everyday like, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” “The older you get, the harder it is to see yourself in the mirror.” They will come to look forward to your daily messages! Or, find out the birthdays of your team members and coworkers. Give each of them a birthday card or sing “Happy Birthday” songs celebrating that special day, send congratulatory messages wishing them the best. The goal is to put some of your spirit into your work-and you will get back more than you give!
