How to become a great team player

It’s important to be a great team player if you ever want to be a part of an organization, project or any institution that achieves excellent goals.

The truth is that every organization relies on a great team. Achieving a goal or dream is a lot less easy when you work with other people unlike when you try to do it all by yourself. However, putting a team together and getting everyone to work together smoothly requires a lot of hard work. Hence, the need to be a team player and also work with other team members.

So, how can you become a great team player?

You can become a great team player if you follow the tips below:

1. Understand the objective of your team

The first thing you should know about becoming a great team player is to know what your team’s objectives are. You can’t be valuable to your team when you don’t even know what the team is all about.

So, be clear about the goal of the team. Find out:

• What the deadline of the goal is
• What the team hopes to achieve at the end of the project
• How often you need to meet
• Who is in charge of implementing your ideas
• What the team’s budget is, etc.

When you understand what the team is about, in the first place, then it becomes easy to do your part.

2. Know your role in the team and meet your deadline

Again you see why you need to, first of all, understand the objective of your team? It helps you know your role and how best to carry out your duties. When you understand your role in the team, you are one step closer to being the effective team player that others would like.

To become a great team player, you need to understand that the quality of your work might affect the quality of some of the team members. So, presenting a bad job or constantly missing your deadline might affect the overall performance of the team.

So, not only is it important to know your role and job description in the team, but you should also work towards meeting your deadline. I bet every member of your team would always want to work with you every time there’s a project that involves creating a team. If, on the other hand, you’re used to disappointing, well, no one would like to work with you. I mean, everyone wants an effective team player on their team every time.

3. Learn how to communicate effectively with your team members

To be an excellent team player, you have to know how to communicate.

Here’s the thing about communication. If you understand the team’s objective and know how best to play your role but terrible at communicating, then it’ll be challenging to get other team members to work with you.

To be an effective communicator, you need to understand that communication is beyond the words we speak to others. It is how you make people feel. For instance, if someone raises a great suggestion, then speak up. Encourage them to do more. Be active in the team. If you’ve got a suggestion or addition to someone else’s, speak up as well. However, do it respectfully. Treat others well.

Be open-minded; your suggestion isn’t always going to be the best. That’s why you are a team. You’re there to find the best possible way to achieve your goal. So, the goal should always be on your mind; not your pride or ego. It’s about achieving your goal as a team.

4. Be a problem solver in your team

You might be the leader of the team or not. However, because you are not the leader of the team doesn’t mean that you should just observe all that the team members have to say. Do not be a spectator. Be a problem solver. No doubt the team will experience and encounter some challenges on the way to achieving the goal. The question is what will you do to help deal with the situation.?

Be a problem-solver by investing more time and resource to find some of the best ways to achieve the goal. Not because you want others to sing your praises or any of that, but because you want the team to achieve its goal.

Share your expertise as well.

5. Appreciate other team members' work styles

When you understand that we all have different personalities and work style, you're likely to become a better team player than others. Once you understand this, you'll be able to communicate better with your team members and improve productivity. That's one of the goals of the team. isn't it?

So, understand the difference in people's personalities and temperament. Then, appreciate everyone for their work style. Now, that's how you become a great team player.