Be a Great Teammate!

Everybody cannot be a great player, but everybody can be great teammate.  For the past few weeks I have been reminding my wife of this simple truth.  Many of our recent discussions have centered on the rash of transfers seen in area.  For one reason or another many student-athletes are leaving their home district and transferring to another district for what appears to be primarily athletic reasons.  My wife and I are in serious disagreement over this practice.  She believes it is permissible to engage in this practice if it provides your child an opportunity to be on a team or greater playing time.  I am opposed to this practice because I believe it has a domino effect: Student-athlete from school “A” transfers to school “B”, thereby pushing out a student-athlete from school “B” who may transfer to school “C”—get the picture?  So, my wife asks me what do we do if our daughter gets cut from the team?  Better yet, how can we make sure she doesn’t get cut from the team?  My reply is simple:  Make sure she is a great teammate.  Coaches don’t cut kids who are great teammates.  Coaches love kids who are great teammates because there are not enough great teammates out there.  My wife followed up with, “What makes a great teammate?”  To be honest, I never thought about what specific characteristics or behaviors constitute being a great teammate, but after giving it some thought, I came up with the following four behaviors.

1.       Work hard.  By working hard you will assist in keeping others working hard.  It is so much easier to begin to slack off if you know others are doing the same.  However, if you take it upon yourself to set a standard for the team, your behavior will become contagious and others will start to follow your lead.  Working hard is something each and every one of us can do; we are all capable of giving our best effort day-in and day-out.

2.       Communicate positivity.  We are social creatures, so we are going to communicate with one another, but the question is this: How are we going to communicate with one another?  This is vitally important on any team.  Putting a positive spin on things, focusing on the behaviors we want to see instead of the behaviors we do not what to see, offering constructive criticism, and looking for solutions rather than fixing blame are all characteristics of positive communication.  It is easy to fall into the trap of negative communication—don’t do it, rather choose a postiive attitude!

3.       Have your coach’s back.  When things go wrong—and they will go wrong—people often look for the nearest scapegoat, and that is often the coach.  Encourage your teammates to own their mistakes and not give in to the temptation to place blame elsewhere.  Moreover, do this with those outside of the team as they will often be the first one to point a finger at the coach (as if the coach runs drills on how to miss lay-ups or turn the ball over).  This is going to be difficult to do and it may make you unpopular for a brief period of time, but consider the alternative.  A failure to truly own our mistakes prevents us from becoming all we can be and will serve to hold your team back; that is, your team will never realize their true potential.

4.       Put the team first and don’t do anything to hurt the team.  This may be the hardest thing on this list to do.  Recognizing that the team is more important than we are and subjugating our ego to what is best for the team is a difficult task for even the most emotionally intelligent person to do.  However, the rewards are great.  It is very special to be part of a team because it allows you to achieve things you simply could not do on your own.  With this in mind, don’t jeopardize your position as a member of the team through negative or irresponsible behavior.  Do what is expected of you, when it is expected of you, to the best of your ability. 

When preparing this post it was evident to me that this topic transcends athletics.  I frequently hear people talk about the “team” in business and educational settings, but generally that is all it is— talk.  So few people truly understand what it means to be on a team, much less the incredible responsibility it entails.  I believe the four principles laid out above would allow any of us to become a better teammate no matter what industry we are in or team we are on presently.  Being on a team certainly requires sacrifice, but it also allows us an opportunity to be part of something special.  No matter how badly we want to be the superstar who hits the game-winning shot or closes the major deal, we have to recognize that this may not be the role we are equipped to play.  However, each of us possesses the potential to be a great teammate and to assist others in achieving these feats.  And, at the end of the day, their success is our success because we are on the same team!