We all come across group situations in all aspects of our lives. Our family is a group. We exist in groups of friends, employees at work, students in a classroom, members of a club – I could go on and on. The point is that all of us are a part of many groups and throughout our lives we will join and leave many new groups.

Despite the numerous experiences we all have in groups, we all face challenges with group dynamics: conflicts, communication, motivation, direction, etc. Often times we struggle trying to answer questions like: What is my place in the group? How should I be contributing? How do I get along with everyone?

All of these fall under one big question: how can I be a more effective team player?

Today, I present to you 10 things to help you be a more effective team player:

1. What value does the group provide to me and what value do I bring to the group?

Every time I consider getting involved in a group/initiative, I want to make sure there is value being provided in both directions.

What do I mean by this? Basically, I think the relationship between myself and the group should be reciprocal in that we both gain from the experience. The experience is a positive one when everyone benefits.

For instance, imagine a kid’s community baseball team. A kid who decides to join gains value because he loves baseball and gets to play it with the team. The team benefits because the kid is an enthusiastic member who will give it his all and make the team better.

Conversely, imagine that same kid is asked to play with a community basketball team. The team might benefit from his athleticism, but if the kid does not enjoy playing basketball, then he doesn’t gain from the relationship. If he doesn’t gain, then he won’t be happy.

This is a typical phenomenon we often see when students join clubs they don’t have a real interest in. If they aren’t interested, then often times they receive no value from the experience, and become unhappy and unmotivated the longer they stay with the club. Of course, that’s not to say that the experience isn’t valuable if you don’t enjoy it (e.g. you might hate a course but it’s valuable to you because it’s required for your degree). The point is that you should be getting something valuable out of your group experience, and in turn, you must be providing value to them in order for the experience to be a good one.

Long story short, you want to join a group that makes sense for you – a group where both you and the group benefit from you being involved.

2. Play to your strengths

This is sort of related to the concept of providing value to the group. The basic idea is that everyone is good at different things, and the group is most effective when everyone is able to utilize their talents for the good of the team. When everyone is given the opportunity to play to their strengths, to do what they do best, the result can be phenomenal.

For instance, for two years I sat on the board of directors for Shad Valley. Most of the board was made up of leaders in science, technology, business, and education. The value I added to the board was that I brought a youth/alumni perspective and experience in organizing programs that engaged youth to the table. There was no point in me trying to represent the business or technology aspects at the table – the experts would provide a much better perspective than me anyways. I let the the business leaders deal with the numbers and the budget while I focused my efforts on answering questions like “how would a participant view this? How can we best engage students to apply”?

3. Recognize everyone else’s strengths

Of course, it doesn’t always make sense to play to your strengths – this is the case in situations where a lot of people have the same strengths. Which is why it’s important to understand your teammates and know what they are good at.

Consider a basketball team. The team isn’t going to win if everyone is only good at scoring; the team also needs people who will pass, rebound, play defense, and so on. A good leader would realize that even if scoring is also his best attribute, it would make more sense to use his second best attribute, say play making, to set up scoring opportunities for his teammates.

So yes, play to your strengths, but be willing to step back and figure out which of your other talents might be better suited to making the team better.

4. It’s about quality, not quantity

It seems like we’ve all heard this phrase countless times, but it’s crazy how often it applies when we don’t even realize it. When it comes to working in a group, very often we measure the effectiveness of a team player based on the quantity of their participation – how vocal they were, for example. But I’m sure we’ve all had that less than ideal experience where one person just talked over everyone else. Clearly, simply talking or doing a lot doesn’t mean you’re an effective team player. Instead of asking yourself “am I participating a lot”, ask yourself, “am I participating well”?

Sometimes it’s good to have someone who talks a lot and gets discussion flowing – but this doesn’t make that person’s contributions are more valuable than the person who sits back, observes, and chimes in occasionally with short but insightful advice. I remember sitting at a board meeting once and being most impressed by someone exactly like that. A lot of people would talk and say things that everyone else was already thinking, but every so often, this one guy would speak up with an alternate perspective and throw us a gem. He certainly wasn’t the most vocal person in the room by any means, but given the group dynamics we had, he was arguably one of the most effective teammates.

5. Respect authority but don’t lose confidence

The group dynamics certainly change when you introduce an authority figure into the circle. Think about the way you participate in a group of just students. Now imagine how everyone changes once a teacher starts to facilitate.

There’s no question that adding an authority figure into the group changes things – it does and it should. The key difference is that an authority figure has some power over you. A student can’t give you a bad mark but your teacher can. A colleague can’t fire you but your boss can. The point is that you do need to be more careful and tactful when working with people who have some authority over you.

What does this mean? Well, for one, I avoid interrupting and do my best to let authority figures finish what they want to say. That’s not to say that I regularly interrupt people – but I’m sure when you talk with friends, you often finish each other’s ideas and somewhat interrupt each other all the time. I also make sure to pay extra attention to eye contact and making it clear I am listening (e.g. nodding my head, saying “right, right”, etc.) – again, things I do normally, but just pay more attention to when speaking with someone of authority.

So be respectful and tactful when working with individuals of authority. Be willing to bite your lip if you have to sometimes. It does pay off – if you’re nice and respectful to someone in a position of power, they are more likely to use their position to help you out when you need it.

6. Be willing to speak up and be heard

Of course, this does not mean that you should turtle up in the face of authority. You shouldn’t be afraid to speak up, share your thoughts, and challenge the ideas of authority figures. Don’t lose your confidence. In fact, you’d be surprised how much people of authority want your input (why else would they be working with you?) and how much more they will respect you if you are confident while working with them. Just remember to always be tactful and respectful.

I know this sounds easier than it is. I remember when I first joined the Shad board. I was in my first year of university, and each meeting I was surrounded by CEOs, lawyers, venture capitalists, high ranking school board officials, and so on. Initially I was quite timid, intimidated, and just overall unsure of what my place was. I could tell that I didn’t feel comfortable enough to speak and interact as confidently as I knew I could. Overtime, and with experience, I became more comfortable working with people older and more experienced than I was. This past week alone I’ve had several meetings and phone calls with faculty, physicians, and other health care professionals, and I felt very comfortable sharing my ideas and thoughts. I attribute this a lot to the experience gained and lessons learned from my experience with the Shad board.

7. Understand when to lead and when to follow

Every year in medical schools we get a few lectures on management, leadership, etc. As you can know, medical schools look for students with “leadership potential”, and as you can imagine, we are often told in medical schools to “be leaders” and take initiative. One day, a student decided to ask, “you’re asking us to all be leaders. But if we all try to be leaders, then how can we function as a group? Won’t it just be chaos with everyone fighting for control?”

This goes back to the common misconception that a proper group has one leader and everyone else is a follower. The reality is that regardless of there is a recognized “leader” in a group (e.g. President of a club), most people will end up having to use their leadership skills at some point. When we’re told to be leaders, we’re not being told to try and be a leader in every group situation possible. We’re being asked to develop leadership skills so that we know how to be leaders when we need to be. How do we do this effectively in a group?

Groups often have numerous tasks. Often these tasks can be led by different individuals, depending on their strengths. For instance, someone with marketing experience can take the lead on promoting the event. Someone else with an accounting background can take the lead on figuring out the budget. Don’t have any particular expertise relevant to the task at hand? Then sure, be willing to play a supportive role to help those individuals who do have that expertise. Next time, when something relevant to you comes up, it may be your turn to lead. The point is that a group can be full of leaders who work well together, so long as everyone knows when to lead and when to follow.

8. Be prepared before AND after your meetings

If you’re the one setting up a meeting or if you need to get certain things done, be organized – create an agenda or task list before hand. One of the biggest lessons I learned from being involved in high school was coming to group meetings prepared. It’s easy to underestimate that there is work that goes into knowing what to do next. Numerous times in my life I have been to meetings where there was no clear agenda, and it was essentially meaningless to be there. So be prepared. Have a plan going into your group sessions for what you want to talk about and what things you need covered by the end.

Conversely, by the end of your meetings, you should have an action plan – a list of the next steps you need to be taking. Figuring your next steps now will save a lot of head ache the night before your next meeting when you realize you have no idea what you were supposed to have done!

9. Be punctual

I’m guilty of failing at this piece of advice many times in my life, but that’s why I need to write this – for both you and me. Be on time. Why? Being on time shows respect for everyone else who showed up on time (this is especially important if you’re meeting with a person of authority). Being on time means you don’t miss out on anything. Being on time means people don’t need to wait for you or spend time getting you up to speed.

10. Make sure you’re on the same page as everyone else

A team works towards a common goal. For you to be an effective team player, your goals need to align with everyone else’s. That’s not to say that you should be adjusting all your goals to match the team – if your goals are too far different, maybe that’s a sign this team isn’t for you. Is your group’s goal to get th e best mark or to learn the most possible? Is your team’s goal to win the championship or maximize fun? (that’s not to say that you can’t achieve more than one goal, but it’s up to the team to decide together how important each of those goals are). The bottom line is that your efforts should make sense in the context of what the team wants. Everyone in the team is needed and everyone counts on you the way you count on them. Pull your weight and expect others to do the same. But be pulling in the same direction.

So there you have it – my 10 tips for being an effective team player.

Have some to share? Please share in the comments below!