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.