There is No ‘I’ in Team…But There is an ‘M’ and an ‘E’

This article has been written by my friend, Gil Pizano and he has allowed me to publish it here. I would like to thank him for this. You may refer to his blog http://gilpizano.com/ .

Every so often I hear busi­ness teach­ers and coaches men­tion that there is no “I” in the word team. I under­stand that what is meant by many of them is that one shouldn’t place one’s own needs above that of the team. But all too often some indi­vid­u­als take it to the extreme and basi­cally neglect their own needs in order (as they per­ceive it) to allow the team to per­form at it’s best. This is where the line really needs to be drawn because if one neglects their own needs, then one’s poten­tial con­tri­bu­tion to the team can and will be lack­ing to say the least.

Some­times a per­son is part of a team because they’re told by a supe­rior to be part of it, oth­ers because they’re asked. Still many oth­ers go out and search for a team they can be part of whether it be as part of a job search or a vol­un­teer group. Regard­less of which team a per­son belongs to, that team will never ben­e­fit to it’s fullest by you being a part of it, with­out you receiv­ing back some­thing from the team in return for being a part of it.

Being Part of the Team

We are all to one extent or another a part of a team, whether it be a pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tion, a sports team after work, a group of friends who like to hang out or as a fam­ily mem­ber. Why do I say that? Because as a mem­ber of a team, the way we act (or fail to act) will always in some way shape or form effect other mem­bers of the team. We may not always be able to change which team we belong to (e.g. being born into a fam­ily), but in cases of teams we choose to be part of due to love for a par­tic­u­lar cause (a vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion) or due to neces­sity (a job in order to pay your bills) we must always be cog­nizant of the fact that each per­son has their own par­tic­u­lar needs.

I’ve joined var­i­ous teams through­out my life and in some cases, it was truly a joy to be involved . In other cases, I remem­ber feel­ing like my life energy was slowly being drained out of me when I met or talked with a team caus­ing me to be almost emo­tion­ally and psy­cho­log­i­cally drained after­wards (I’m sure no one has ever felt that feel­ing before…:-) ).

Look­ing back, the times I felt good being a mem­ber of a team was when I was able to align the pur­pose of the team with my own per­sonal needs. Whether it be work or a vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion, align­ing the team’s goals with my own per­sonal goals was key to the entire expe­ri­ence of being a team mem­ber. In turn, the team got the best from me with regards to enthu­si­asm, work ethic and ideas. The times when my per­sonal goals did not align with the goals or pur­pose of the team were the times when I would feel less enthu­si­as­tic about being a team mem­ber. My work ethic would still be there but the team would not get the best out of me with regards to enthu­si­asm or ideas. Why? At first I couldn’t under­stand the rea­son but later on I real­ized it was due to the goals of the team not align­ing with my own per­sonal goals in some form.

Over time, my enthu­si­asm would become affected and I’d find myself not enjoy­ing being a mem­ber of the team or worse, feel­ing that the team was doing noth­ing more than tak­ing up pre­cious time. Time I could be ded­i­cat­ing towards some other cause or endeavor. When­ever that occurs, you start becom­ing a lia­bil­ity to the team rather than a valu­able asset.

Being True to Yourself

Regard­less of what team a per­son is part of, it’s really impor­tant to keep one’s per­sonal goals in line with the goals of the team to some extent. Doing so will allow the rela­tion­ship between you and the team you’re involved with to be mutu­ally beneficial.

In the short term, the time spent with the team will def­i­nitely be more enjoy­able. In the long term, team mem­bers or oth­ers out­side of the team will more likely see you as a valu­able asset to have on other teams.

So why am I say­ing all this? Because, if you find your­self not enjoy­ing your involve­ment with a team, then it may be time to look in the mir­ror and deter­mine whether you should be a part of the team or if you need to move on.