Teams

“Teamwork makes the dream work” 

as quoted by John Maxwell means many different things to different audiences. There’s a lot that goes into teamwork and each teammate has a role they play.

Your job as a teammate

Being a teammate means being one part of a team. Right now, this is your grade level team. There are teams everywhere so it’s important to develop your skills so that you are effective in all team environments.

Some important characteristics of being a good teammate include:

• working toward a common goal

• cooperation

• socialization

• accountability

• dealing with loss

• having fun

Teamwork

You can be a teammate but not put in the time to do teamwork. An example is that as a teammate you may be there to socialize and have fun but not be able to cooperate with others on the team and work together to achieve a common goal.

A team is always made up of a diverse group of individuals. In order for HPM teachers to be an effective team, they have to figure out how to mesh their unique skill sets and personalities. Many times, this is the leader’s job but it is also the job of everyone on the team.

Building teamwork can be challenging and fun. It’s challenging because you must figure out how to use all the uniqueness you have even though that uniqueness is also going to cause challenges. However, when a team understands each other and learns how to build relationships, teamwork comes more naturally and is much more fun.

Thinking about teamwork, building it, and supporting differences is the only way to build an effective team. This is how everyone grows and learns. It’s easy to just be you but when you have to be you and envelop different thoughts on other ways to do things, you grow and expand. Your way is not the only way and in fact, it is only one way! If you have a team of 15 people, there are 15 ways to do something.

Teamwork skills

Many great skills are required to develop teamwork including:

• Organizing and planning

• Decision-making

• Problem-solving

• Communication skills

• Persuasion and influencing skills

• Feedback skills

• Conflict resolution

These skills aren’t inherent. They take a conscious effort to develop. Coaches and captains need to help bridge the learning. It’s important to make sure that practices are designed in a way where everyone has an opportunity to develop and practice using these skills but in their own way. For example, each athlete on your team will have a very different way of communicating or problem-solving. No one is wrong.

The most important thing to remember about the skills associated with teamwork is that you have to consciously work to build them and everyone comes with a different set of them.

A GREAT TEAM WORKS TOGETHER FOR THE BETTERMENT OF EACH OTHER AND OF THE TEAM – TEAMWORK