The personal characteristics listed here go beyond professional work, and are useful as a guide for any well-functioning community working together in any setting. This article is an overview of the main points raised in John Calvin Maxwell’s book “The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player”. John is a good storyteller, and the historic examples and stories are an interesting read, and mostly still relevant.
Contents
1. Adaptable
If you won’t change for the team, the team may change you.
Desirable Characteristics
- Teachable. Place a high priority on breaking new ground.
- Emotionally Secure. If they aren’t, they’ll see almost anything as a challenge or threat.
- Creative. Creativity fosters adaptability.
- Service Minded. You’re more likely to make changes for the team, if you’re less focused on yourself.
How to Demonstrate
- Be learning focused.
- See if you can fill another role in your team that will help them more.
- Think of how it can be done, and not why it can’t be done.
2. Collaborative
Working together precedes winning together.
Desirable Characteristics
- Perception. Teammates are collaborators, not competitors.
- Attitude. Be supportive, not suspicious, of teammates. Their motives are good unless proven otherwise.
- Focus. Concentrate on the team, not yourself.
- Results. The multiplying effects of working collaboratively.
How to Demonstrate
- Find someone who is a competitor in your team and work together to achieve something.
- Complement others. Work with someone else who has different skills to yourself.
- Consider your absence from the team, if you can’t add to it, then promote others.
3. Committed
There are no half-hearted champions … commitment is a character quality, not a human emotion.
Desirable Characteristics
- Commitment is discovered in the midst of adversity.
- Commitment is not connected to natural gifts or abilities.
- Commitment is a result of choice, not conditions.
- Commitment that lasts is based on your values.
How to Demonstrate
- Tie your commitments to your personal and professional values.
- Risks are taken, you may fail, but if you give it your all you won’t regret it.
- Reassess your team, you cannot commit to an uncommitted team.
4. Communicative
A team is many voices with a single heart.
Desirable Characteristics
- Teammates are not isolated from each other.
- Teammates can easily communicate. Proximity solves most issues.
- Teammate conflicts should be addressed in less than 24 hours of it occurring.
- Give attention to potentially difficult relationships.
- Follow up important communication in writing.
How to Demonstrate
- Be more candid. Open communication fosters trust.
- Be more inclusive.
5. Competent
People forget how fast you did a job – but they remember how well you did it.
– Howard W. Newton
If you can’t, your team won’t.
Desirable Characteristics
- Committed to Excellence.
- Attention to Detail. Doing little jobs well leads to big jobs taking care of themselves.
- Consistent Performance.
How to Demonstrate
- Focus yourself professionally.
- Get the details right. Focus on that last 10% of a project.
- Pay more attention to implementation, since it’s the hardest part of the job.
- You can’t develop high competence if you’re trying to do everything, choose something to focus on, and delegate as required.
- Remember that successes are few, but excellence is available to all, but only accepted by few.
6. Dependable
Teams go to Go-To players
Desirable Characteristics
- Pure motive. For the team, not for yourself.
- Responsibility. Take on, and having a strong sense of responsibility.
- Sound Thinking. Dependability relies on one to have good judgement.
- Consistent contribution. Follow through – no matter what.
How to Demonstrate
- Check your motives. Do your personal values align with the team?
- Ask a subordinate and a superior of how reliable you are when you say you are going to do something.
- Find an accountability buddy to help ensure you follow through.
7. Disciplined
Where there’s a will, there’s a win.
Challenge your mind once or twice a week.
Desirable Characteristics
- Disciplined emotions. Don’t let feelings stop you from doing the right thing.
- Disciplined actions. Do what you say.
How to Demonstrate
- Do something necessary but unpleasant everyday to keep yourself disciplined.
- Do something beyond your capabilities.
- Hold your tongue for five minutes if your want to lash out, to be in command of your emotions.
8. Enlarging
Adding value to teammates is invaluable.
Most of us plateau when we lose the tension between where we are and where we ought to be.
Desirable Characteristics
- Enlargers value their teammates. Performance reflects the expectations of those they respect.
- Enlargers value what their teammates value.
- Enlargers add value to their teammates. Help others improve their abilities and attitudes.
- Enlargers make themselves more valuable, to be able to help others.
How to Demonstrate
- Believe in others before they believe in you.
- Serve others before they serve you.
- Add value to others before they add value to you. Do not push people out of their gift zone (this will lead to frustration), but only out of their comfort zone.
9. Enthusiastic
Your heart is the source of energy for the team.
Enthusiasm increases a person’s accomplishments, while apathy increases their alibis.
Desirable Characteristics
- Take responsibility for your own enthusiasm. Positive people are positive because they choose to be.
- Act your way into feeling.
- Believe in what you do.
- Spend time with other enthusiastic people. Enthusiasm is contagious.
How to Demonstrate
- Tackle things with a sense of urgency. It will give you energy for tasks you don’t want to do.
- Be willing to do more. Go the extra mile for others for a positive impact on team atmosphere.
- Strive for excellence. Elbert Hubbard: ” The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today”
10. Intentional
Make every action count
If you are intentional with what you have, then you will make the most of the time and talent you are given.
Desirable Characteristics
- Have a purpose worth living for
- Know your strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths.
- Prioritise your responsibilities. Henry David Thoreau: “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something”.
- Learn to say “No”. Otherwise you won’t excel to do what you were meant to do.
- Commit to Long-term Achievement. Small sustainable incremental wins, not an all or nothing lottery.
How to Demonstrate
- Explore strengths and weaknesses. Self-examine, then survey close friends.
- Specialise. Spend 80% of your time on that specialisation for your team.
- Plan your calendar with a purpose. Think of a longer duration than you usually plan, instead of hours, a day, instead of days, a week, etc.
11. Mission Conscious
The big picture is coming in loud and clear.
Desirable Characteristics
- They know where the team is going. Sense of direction, enthusiasm, burning desire.
- Let the leader of the team lead, united.
- Place team accomplishment ahead of one’s own. You may have to sacrifice personal goals.
- Do whatever is necessary to achieve the mission. As above.
How to Demonstrate
- Check if the team focuses on the mission. Practice and agree on a mission statement.
- Keep the mission in mind. Notes, reminders, etc.
- Contribute your best as a team member.
12. Prepared
Preparation can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Desirable Characteristics
- Assess the direction you and your team are heading.
- Alignment. Doing the right work is more important than working hard.
- Attitude. Be mentally and physically prepared, be positive about you and your team, and the situation.
How to Demonstrate
- Think about systems as processes and tasks. Break it down.
- Research to improve yourself.
- Learn from your mistakes. Study them to know what you can do differently next time.
13. Relational
If you get along, people will go along.
Teammates seldom go along with someone they can’t get along with.
Desirable Characteristics
- Respect. Placing value on others. Earn it from others, quickest on difficult ground.
- Shared Experiences. Building relationships requires going through hard times together.
- Trust. Sustains a relationship. George McDonald: “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
- Reciprocity. There must be a balance between give and take.
- Mutual Enjoyment. Enjoying spending time together.
How to Demonstrate
- Focus on others instead of yourself.
- Ask the right questions. Get to really know your teammates.
- Share common experiences. Spend time together outside of the work setting.
- Make others feel special. Show that you care about them and recognise them in front of their peers.
14. Self-improving
To improve the team, improve yourself.
You can’t wait for circumstances or some other person to improve you.
Desirable Characteristics
- Preparation. What’s important is what you’re doing now, not what you plan on doing.
- Contemplation. Time alone is essential to self-improvement.
- Application. Stop waiting to be the person you want to become, start being the person you want to be.
How to Demonstrate
- Be highly teachable. Adopt the attitude of a learner, not an expert.
- Plan your progress. Pick an area, and what you’re going to do to improve in that area.
- Value self-improvement above self-promotion.
15. Selfless
There is no ‘I’ in team.
Desirable Characteristics
- Be generous. Helps unite the team, and to advance the team.
- Avoid internal politics. Self-promotion hurts the team.
- Display Loyalty. Loyalty fosters unity, and unity breeds team success.
- Value interdependence over independence. Avoid the extreme of living for yourself and turning everything to your advantage.
How to Demonstrate
- Promote someone other than yourself.
- Take a subordinate role. Let others go first.
- Give secretly. Give to others without their knowing, so they cannot repay you.
16. Solution Oriented
Make a resolution to find the solution
With problems, you can either: flee them, fight them, forget them, or face them.
Desirable Characteristics
- Problems are a matter of perspective. An obstacle, setback, or failure is a part of life, they aren’t problems for a solution-oriented attitude.
- All Problems are solvable.
- Problems either stop us or stretch us. Problems with either stop you, or make you a better person in the the process.
How to Demonstrate
- Refuse to give up. Determine not to give up until you find a solution.
- Refocus your thinking. Set aside prime think time to work on the problem.
- Rethink your strategy. Albert Einstein: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”.
- Repeat the process. Cultivate a solution-oriented attitude you can apply all the time.
17. Tenacious
Never, never, never quit.
Desirable Characteristics
- Giving all that you have, not more than you have. Give 100%.
- Work with determination, don’t wait on destiny. Trying times is no time to quit trying.
- Quit when the job is done, not when you’re tired.
How to Demonstrate
- Work harder and/or smarter. Spend a bit more time, or plan your time more efficiently.
- Stand for something. Act with integrity, and purpose.
- Make your work a game. Create friendly competition for motivation.