Qualities of a Team Player - COLLABORATIVE

We are continuing to learn and grow in 2014 by developing teamwork skills utilizing the lessons contained in John C. Maxwell’s book titled The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player. This book carries the subtitle “Becoming the kind of person every team wants”. Developing a better team always begins with the individuals. To improve the team, improve the individuals on the team.

Quality #2: Collaborative - working together precedes winning together.

"All your strength is in union, all your danger is in discord." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Cooperation is working together. Collaboration is working together aggressively. Collaborative teammates do more than just work with one another. Each person brings something to the table that adds value to the relationship and synergy to the team. The sum of truly collaborative teamwork is always greater than its parts.

Becoming a collaborative team player requires a change in focus in four areas:

1. Perception: see teammates as collaborators, not competitors
   1. Usually when you collaborate with others, you win, they win, and the team wins.
2. Attitude: be supportive, not suspicious, of teammates
   1. To collaborative team members, completing one another is more important that competing with one another.
   2. It's a matter of attitude...If you trust people, you will treat them better. And if you treat them better, you and they will be more likely to create collaborative relationships.
3. Focus: concentrate on the team, not yourself
   1. As a person on a team, you will usually ask one of two questions when anything happens: "What's in it for me?" or "What does this do for the team?" Where you focus your attention says a lot about whether you compete with others or complete them.
   2. "True progress in any field is a relay race and not a single event." - Cavett Roberts
4. Results: create victories through multiplication
   1. Collaboration has a multiplying effect on everything you do because it releases and harnesses not only your skills but also those of everyone on the team.

To become a collaborative team player:

• Think WIN-WIN-WIN.
• Complement others.
• Take yourself out of the picture.

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc