Qualities of a Team Player - PREPARED

We are continuing our growth 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 #12: Prepared - preparation can mean the difference between winning and losing.

"Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation." - Roger Staubach

"It's better to prepare than to repair." - John C. Maxwell

"The man who is prepared has his battle half-fought." - Miguel De Cervantes

As the saying goes, "You can claim to be surprised once; after that, you're unprepared."

Preparation may not guarantee a win, but it sure puts you in position for one.

(c) Stuart Miles

If you want to prepare yourself so that you can help your team as it faces the challenges ahead, then think about the following:

1. Assessment
   1. Preparation begins with knowing what you're preparing for.
   2. And you need to determine what price you will have to pay to get there.
2. Alignment
   1. Good alignment makes success possible. Bad alignment makes success impossible - no matter how much you prepare.
   2. You can't just work hard. You have to do the right work.
3. Attitude
   1. To succeed in any endeavor, you must do your homework to take care of the mental aspects of your game.
   2. If you believe in yourself and your teammates, then you set yourself up for success.
4. Action
   1. Remember this: courage has no greater ally than preparation, and fear has no greater enemy.
   2. Henry Ford observed, "Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success."

To improve your preparedness:

• Become a process thinker.
• Do more research.
• Learn from your mistakes.

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - MISSION CONSCIOUS

We are continuing our growth 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 #11:Mission Conscious - the (BIG) picture is coming in loud and clear.

"The secret of success is constancy to purpose." - Benjamin Disraeli

"He who has a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how'." - Friedrich Nietzsche

The four qualities of all mission-conscious players:

1. They know where the team is going
   1. Author W. Clement Stone stated, "When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it."
   2. That sense of desire - and direction - is as indispensable for a team to be successful as it is for any individual.
   3. It's difficult to maintain a mission-conscious mind-set on a team that lacks a mission.
   4. A team isn't really a team if it isn't going anywhere.
2. They let the leader of the team lead
   1. Mission-conscious team players who have committed themselves to a team allow the leader of the team to do the leading.
   2. Any time a team member hinders the leader, it increases the possibility that the team will be hindered in its goals.
   3. However, mission-conscious players understand what leadership expert Warren G. Bennis articulated: "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality."
   4. For a team to win, the leader must be allowed to lead.
3. They place team accomplishments ahead of their own
   1. Teamwork always requires sacrifice.
4. They do whatever is necessary to achieve the mission
   1. If success can come to the team only by your compromising, trying something new, or putting your agenda on hold, then that is what you need to do.
   2. Good team players see more than the details of the moment. They are always conscious of a team's mission and act to help achieve it.

To improve your mission consciousness:

• Check to see if your team focuses on its mission.
• Find ways to keep the mission in mind.
• Contribute your best as a team member.

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - INTENTIONAL

We are continuing our growth 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 #10: Intentional - make every action count.

"You've got to think about 'big things' while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." - Alvin Toffler

What does it mean to be intentional? It means working with purpose - making every action count.

It's about focusing on doing the right things, moment to moment, day to day, and then following through with them in a consistent way.

Anyone who desires to live with intentionality will have to do the following:

1. Have a Purpose Worth Living For
   1. Being intentional begins with a sense of purpose.
   2. "Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can." - Willis R. Whitney
2. Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
   1. The truth is that people like to do what they're good at. Playing to your strengths rekindles your passions and renews your energy.
   2. You can't be intentional and effectively focused if you don't know yourself.
3. Prioritize Your Responsibilities
   1. Once you know the why of your life, it becomes much easier to figure out the what and when.
   2. "One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something." - Henry David Thoreau
4. Learn to Say No
   1. But you can't accomplish much without focus.
   2. If you try to do every good thing that comes your way, you won't excel at what you were made to do.
   3. Your goal should be to spend 80% of your time and effort on what brings high return to you and your team.
5. Commit Yourself to Long-Term Achievement
   1. ...most victories in life are achieved through small, incremental wins sustained over time. Being wiling to dedicate yourself long-term to the process of achievement, instead of to its immediate rewards, will enable you to be more intentional.
   2. The longer the time period you can plan with intentionality, the more you can get done.

To improve your intentionality:

• Explore your strengths and weaknesses
• Specialize in your specialty
• Plan your calendar with purpose

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - ENTHUSIASTIC

We are continuing our growth 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 #9: Enthusiastic - your heart is the source of energy for the team.

(c) jesadaphorn

"I feel sorry for the person who can't get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile." - Walter Chrysler

There is no substitute for enthusiasm. When members of a team are enthusiastic, the whole team becomes highly energized. And that energy produces power.

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People can succeed at almost anything for which they have enthusiasm." - Charles Schwab

Think about people who bring an enthusiastic attitude to teamwork and you will realize that they:

1. Take Responsibility for Their Own Enthusiasm
   1. Successful people understand that attitude is a choice - and that includes enthusiasm.
   2. If you want to be positive, upbeat, and passionate, you need to take responsibility for being that way.
   3. Elbert Hubbard said, "The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today."
2. Act Their Way into Feeling
   1. You cannot win if you do not begin.
   2. Positive people are positive because they choose to be.
3. Believe in What You Do
   1. Believing in what you do and focusing on those positive beliefs will help you to act and to speak positively about what you are doing. That helps to spark the fire of enthusiasm inside you, and once that starts, all you need to do is to keep feeding the flames.
4. Spend Time with Other Enthusiastic People
   1. Denis Waitley says, "Enthusiasm is contagious. It's difficult to remain neutral or indifferent in the presence of a positive thinker."
   2. Enthusiasm increases a person's accomplishments while apathy increases his alibis.

To improve your enthusiasm:

• Show a sense of urgency
• Be willing to do more
• Strive for excellence

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - ENLARGING

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 #8: Enlarging - adding value to teammates is invaluable.

(c) Stuart Miles

"Most of us plateau when we lose the tension between where we are and where we ought to be." - John Gardiner

"The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I'd made my teammates play." - Bill Russell

"No man is more cheated than the selfish man." - Henry Ward Beecher

Players who enlarge their teammates have several things in common:

1. Enlargers value their teammates
   1. People's performances usually reflect the expectations of those they respect.
   2. If you believe in others and give them a positive reputation to uphold, you can help them to become better than they think they are.
2. Enlargers value what their teammates value
   1. Players who enlarge others do more than value their fellow team members; they understand what their teammates value.
3. Enlargers add value to their teammates
   1. An enlarger looks for the gifts, talents, and uniqueness in other people, and then helps them to increase those abilities for their benefit and for that of the entire team.
   2. But remember this: encourage and motivate people out of their comfort zone, but never out of their gift zone.
4. Enlargers make themselves more valuable
   1. You cannot give what you do not have.
   2. If you want to increase the ability of a teammate, make yourself better.

To improve your ability to enlarge others:

• Believe in others before they believe in you
• Serve others before they serve you
• Add value to others before they add value to you

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - DISCIPLINED

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 #7: Disciplined - where there's a will, there's a win.

"What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline." - H.P. Liddon

"Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability." - Roy L. Smith

Discipline is doing what you really don't want to do so that you can do what you really want to do.

To become the kinds of players that teams want, people must develop discipline in three areas. They must possess:

1. Disciplined Thinking
   1. If you keep your mind active, regularly take on mental challenges and continually think about the right things, you will develop the disciplined thinking that will help you with whatever you endeavor to do.
2. Disciplined Emotions
   1. People have just two choices when it comes to their emotions: they can master their emotions or be mastered by them.
   2. That doesn't mean that to be a good team player, you have to turn off your feelings. But it does mean that you shouldn't let your feelings prevent you from doing what you should or drive you to do things you shouldn't.
3. Disciplined Actions
   1. Action separates the winners from the losers.
   2. "Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field and hope that the cow will back up to them." - Albert Hubert

To improve your discipline:

• Strengthen your work habits
• Take on a challenge
• Tame your tongue

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc

Qualities of a Team Player - DEPENDABLE

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 #6: Dependable - teams go to "go-to" players.

"Fear not those who argue but those who dodge." - Wolfram Von Eschenbach

"Dependability is more than ability alone." - John C. Maxwell

Never underestimate the long-reaching benefits that being dependable can bring.

The following is the essence of dependability:

1. Pure Motives
   1. I try to keep my motives right, and I encourage my teammates to do likewise.
   2. However, if someone on the team continually puts himself and his agenda ahead of what's best for the team, he has proven himself to be undependable.
   3. When it comes to teamwork, motives matter.
2. Responsibility
   1. Dependable team members possess the desire to do the things that they are capable of doing.
3. Sound Thinking
   1. Dependability means more than just wanting to take responsibility. That desire must also be coupled with good judgment to be of real value to the team.
4. Consistent Contribution
   1. Consistency takes more than talent.
   2. It takes depth of character that enables people to follow through - no matter how tired, distracted, or overwhelmed they are.
   3. "It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." - Winston Churchill

To improve your dependability:

• Check your motives
• Discover what your word is worth
• Find someone to hold you accountable

Donald G Rosenbarger
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc