Sometimes dealing with group projects or being part of a sports team can cause stress or frustration, which is completely understandable. How are you supposed to deal with multiple personalities and ideas coming together towards one main goal? That thought alone is enough to make your head spin. However, the best way to deal with the possible anxiety around a team is to understand the different components and dynamics that actually make a team work really well together.
Most teams are made up of the same components, ideas, and dynamics even if the goals and type of team differs. With any team, there will always be leaders, encouragers, teammates that “come off the bench” to help the team and even people that try to drag others down. The best way to find your niche within any team is to figure out what your role is and use your set of skills to help your team.
Being part of a team means collaborating with others, no matter the size of your team. Good leaders make sacrifices for the benefit of the team and to help their teammates succeed in their own areas. Putting others first can sometimes be a challenge and it takes a good leader to recognize when to hold themselves accountable and when to hold their teammates accountable and the balance of responsibility and decision making. These leaders need to have a strong set of communication skills and instill a high level of trust within their team in order to be as effective and efficient as possible.
The encouragers aren’t necessarily leaders but they bring a positive attitude and level of confidence to every meeting, practice, event, etc. in order to motivate their teammates and create an encouraging environment. The hope is that these teammates are able to create a positive enough atmosphere for everyone so that the “players” that tend to drag others down won’t have as much of an effect on everyone else. Encouragers create a level of energy that the whole team is able to feed off and use when their own confidence and energy is maybe lacking. Any teammate is able to be this encouraged and should be when they can.
The teammates that “come off the bench” are usually those who maybe don’t always start or aren’t the star “players” but they work hard every day and help their team wherever they can. These teammates sacrifice their time and energy for their team in order to reach the final outcome or goal. They push their team to work harder and any team will benefit from this type of teammate.
The draggers will always be something you have to deal with on any team. They will lack motivation or drive and tend to complain 24/7 about anything they can and they might not even be very good workers/players. When dealing with this type of teammate, try to act as an encourager and help guide them towards that final end goal in any way you can. They might go kicking and screaming but even the draggers can help the team.
The most important thing to remember in regards to teams is to understand that there are going to be many different personalities and work ethics coming together to complete a single outcome. There will always be conflicting ideas and the best way to deal with the variety of team dynamics, is to find what role you have the best skill set for and work as hard as you can in that to help your team as much as possible.
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