What Does It Mean to be a Team Player?
Early on in my career, I strived to be a team player. It was regularly part of the positive reviews I got.
As I got more senior, I valued working with more junior people I considered team players. It was regularly part of the positive reviews I gave.
It’s still something I value about myself and that I value in people I work with.
But at some point, I realized I didn’t love all parts of my definition of “team player.”
I liked these parts:
▫️Being collaborative
▫️Contributing to the success of the team
▫️Being reliable, responsible, and accountable
▫️Taking ownership over my work and my matters
▫️Helping people when they needed it and getting help when I needed it
I didn’t like these parts:
▫️Always overcommitting - feeling the need to take on too much work and being overly accommodating
▫️Feeling hesitant to speak up when I disagreed with other team members or had a different perspective.
▫️Feeling resentful for carrying more than my fair share of the workload
▫️Struggling to delegate because I felt guilt or thought no one could do it as well
▫️Judging other people who set boundaries or turned down work as “not a team player”
▫️Expecting other people to work the same way I did and as hard and often as I did
That’s the problem with labels.
Sometimes, when the label sounds good, on its face, we don’t take a closer look at how we are showing up because of that label we’ve adopted or what assumptions we are making in connection with that label.
I still value being a team player. I still value others who are team players. But I have to pay close attention to what behaviors I’m including in that definition.
Are you a team player? Do you like your definition? All of it? Or are there parts you’d like to cut?
A ❤️ note to you: If you consider yourself a team player, but you also experience a lot of exhaustion, overwhelm, anxiety, or resentment, let’s chat. We can get to the bottom of what it truly means to you to be a team player and make plan for how you can start showing up in line with that definition. Send me an email or sign up for a free call with me at jenndealcoaching.as.me/consult.
