Five ways to be a good team player

Hoi Kei: It is important to use your strengths to help your team complete the tasks at hand.

STUDENTS are no stranger to working as a team. We benefit from the opportunity to work and learn from one another. However, we occasionally have to deal with conflicts due to different work ethics and styles. These conflicts can be minimised when all group members show up as good team players.

1. Know each other’s roles and strengths

It is important to use your strengths to help your team complete the tasks at hand.

A team is like a jigsaw puzzle where all members are puzzle pieces that need to be connected to create a masterpiece.

Understanding each other’s roles in the team enhances work efficiency and drives the team towards its goals.

Additionally, all members have skills and talents which they must identify and leverage to execute their respective roles.

As former professional basketball player Phil Jackson once said, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

2. Be responsible

All team members should take ownership of group assignments as much as they do their individual assignments.

Therefore, you need to meet your deadlines and achieve the milestones set by the team. Accomplishing your tasks efficiently with good quality proves that you are a reliable teammate.

3. Encourage openness

When working with other people, open-mindedness is the key to maintaining a harmonious and efficient working environment. Being open-minded here means being open to ideas, suggestions and other people’s working styles.

Everyone should be given equal opportunity to speak up and execute their ideas. During discussions, all members should be active listeners and contribute ideas.

4. Develop a team mentality

Having a team mentality means focusing on the team’s goals and making an effort to work towards them. This mentality should be developed by reminding yourself, “There’s no ‘I’ in the word ‘team’.”

Besides that, it encourages every member to slip out of the shadows and be invested in the team’s progress and objectives.

Having a team mentality also means getting into a habit of motivating your members to build stronger interpersonal and work relationships within the group.

5. Communication is key

Like in every relationship, teammates must communicate with one another about matters or problems relating to the team and its tasks.

This includes sharing information and resources with the team and giving consistent updates about your work progress to keep everyone informed.

More importantly, interpersonal bonds between the members should be reinforced through mutual respect, understanding and the willingness of every member to get to know their teammates on a personal level.

Ultimately, when working as a team, it is important to work collaboratively because collaborations produce positive outcomes in favour of the group’s goals.

Hoi Kei, 20, a student in Kuala Lumpur, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team.