What's In It For We?

Moving people past their individual thinking to a team oriented state of mind will always be one of the biggest challenges to effective team work.

Team members with their own personal agendas, concerns or fears can severely stunt the growth of the collective and make the team work process both difficult and painful.


In some cases, people are carrying around personal baggage from prior experiences which in turn prevents them from fully participating as a functioning member of the team.

This feeling of being "burned" can lead to mistrust of others or maybe it's much simpler than that. Perhaps they've never been part of a team before and have no idea or concept of what it means to be a contributing member of a group.

Whatever the reasoning is, it's important to recognize that until these matters are dealt with, they'll serve as a deterrent to becoming an effective team member.

This is where leaders and coaches come in.

Leadership in the context of team development is about moving people past this individualistic frame of thinking to a mindset where the goals, wishes and desires of the team take precedent.

By breaking down these barriers or roadblocks and creating a "we" mindset as opposed to a "me" enviroment, leaders are helping to create synergy amongst the team and putting the emphasis on the whole instead of the individual parts.


This topic will be explored in greater detail on the next edition of HCL Radio where I'll be joined by leadership expert and business consultant, John J Murphy.

John is the founder of Venture Management Consultants, a consultancy firm that specializes in helping people and organizations achieve and sustain peak performance, with one of his focuses on team training and development.

John provided some insight as to what leadership means in the context of team work.

Click here to listen to what he said.

To hear the rest of the conversation, I'd encourage you to tune into the next episode.

See you on the court!