Be a team, not teamwork

After few years playing basketball in a Malaga youth team, I experienced in my own flesh the meaning of BEING a team and feeling part of it.

In the field of people management, as well as at any meeting in which we talk about the areas of development, performance evaluation or even to report results, we often speak of TEAMWORK.

Teamwork has often become a recurring phrase in managers towards its employees. In most cases, the meaning of who is and who is not part of the team is not clear.

In addition, we often believe that ‘our team’ are only the people closer to us; at the most, members of your department. Hence the reason why there are totally incomprehensible situations between members of the same organization, which create an incredible disconnection among people.

All of this negatively affects people development and, therefore, it affects the development of the organization.

BEING A TEAM is something much bigger than teamwork, it is a feeling, knowing that you belong to a group and that the collective needs are more important than your own; that you understand the mistakes and help a coworker fix them, as of it was one of your own arms; that we all work towards the same goal, performing different tasks. It is simply changing a ME for a WE.

When you are part of a team, there is no choice but to work together.

Many of you will say: – ‘Yes, but in my working place people are not like that, the same people always takes the merit and I do not feel valued by others.

I have always thought that things are achieved by changing oneself to be able to change our environment.

What do you think? Can you be the first to step towards the creation of that team? Or will you keep “teamworking”?

Remember, upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all –Alexander the Great.