The “I” in TEAM

“There’s no “I” in TEAM” – You probably heard this as part of your football coach drilling before every game, and every teambuilding workshop your company dragged you! I agree, spelling wise, but not otherwise!

A team is made of of individuals that come together towards achieving a certain objective. The operative word in the previous sentence is “individuals” – in other singular people .. you, him, her, and I. So contrary to conventional wisdom, there is in fact multiple I’s in a TEAM. Each individual in a team brings their own spice to the equation, their own point of view, their own way to resolve a problem, their own creative solution … their own personal brand!

There are two basic but crucial elements that ensure the success of any TEAM:

• One Objective – not only does each member of the team have to agree to the objectives at hand, they have to believe in them, they have to be ambassadors of the cause!
  
• Value Matching – a coherent team is not one that has a unilateral thought process and individuals that think the same … that’s a boring team with little hope of standing out! Individuals that share similar values are what form a coherent team!

So do me a favor; the next time you hear someone saying “there’s no I in TEAM” … tell them that they have excellent spelling skills!