Teamwork: Winning Together, Growing Together
Over the years and in my experiences in life, I have come to understand that, behind most outstanding achievements in life are a team. Which means that it is almost impossible to achieve greatness by your absolute solo effort. If you want to achieve greatness, at least quickly, then you have to be part of a team, or a circle, or even a group of people who would support and complement your efforts. These can be your family members, friends, mentors, colleagues, or other people. If you want to go far in life, then you have to learn to work with people. Life is not designed for an absolute solo effort.
It is true that you are being encouraged to take responsibility for your life and your actions, but you also need to understand that the place of others in your life and their helps cannot be overemphasized. In fact, the influence of a team in your journey towards success is without question. It is worthy to note that in life, growth is not absolutely personal, but rather relational. That is, the people you are with, and the team you are part of, will definitely influence your rate of growth. When you surround yourself with people who will motivate you, influence you positively, challenge you, and encourage you, it will become easier for you to grow. Growth becomes achievable and sustainable when you in the company of the people who support you.
I normally cite example with a football team. No matter how talented you are, there are level of growth you will not see, and there are some recognition you will not get if you are not part of a team. Not just being part of a team, but a working team that will support you. In the football last transfer window, there was this player who moved from the Premier League side to La Liga side. This player was always being benched when he was in the Premier League side, and did not have room to grow because he would not play. But when he moved to La Liga, in his debut match, he scored the winning goal, and he has not stopped scoring goals ever since then. This shows that the team which you belong to can determine your level of growth.
It is not just being part of a team that counts, but being in a team that you share the same ideology with, the people who are enroute in the same destination, people who share ideas with you, help you to grow. For this to happen, there are some factors that need to be put in place: firstly, there has to be a level of unity. It does not mean that everyone must look alike or be the same, but that everyone has a common goal and moving towards the same direction. If you join people going in the opposite direction for example, you will miss your destination. When there is unity in the team, everyone will work together as a complete whole, without feeling that they are in competition with one another. Of course, the purpose of team is not for competition but for the sake of completion.
Being in a team means that you have to stop seeing "me" but rather start seeing "we." This means that it is not just about only one person succeeding but the entire team succeeding. Just like in a football match, even though players' brilliance are needed, but much more than that, working together of the entire team to win the match is much more important. I once watched a match where a particular club has a lot of world-class players, including a couple of them who have made it to the top-5 of the Balon D'or, yet they were defeated by a seemingly "underdog." This was because the former depended on the individual players, and each of them were just playing "selfish game," and trying to score but did not, while the latter worked as a team and actually scored.
You have to understand that in a team that wants to win, collaboration supersedes isolation. Observably, talent, even though it is very needed, but it cannot beat a united team. To be effective in a team, you need to learn humility, so as to be able to work together with the team. Also learn the ability to appreciate the efforts of each of the members of the team, irrespective of how seemingly little their input may look like. It may even be the person you think is the least impactful in the team that may hold the fulcrum of the team. So learn to appreciate your team, so as to motivate and inspire them to do more.
Thanks for reading
