In this day and age, there are so many self-help and other inspirational books that get individuals “ahead”. They focus on what one person can do to improve “their” situation. With the individual incentive programs out there, everyone thinks that it is a matter of self improvement and a need to work harder and better, however, no matter how many self-help books are out there, sometimes, just focusing on self can’t and won’t work.
Now, it is certainly important for people to be their best, but at what point does it become a personal problem verses a team problem in the work place? Working in a prestigious professional services firm, and there are a lot of smart, able and competent people that I work with. I have noticed though, that some people are not successful at the firm. They were top of their class and very skilled leaders, and recruiters and management sought them out to work at this firm. So, why is it that these “top of their class very successful leaders” just didn’t work out at this firm?
As some might think, it wasn’t a matter of their skill set, or their ability to perform, but rather the environment they were in. Often time, people, professionals, bosses and management make employees feel as though it is a self problem, rather than a team problem that led to their demise. Often times, it is not so much the person, but the team environment that did not foster the person’s ability to thrive in the organization.
So the next time you pick up a self-help book, think of ways in which you can work on team help, rather than just self-help. The old adage of a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link is true, however, instead of thinking of one link weaker than the other, we might start focusing on the missing link, which often times is team unity and the loss of teammate’s abilities due to the lack of teamwork. The next time a person 0n a team just “isn’t working out”, think about ways that can foster their abilities and make them thrive within your organization.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22280677@N07/3529351545/
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