3 Qualities of a Great Team Player

Written by chellie

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Corporate Culture | leadership

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February 21, 2024

Because teamwork is essential to building strong, thriving work cultures, I’ll share how leaders like you can make solid teams and become better team players over the next ten weeks.

People with a team player attitude at work enjoy less stress in their lives. They develop new skills and abilities readily because they’re open to learning new things. There are a lot of benefits to developing a team-first attitude. Here are three qualities you should embrace if you want to enjoy the many rewards of being a team player.

1 – The Best Team Players Are Effective Communicators

Communication is a two-way street. There’s the person talking or otherwise sharing information. Then there are those people who are listening. Ask people if they’re good communicators, and many immediately forget the essential part of listening.

Communication certainly means laying out a goal or task in a very clear and easy-to-understand fashion. It also means being able to listen when it’s required. Communication additionally involves asking questions and getting ideas from others. This might be the most important characteristic a team member can develop.

2 – Your Vision Is Not Confined to Your Responsibilities

Athletes often need to help each other out. Team sports have a lot of moving parts with individual responsibilities. On the field, just like in the workplace, people blow assignments. It just happens. They forget what they’re supposed to do, or the person they’re competing against puts them at a disadvantage.

When this happens in sports, the best team players rush to help. They understand their personal responsibilities but also know that if the team goal is going to be realized (winning a game or a match), team members have to back each other up.

This is the same vision you should have as a productive team player on the job.

Your responsibilities come first. Take care of your own business before anything else. That’s smart job security; you’ll be recognized as dependable and productive. Then look outside your cubicle and offer help to your fellow team members when necessary.

3 – You Tackle Problems Instead of Pointing Them Out

Every workplace has a finger pointer. It’s that man or woman who is constantly pointing out problems. If they work in an environment that is 99.99% amazing, all they’ll ever talk about is that 0.01% of their job that’s problematic.

Team players tackle problems. When they see an issue, especially if it’s easily fixed, they take care of it. They don’t immediately go to their boss to report the problem. In many cases, if you don’t take a few minutes to look at a problem up close, you don’t realize it’s not really an issue after all.

Aside from that, bosses, managers, and other leaders have tons to do. The last thing they need is someone pointing out something inconsequential that could have been easily remedied.

If there are big issues at your job, definitely report them. Your workplace should be safe and should foster equal opportunities. Those aren’t the types of problems we’re talking about.

If you see a small problem you can rectify, do it immediately. If the problem pops up repeatedly, it might be worth reporting. Team players understand that putting the team first means sometimes taking the initiative to fix a problem when they can do it.

There are dozens of characteristics of great team players. These three can help you advance your career and enjoy your time on the job. Your coworkers and bosses appreciate your contributions, which can benefit you in many ways.