Would you please do a quick mental exercise with me? It will help make you a more valuable teammate and it won’t take long.
Go back in your mind to a time when you were new to a team or to a role.
What team were you on? Who were you with? What were you feeling?
Were you totally confident you knew exactly what to do to add value to the team? Completely secure in your role as a key contributor to the team’s success? Not a hint of self-doubt somewhere inside you?
If that describes you, then you may want to skip this post. If not, please stay with me.
My experience throughout my career
If you are like I was in the situation you envisioned, you were not exactly sure of what actions to take to add value to your team.
You may have been a little worried that you could be left out as others stepped in and delivered results. A fear of not “pulling your weight” was weighing on you.
With all that churning inside, you weren’t sure what to do next. In fact, you may be having those feelings with a team situation right now.
I want to give you some tips because I’ve had all those feelings at different points in my career.
There are steps you can take to gain confidence in being a valuable teammate.
I’ll give you to those steps through five words that have stuck with me for many years. They’ve given me encouragement, direction, and confidence.
Let’s go back to early in my career as an engineering intern.
Chop Chop
My memory from over 30 years ago is as vivid as if it was today.
Meet Mei Gen, the administrative assistant for the Systems and Control Research department where I started my career. A petite woman with black hair down to her waist. She might been five feet tall on her tippy toes.
She was small but mighty. Wrangling a group of creative, highly intelligent, strong-willed engineers was not an easy task. But she did it well.
One of her most powerful tools were these two words.
Chop! Chop!
I can still hear her call out those words to an engineer who needed to get something to her on a deadline.
With a slight accent and a serious but playful tone, she would karate chop one hand with another for emphasis as she looked you in the eyes. “Chop! Chop!”
Her point was crystal clear.
In this group, on this team, you need to move quickly and get your stuff done on time to be successful.
That “Chop! Chop!” phrase was planted in my mind early in my professional career and it has served me well.
Fast forward many years to another company where I had just been given the role of Manager.
Two more powerful words had a big impact.
Fast Walker
I was visiting a supplier near Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dave, the wise and seasoned department leader, and I were walking down the hallway.
One of his team members, an engineer who consistently impressed me with his attitude and quality of work, walked briskly past us.
Dave looked at me. He winked and grinned as he nodded toward the man and said in his deep, gravely voice, “He’s a fast walker.“
Dave explained when he builds a team he always looks for “fast walkers”. People who move from place to place and task to task quickly without wasting time. Not frantic and rushing but always with a good pace and purpose.
He found it to be a trustworthy indicator of a team member’s internal drive. It was valuable advice I’ve also found to be true.
When you’re building a team, look for “fast walkers”.
I promised you five words and we’re up to four. (I’m counting “Chop” twice by the way if you’re keeping track.)
What’s the fifth word that can make you a more valuable teammate?
If you’ve been following my series on Patrick Lencioni’s book The Ideal Team Player [affiliate link], you can probably guess.
I introduced Lencioni’s three virtues of an ideal team player in the post, Discover How to be a Better Teammate. I covered the virtue Humble in the post Can I be Humble and Successful on a Team?
Two virtues, Hungry and Smart, remain.
Hungry is the fifth word I group with “Chop! Chop!” and “Fast Walker”. Lencioni’s definition of this word brings it together for me.
Hungry
This definition connects what I learned from Mei Gen as a young engineer with Dave’s words to me as a new manager.
Ideal team players are hungry. They are always looking for more. More things to do. More to learn. More responsibility to take on. Hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder, because they are self-motivated and diligent. They are constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity.
Patrick Lencioni
Lencioni packs this short statement with powerful words describing the mindset that will make you a more valuable teammate. This attitude should be also be evident in those you select to be on your teams.
For more on choosing team members check out my post, How to Create Great Teams with Two Powerful Questions.
Five actions from the five words
Words without actions are hollow. Taking action, however, brings growth and transformation. Let’s get to the tips.
1. Deliver your work on time.
Better yet, get it done early! The work you’re doing is important and is intended to help deliver results. The sooner your part is done, the sooner those results can be achieved by your team.
2. Bring energy to the team
By moving quickly and doing your tasks with purpose, you will raise the energy level of those around you. Be the player who dives for the loose ball on the basketball court. Who sprints down the court every play.
Determine ahead of time that when it’s your turn to do something, you are going to do it with full energy.
3. See what needs to be done
Be searching for work to be done. If you’re done with your specific assignment, find something else to do. As any business owner (including my parents) will tell you, there is always something to do.
Hungry team players don’t stand around waiting to be told what to do. They see what needs to be done. Then they do it!
4. Look for future opportunities
Hungry team players don’t just see what needs to be done now. They also think about what more they and their team can do.
Train your mind to think beyond the immediate. Schedule time, even if it’s just a few minutes, to intentionally focus on ways you and your team could have a bigger impact. Envision possibilities for helping more people.
5. Share your hunger
When you’re hungry and you want to do more, you don’t want to keep it to yourself. That’s a good thing.
You can help your team, including your leader, by sharing your hunger. Attitude and energy are contagious.
When done with humility, something as simple as telling your teammates that you are excited to be doing what you’re doing can make a big impact.
Humble, hungry, what’s next?
You’ve got these five actions to make you a more valuable teammate.
You can now starting living The Ideal Team Player [affiliate link], virtue Hungry.
Reading the post Can I be Humble and Successful on a Team? gave you the basics of the virtue Humble.
What’s left to become an ideal team player? You’ve got to be Smart. People Smart.
This third virtue is critical to combine with Humble and Hungry to be the most valuable teammate you can be.
We’ll cover that in my next post. Until then please take a look at the discussion questions below and provide your input in the comments section.
I’m eager to hear how about the success you and your teams are having as you strive to be Humble and Hungry.
Let’s lead with kindness and confidence.
Greg
Discussion Questions
- Are you a “Fast Walker”? Have you developed that attribute or is that just how you were made?
- Do you think people can learn to be Hungry? Is this a skill one can develop? If so, what tips do you have to learn to be Hungry?
Great Post Greg! Fast Walker and Chop Chop really resonate with me. Both were learned traits I picked as a seasoned Army Veteran and as a Navy brat. “Leaders always walk with a purpose, not panic, in front of the troops.” “Chop Chop” was ingrained in me by my Career Navy Veteran father. You can bet my children know it, and even the other day I heard my daughter use it on her slow moving 9 year old. Learned Traits, definitely.
It’s awesome how the strong work ethic is being passed through the generations of your family. I’ve certainly seen it in you. You’ve been a role model for me and so many others on our teams.
I love this quote too. “Leaders always walk with a purpose, not panic, in front of the troops.” I need to write that one down.