If you’re following this series on the book The Ideal Team Player [affiliate link], you read this statement in my last post:
No one is a perfect teammate.
I’m curious if the voice in your head disagreed with me on that statement.
Did you hear something like, “Well, I’m not perfect yet, but if I stay Humble and Hungry and get just a little more Smart, I can be The Ideal Team Player.
Ideal means perfect so I really should be perfect.
Anything like that come from the voice in your head? It has from mine.
My inner voice rarely says “You don’t have to be perfect.” Thankfully, though, I hear it more now than I used to.
The reality is I’m a recovering perfectionist.
You may be too and I’d like to help you train the voice inside your head to speak the truth more often.
How do you interpret “Ideal”?
Let’s just do a quick check to see if you have some perfectionist in you.
Ask yourself these questions, based on what you’ve learned about the Ideal Team Player using the diagram above,
- Do you really think you can get to the exact center and be truly Ideal?
- Can you stay there and not blow it? I don’t mean for a day or a week. I mean for the entire time you are a team member.
Your answer is probably, “Of course not. No one can do that.”
But, be honest with yourself, do you sometimes actually place that level of expectation and pressure on yourself? Even if you’d never do that to one of your teammates?
Ponder that for a minute and let’s answer another question.
Are you sharing what you’re learning?
If you’ve read this series, I hope you see the value of The Ideal Team Player message. You hopefully see its potential to transform your team and your organization.
So, have you talked about it openly and enthusiastically with your teammates? Have you shared the blog posts on social media? Emailed them to your friends?
If you think the material is valuable, what’s stopping you from sharing it with everyone you can?
Could it be you’re waiting until you’re just a little bit closer to Ideal before you can start talking to your teammates about it?
After all, people know that you’re not quite as Hungry as the book describes. And, Humble is something you struggle with too. You screw up regularly and everyone knows it.
Better to keep quiet and keep improving on your own than to show your imperfections and be exposed as a fraud.
Worse yet, you’re going to sound like a hypocrite when you can’t live out what you say good teammates should be doing.
Any chance your voice in your head said anything like that?
I’d say it’s a very strong possibility if you’re anything like me.
Sadly, I’ve often missed out on experiencing the joy and satisfaction of work done well. I was too busy focusing on how it wasn’t perfect.
Sadder yet, I’ve missed opportunities to help others improve by sharing what I knew because I didn’t want to look like a hypocrite.
I don’t want you to have the same regret.
Let me give you some actions and a resource to help you avoid experiencing what I did.
Action 1 – Trust the authority
If you think “ideal” in The Ideal Team Player means “perfect”, you’re wrong.
What authority do I have to say that? I don’t have any. But the Patrick Lencioni, the author of the book does.
He describes the center section where the three virtue circles overlap as representing the combined qualities of an ideal team player. He writes
That is not to imply that a person in the middle section will be consistently perfect in all these virtues, or in any of them, for that matter. No one is perfect. Even a person who is humble, hungry, and smart occasionally has a bad day, or a bad week, or even a bad time in their life.
Patrick Lencioni
Wow. How encouraging is that? I can have a less than perfect day, week, or extended period of my life and still be an ideal team player.
Those are comforting and encouraging words to this recovering perfectionist. I am not a fraud or a failure when I don’t live out these virtues perfectly. Neither are you.
What a relief.
Hang on, though. It gets better.
These are not permanent characteristics embedded in a person’s DNA; rather, they are developed and maintained through life experiences and personal choices at home and at work.
Patrick Lencioni
I can positively impact my future. Improvement in each of these areas is possible for me. And for you.
We can become more Humble, Hungry, and Smart through our experiences and our choices.
Lencioni’s even offers a free self-assessment tool on his website to help us get started.
He recommends using this tool in discussions with your peers who also understand the three virtues of an ideal team player and want to improve too.
That takes us to the second action.
Action 2 – Decide to help your teammates
Are you hesitant to share what you’re learning for the reasons I described above? A little afraid of being viewed as a fraud or a hypocrite?
I encourage you to not let your inner perfectionist prevent you from helping your teammates.
You don’t have to be perfect to be ideal and you don’t have to be perfect to share what you know.
Sharing what you are learning even when you’re not applying it perfectly or even consistently does not make you a hypocrite.
In fact, sharing what you know with others demonstrates you are a teammate who values the people on your team.
You want them to have the same opportunities to improve as you have. You’re willing to face your personal discomfort and take action for their benefit.
I know it’s hard to take action. It’s sometimes harder to know what action to take.
Don’t worry about that. I’ve made it super easy for you to help your teammates when you’re ready.
Action 3 – Share the free guide for this blog series
Do you agree with message of The Ideal Team Player? Have you personally used some of the free resources as you’ve discovered them through this blog series? Do you want to share these resources with your teammates?
If you’re reading this, I expect the answer is probably yes to all three of those questions.
But, who wants to dig through all these posts to find the link to the video or the document you found useful so you can share it with someone?
No one.
Not you. Not me. And, definitely not your teammates. So I did something to help.
I created a guide with summaries and links for all the posts and resources from this series.
With this one document you can easily get to the techniques you found valuable or revisit topics whenever they come to mind. You can avoid wasting time and getting frustrated searching for the information you need.
It is super easy for you to get this guide and just as easy for you to share with your teammates. Just use this link.
Click Here To Get Your Free Guide Now
What’s in your way?
What’s stopping you from sharing what you’ve learned with your teammates? Either with the link I provided or just in a conversation.
Your imperfection shouldn’t stop you. You don’t have to be perfect to be an ideal team player. Patrick Lencioni says so. And, he wrote the book on the subject.
Your fear of being a hypocrite shouldn’t get in your way either. Ideal team players share what they know will help their teammates even when they aren’t able to do everything right.
What about that voice inside your head? Will that be what prevents you from helping your teammates get better?
I sure hope not.
Because, in my experience, brave steps like sharing what we know are what cause our inner perfectionist to be a little less critical. A little more kind. And much more truthful.
The truth is you don’t have to be perfect to be ideal. You are valuable to your team even with your imperfections.
Let’s do something great.
Greg
Discussion Questions
- Who on your team would benefit from the message and resources in this series?
- What is the best way to share this information with them? When will you take that step?
I’m interested to know how you put this into practice in your life. Please share your experiences in the comments section so we can learn together.
