Story Time!
I’m sure most of you must have heard about the age-old story of a hare and tortoise racing against each other which gives us a message that slow and steady wins the race.
Well, what if the story continued and the hare challenged the tortoise again. This time the hare is not overconfident but due to his speed and competitiveness, he wins the race.
The moral here: You have to be fast and competent to win any race.
Ok but the tortoise thinks that’s not fair and he challenges the hare for another race but on a different route. They started but the hare was stuck as the route had a river to cross and the tortoise swiftly swam across the river and won.
Moral: Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and working on your strengths can create opportunities for you.
By now the tortoise and hare have become friends and they thought of doing something together. So they ran the race again with the hare carrying the tortoise to the riverbank, the tortoise swimming across the river with the hare on his back and the hare carrying the tortoise to the finish.
Reaching the finish line together gave them both a greater sense of achievement and satisfaction. Moral? Together everyone achieves more.
Let me tell you another small experience. The other day I was watching this web series called Money Heist on Netflix. Quite engaging, I must say. But something which really got me thinking was a character in there who was described or I would say labeled as a good captain but a very poor team player.
I was like OK! But as the series progressed I saw this character who had apparently lost his captaincy was now doing every possible thing to let the team down. He was no more in love with the team’s plan or the goal.
And that was quite tragic for the team.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that as a part of any organization we do have our individual tasks to fulfill, evaluation metrics to score, and also promotion to achieve. But what describes us as professionals is the ability to work with the people around us.
Being an individual contributor is good but it is all worth it if that contribution leads to achieving the common goals of the organization.
If you are a Marvel series fan. You will see that a big lesson from the Avengers is also about teamwork. Captain America and Iron Man have a pretty different view of the world, and compromise doesn’t come easy. But they respect and trust one another despite their disagreements, and they can see the value the other brings to the table.
You need to work as a single cohesive unit to have successful teamwork.
Teamwork promotes a sense of achievement, equity, and camaraderie, essential for a motivated workplace. It’s always easier with a great team.
To be a good team player empathy and good listening skills should be at the top of your to-do list. Sense of ownership, resilience, being open to feedback, and proactive communication is the constituents to successful teamwork.
Time to introspect! Are you a collaborator?
Being a team-player is a highly demanded skillset nowadays in the business environment, and the most crucial one that contributes to success. As a part of our VLSI RN Course, we train you to be a great team player with the activities that we conduct like group discussion, group presentation, etc.
