The Beauty of Teamwork

Me with some of my best pals and former college tennis teammates!

I love teamwork! At only 23 years old, I have spent a good part of my life as a member of various teams. These teams include: little league softball teams, a high school softball team, a high school tennis team, a college tennis team, academic teams like UIL, yearbook staffs, newspaper staffs, classroom teams, social clubs, family teams, and even "pranking" teams! I am sure I have left out many others (forgive me if it is one you and I were on together)!

So, what is a team? According to John C. Maxwell in his book, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, "Teams come in all shapes and sizes. If you're married, you're a team. If you are employed by an organization, you and your colleagues are a team. If you volunteer your time, you and your fellow workers are a team."

Throughout all of these endeavors, I have accumulated a vast “team of friends.” When I look back at my accomplishments, I take pride in the many successful tasks -- but what I take the most pride in is that "team of friends" I was able to accomplish. Yesterday, whilst watching the TV show "The Apprentice," I was somewhat disappointed with one of the contestants, Maria. During a project, Maria refused to listen to the advice of her team's designated project manager when what he was telling her was of critical importance. Thus, she was a big contributing factor to her team’s loss in the end. What made me angry was when she said something along the lines of, "This is business. I am not here to make friends or to get to know my teammates. I am here to win and that is it." Her comment left me thinking to myself, "Well hon, if you can't do the simple task of getting to know your teammates then you don't really have a team and you definitely don’t have a chance at becoming Trump’s next ‘Apprentice’." After all, a team is only as strong as it's weakest link and Maria was definitely that link! I believe a team cannot be efficient or effective when the teammates cannot take the time to get to know one another. Otherwise, they are nothing more than a "group" -- not a team!

After this episode was over, I began having fond memories of some of my fellow teammates and was, thus, inspired to write this blog. These particular teammates were three male teammates I had during a semester-long team project in my Teams and Team Leadership class at ACU. I will never forget the strong bond we all shared by the end of the semester.

My teammates were David, Chaz, and Kevin. On the day when it came time to choose our teammates, our professor reminded our class about the importance of gender diversity in effective teams. Thank goodness he said this! The guys then asked me to be on their team -- I was very honored.

Throughout the entire semester, each team in the class worked on a real project (as opposed to a simulated one) in which we had to come up with a plan for the senior class of one of the local high schools to raise money to go on their senior class trip. At the end of the semester, we would have to market our idea to the high school's senior student body officers and pray that they picked it. Why? Because the winning team would receive some fatty extra credit!

Each week throughout the semester, my team met both in and out of class to work on our project. We were very efficient in our work because we each knew what our own roles in the team were and we followed through with them. I remember us buying pizza to snack on at some of the meetings and, in our last meeting, I bought donuts and soda for the guys as a way of thanking them. Being the only girl on the team, I had felt a bit awkward at the beginning of the semester, but by the time we had hit this last meeting, I was easily and calmly asserting myself with these men. They respected me, as I did them. Also, our team always focused on encouragement rather than argument during critical moments -- it worked! Our team won! The high school chose our idea and we received the extra credit when it was all over with.

Since this class ended, every time I have seen a member of my former team, I think we have each felt a great sense of a bond and deep respect for one another. In that short amount of time during that semester, we each came to realize our own significance -- in school and in life in general -- as well as the significance of each other. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing!

I would be willing to go to the boardroom with a team of friends like this, and the many others I have in my life, any day of the year!