Sometimes it’s natural that we begrudge a fellow team member. It could be that the other team member didn’t work hard enough, or fast enough, or efficiently enough. Or, that’s what we think, anyway.
But, everyone drops the ball. And being a good sport with our own team members is a type of forgiveness. Like forgiveness, it is not necessarily a natural condition. It tends to be an artificial discipline at first, and then, over time, it becomes part of our fabric of understanding.
Good coaches, and good parents, teach to be a good sport with team members. Maybe it’s just training in self-protection for the condition of what goes around tends to come around.
Being a good sport is a type of forgiveness.
We’re on this side of it one day, and on the other side of it the next.
Of course, teamwork is not perfect, but trying to be successful in any endeavor all alone is often impossible—or at least statistically improbable. “No man is an island,” said the great John Donne. If business is war, the commercial team is like the machinery of the Roman Army that succeeded because the group of individuals bonded as one unified and coordinated whole, with a common direction and goal.
That is the psychological beauty of team sports for children. Athletics is not just about physical improvement. That’s only the physical superficial part of it. Athletics is more importantly about learning to succeed through failure. Failure is the training, by its very nature. And learning to help the team and team members through failures is an essential part of the training.
Early teamwork training is subtlety teaching to control—or to discipline—the natural baser tendencies of human nature: ego, pride, selfishness and, perhaps understanding the essence of self-sacrifice for the greater good.
We teach that, if we win and condescend—or we lose and begrudge—it is being a poor sport. This progression from the lesser self is the evolution of our character.
Working successfully on a team—leading when required, and following when required—is important because it tends to improve the opportunities for success. Sure, there are successful entrepreneurs who have done it all alone, it’s just not probable. Bill Gates did not do it alone, he had Paul Allen. Steve Jobs did not do it alone, he had Steve Wozniak. Walt Disney did not do it alone, he had his brother. Orville and Wilbur Wright did not do it alone.
Statistically, a team of individuals who balance each other’s skill set is what tends to work, complementing each other. As one CMU-graduate client once told me, “You need a genius, and someone to exploit the genius.” (And he said this in the most affectionate way about his partner, himself being the marketing evangelist and his partner being a technological genius.)
As a corporate attorney, I tell entrepreneurs all the time that, “Each day, someone wins the lottery, it is just statistically improbable that it will happen to you.” The World, such as it is, does push back. Luck is bad strategy.
Emotions and hopes aside, excellence in teamwork is simply a rational statistical necessity. Yes, the prize will be shared, but that’s just being a good sport.
Luck is bad strategy.
So, what does The Business of Aesop have to do with sharing the load with the team? Here is Aesop’s lesson that has sustained for more than 2,500 years:
The Donkey and Mule
A Man was going on journey. He had a Donkey and a Mule. So, he loaded up them both and set out on the course.
When the going got tough in the hills, the Donkey begged the Mule to help him by taking part of his load.
But the Mule refused to help.
At last, the Donkey, from sheer weariness, stumbled and fell to his death.
The Man had no choice: he took the entire load from the Donkey and packed it onto the Mule.
Now, the Mule had more than double the load.
Moral of the Story: Helping others often helps ourselves. What goes around tends to come around.
Read all the The Business of Aesop™ articles at the LinkedIn Index.
© 2016 Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.
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