Three Desirable Virtues of an Ideal Team Player
I have had the privilege of hiring dozens and dozens of people over the years, and I still make mistakes. You do all your background work, and in a few months, you realize this person is not working out on our team. What happened? Everyone interviews well. Especially well when they send their resume ahead of time that they concocted. It's better known as the personal brag sheet.
How do you identify the right people for your organization? God told the Prophet Samuel while looking for Israel’s second king, "Don't look on the outward, for God looks on the inward part of man." It is easy for a novice to make this mistake because the interviewee schmoozes them with an impressive, trumped-up resume.
You frequently find employees who excel in one area but appear blind to another equally important area. I like what Patrick Lencioni did with his book, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership Fable. He identified three traits we all need to look for: hunger, humility, and smartness.
Hungry: You and I have seen them. They are ferociously waiting to get started. Sometimes they can act like a bull in a china closet. If you're going to be hungry, you have to be smart. If you're not smart, there will be many dead bodies along the road due to your bulldozing personality. Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life is a perfect example. He was hungry and humble, but he was not emotionally smart. He was a likable guy, but he did some stupid stuff. On one occasion, he called a man's wife a terrible teacher and then wanted to punch the guy out! Wow.Â
Humble: Â CS Lewis said, "Humble people don't think less of themselves; they think about themselves less."
Humility is a good team-player trait. Someone humble is always thinking of someone else. You can be smart and hungry, but you'll be self-serving if you’re not humble. But you can be too humble. If you're too humble, you’ll be the guy who just wants to do enough to get by. People may love you, but you are a slacker.
Smart: When Patrick labeled this category, he was talking about more than intelligence. This goes far beyond that when working with other people. Smart refers to a person's common sense about other people. They watched their words and actions, asked good questions, and listened to what others were saying.
I'm addicted to sports, so let me give you some sports illustrations. Look up the professional NFL quarterback, Johnny Manzel. He was drafted early; he was a charmer, and he did just about whatever Johnny wanted to do. In his college years, they called it Johnny Ball. Johnny didn't stay too long in the NFL because he wasn't smart or humble. His gift got him in the door, but his lack of common sense and humility cost him his job.
Go and do a Google search for Stephen Curry, an NBA star. Stephen walks around the court in a rather humble way. You rarely see him having outbursts of anger toward the referees or other players. A trainer once said that Steph Curry is one of the smartest people he has ever met. And hardly anyone works harder than Steph Curry when it comes to practicing. His team won three NBA titles, and he has been named Most Valuable Player numerous times.
Simply put, we need all three of these characteristics operating in our lives and in the lives of those we work with on our teams. I tell people always to show up to work on time, work hard, push the ball down the field a little further, and have fun while we do it. This usually works, unless you lack one of the three virtues.
Remember to remain humble. To be a great team player, you must be humble. Always be hungry. Be that person who always wants to do a little extra. Lastly, be smart. Not so much intellectually smart, but please have some common sense when hanging out with people!
Thank you for reading. Please forward this to a friend or two. :-)