Why does the “I” Continue To Come Up In Teams?

I have been closely watching high school basketball for over 2 years. My son is a junior playing on his school’s Varsity Team. For the last two years I had the opportunity to watch many of his practices as well (both high school and AAU), since I was his chauffeur. During this time I watched how the various coaches worked with my son’s various teams. As I watched the workouts I have found many similarities between the young men I watched working on the court and the teams I have worked with in organizations.
One of the interesting commonalities I found was that when things get tough, one of the differences I identified was that highly functioning teams (winners) kept to their plan and kept each other involved in the activities (plays). Many teams devolve during time of stress and start playing an individual game. This is where they begin to lose the benefits of the team. Why does this continue to happen?

One reason is the lack of confidence in the team – on the basketball court I see this the most clearly. When the team is playing well together the plays are easy to make. But when a couple errors cause them to lose ground many players feel that they must take on the other team all by themselves. So they stop using the game plan and try to win by themselves. I have seen players be the key to a team but I have never seen a player win a game entirely without the help of his teammates. Usually when a team has a star player or a player that is having a really great game his/her team mates are setting up the situation the star to score.

A similar situation happens in the work place. When stress sets in, especially if someone made an error, individuals begin to believe that they have to take on the challenge by themselves. They feel the pressure of time and start to work as individuals not as a team. They don’t believe that the others on the team are pulling their weight and that their mistakes will cause them to fail. So if “I” take on the work myself “I” know I can get it done and done right.

Another contributing factor to the “I” is the control issues. I can control how I perform the task; I can’t control the task if someone else “takes the ball to score.” I need to ensure that the task gets performed perfectly and only I can do that. So we start playing individual ball not team ball. In the workplace we stop coordinating with others in the organization. We take the issue and try to solve it all by ourselves.

Sound familiar? How do you keep the “I” out of your teams? You need constant communication and emphasis on each other’s role. As any coach will tell you, you need to continually practice and learn how to work together. You can get other tips to keep your team in tip-top shape with my booklet “Why is Teamwork So Hard?” (Click here to purchase this booklet.)

What are your tips and techniques to keep your teams working together? Click here to send them to me. I’ll print the list as I receive them on my website and as updates in my future newsletters.