Everyone loves a team player. Everyone wants the person that unselfishly gives of himself to see the group get ahead. There’s no easier way to build rapport and guarantee yourself inclusion than to be the kind of person they know will do whatever’s necessary to see that the team wins.
Being a team player is important. Very few things in this life get accomplished on your own. But there’s one pitfall to that advantage – it’s easy to get lost in the team.
There’s a really delicate balance to being a team player. You have to support the team, but you can’t blend in so perfectly that your own accomplishments don’t get recognized and subsequently rewarded. You can’t be a ball hog, but if you give away every shot you’ll never have any to call your own. You can’t be the company showboat, but you can’t anonymously make everyone else look good all the time.
It’s hard to give you solid advise about this, because every situation is a little different. But you will have your best shot at a good balance if you pay attention to the reactions of people around you. Do you sense resentment when you step up, or do people seem to accept your status? When you take the lead, do the people with influence understand your contributions?
You won’t always get things right, so you have to step up and do your thing, then test the waters. If you’re getting a negative response, ease off. Patch up the wounds by including others in the praise. Or give someone else a chance to shine. Or play it with a bit more subtlety. The more you practice it, the better you’ll get.
You never want to prop yourself up at the expense of the team. Not only does it get you resentment, it gets you and the team a loss. And it’s just not a very honorable way to do things.
But at the same time, you don’t want to fade into obscurity, either. You’ll never get ahead if people don’t know why you should be getting ahead.
