Each month, my daughter’s teacher assigns her class “The Genius Project,” where the students are tasked with doing a report on an individual who used his or her intellectual gifts to contribute to society.
Her teacher does a good job of combing through history and choosing inspirational individuals who provided significant contributions yet may not have particularly well-known names.
Parents are encouraged to participate in the assignment, assisting their child with the research when possible and helping them organize their presentation. My wife and I have come to look forward to this activity. It’s proven to be interesting…and kind of fun for our family!
This month, our daughter was assigned Marie Curie.
To be very honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about Marie Curie. I probably wouldn’t have even recognized the name had her story not have been included in an episode of the television show Timeless—formerly, one of my favorite programs.
(For the record, I am still a little miffed that NBC decided not to renew the series. I am fascinated by the possibility of time travel and love television shows and movies about it. But that’s perhaps a topic for another blog, another day.)
If you’re not familiar with her, Marie Curie is credited with inventing the X-ray machine. She also discovered radium and polonium and was awarded the Nobel Prize for her work in determining that radiation could be used to treat cancer patients.
As we were researching Curie, I stumbled upon one of her more famous quotes, which I thought had relevance to the relationship between teamwork and teammates.
She said, “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.”
To me, this meant you cannot hope to build a better team—or teamwork—without improving the teammates. The mindset and approach of its members is what determines the likelihood of a team having teamwork.
In other words, you cannot have teamwork, unless you have good teammates—individuals whose way of thinking propels their teams toward success.
Their willingness to be unselfish, to care, to share, and to listen is what moves their team in the right direction. Good teammates always precede good teamwork.
Being a good teammate is a choice. Teamwork is the product of that choice.
Curie added, “Each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all of humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”
I think she was saying that when you are part of team, you have an obligation to use your individual gifts to help the other members of your team, so that your entire team can succeed.
Marie Curie eventually died from what was believed to be overexposure to radiation from her experiments and from her extensive work with X-ray machines. What a noble way to go—using your gifts and sacrificing yourself for the benefit of others.
She’s a terrific example of what it really means to be a good teammate.
As always…Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
