I listened to an interesting conversation recently that made me think about a problem leaders often have with creating a team culture that facilitates “good teammateness.”
The conversation began with a parent marveling at how much his son had learned in kindergarten this past year. The father was amazed by what the kids were learning now, compared to what was being taught when he was that age.
A retired kindergarten teacher was sitting nearby and politely chimed in. She said kids haven’t gotten any smarter and teachers haven’t gotten any better, but the situation has changed. She went on to explain to the man why teaching kindergarten is so much easier today than it used to be.
The woman told a story about her first day in the classroom and how difficult it was to organize her students. She recalled telling the kids to sit in a circle, only to have them stare back at her with a blank look of confusion.
They had never sat in a group circle before, and most of them didn’t even know what a circle was.
The teacher had naively assumed they did. She soon realized how crucial it was to teach them how to do those things before she tried to teach them anything academic.
In previous generations, kindergarten was typically a child’s first introduction to the concept of shapes and group settings. Up to that point in their lives, most of them had only been around their parents and maybe a sibling or two. What occasion would they have even had to sit in a group circle?
The emergence of daycare and quality preschool programs have changed that situation. Today, the majority of kids know their shapes, letters, and numbers and have been exposed to organized groups before they attend kindergarten. This of course affords contemporary teachers the opportunity to teach more advanced academic material to that age group.
When it comes to team dynamics, leaders often make the same mistake as the retired kindergarten teacher. They tell the members of their team to be good teammates and assume everyone knows what that means.
It is a dangerous assumption and can lead to a lot of unnecessary frustration.
If you are going to assume, assume the members of your team don’t know anything about being a good teammate. Explain what specifically it means to you and clearly lay out your expectations. And then, make a deliberate effort to teach them how to be a good teammate.
That simple investment can pay big dividends to the quality of your team’s culture and can allow your team to focus on more advanced goals without being bogged down by the type of toxicity and drama that erode a team’s culture.
As always…Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
