Have you ever heard the key to success is surrounding yourself with the right people? It’s good advice. But it isn’t always applicable and trying to heed it under the wrong circumstances can actually cause you a lot of unnecessary grief.
When you are part of a team, you don’t always get to choose your teammates. Sometimes the situation dictates that you simply have to work with those placed around you. Unfortunately, in our misguided quest to surround ourselves with the right people, we isolate ourselves by disengaging from teammates who we don’t believe fit into that category.
We start to overlook teammates who can’t help us advance our agendas. We distance ourselves from teammates who we think don’t matter, like those who have a lesser role on the team than we do.
It is the kind of thinking that leads to cliques and elitism. And if you can’t surround yourself with enough of the “right” people, you become frustrated. This eventually evolves into apathy and to you becoming emotionally numb. Your contributions to the team begin to falter.
At some point, you find yourself so isolated that you feel empty inside.
We’ve all heard the expression “Teamwork makes the dream work.” But when you narrow your team, you narrow your dream.
The way to keep this situation from developing is to remove the “P” from your empty feelings.
The “P” stands for pride—or perhaps more accurately, foolish pride. Foolish pride is what causes you to see yourself through a misguided lens. It is what facilitates your false sense of superiority and prevents you from making a connection with someone you perceive to be lower than you in the team’s hierarchy.
Once you remove the “P” from empty, you’re left with EMTY feelings, which stands for Everyone Matters To You. This is exactly how good teammates feel about the members of their team.
Everyone on the team matters to them, regardless of the individual’s role or his or her capacity to help them advance their agenda. Good teammates care about everyone on the team.
They care about the custodians, the housekeepers, the receptionists, the interns, the junior associates, the benchwarmers, and everyone else on the team.
Their willingness to care stems from their understanding that every team member’s contribution matters and plays a part in the team reaching its potential. Team success comes from teamwork—which comes from the presence of good teammates.
When you care about all of your teammates, and treat all of them with respect, you’ll create connections that transform them into being the “right” people, and you’ll soon find that success surrounds you.
As always, remember: Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
