Today, Americans celebrate the Fourth of July—Independence Day. Since a fair amount of the subscribers to my blog are actually British, I would prefer not to focus this edition of Teammate Tuesday on the reason for the holiday, but instead on the topic of independence.
The idea of being a good teammate ultimately comes down to making decisions based on what is best for your team.
Quite often, this means having the self-discipline to suppress your natural desire for personal independence. It means being a good follower.
Recently, I was on a trip that required several vehicles to travel convoy-style to our destination. None of us were familiar with the area, so we relied on GPS to guide us. (That’s sat-nav for our British readers.)
We each had GPS in our respective vehicles, and could have each gone our separate ways and met up at our final destination. But what if one of us had a flat tire or broke down? The wisest decision seemed for us to stay together.
Traveling in a convoy is a fascinating exercise in teamwork.
The driver in front—the de facto leader—has a lot of decisions to make that will impact the entire convoy (the team).
You must pick the right speed. If you go too slow, you endanger the safety of everyone in the convoy. If you go too fast, you not only put yourself at risk for getting a speeding ticket, but you put the entire group at risk.
And it is a risk that is multiplied by every vehicle in the convoy. If any of the vehicles gets pulled over it would lead to a substantial delay in travel time for everyone.
You must also consider the ramifications for the convoy each time you make a lane change or go through a traffic light.
Can the whole convoy make it through that yellow light before it turns red? Maybe you can make it through just fine, but can the entire group make it through? If not, your decision will break up the convoy. The same logic applies to changing lanes.
For the second vehicle in the convoy, and all subsequent vehicles, traveling this way becomes an experiment in the art of being a good follower.
In many ways, it is simply a matter of keeping up. But…anyone who has ever been in this situation knows it can be a lot harder than it sounds.
You have to really focus on the driver in front of you and keep pace. If you don’t keep pace with that driver, other cars will get in between you and break up the convoy.
You have to anticipate lane changes and time them so they coincide with the lead vehicle. Delays in doing so could prevent you from moving over and would eventually also break up the convoy.
All of that is hard enough, but the real challenge comes in the form of suppressing your natural tendency to do these things from within your own comfort zone.
For instance, maybe you’re the type of driver who likes to take it easy and observe the surrounding scenery as you cruise along the highway. Can’t do it. You need to be attentive to the lead vehicle or you’ll inevitably miss a lane change and lose the convoy.
Or, maybe you’re the type of driver who likes to get from point A to point B as fast as possible and generally considers speed limits to be a mild suggestion. Can’t do it. You need to get beyond your natural preference for expedience and get in sync with the pace of the rest of the group.
Obviously, the exact opposite scenario is also true. Perhaps you’re the type of driver who never breaks the speed limit. You may find the lead driver keeping up with traffic and exceeding the posted speed limit. For the betterment of the convoy, you will need to get beyond your natural comfort zone, assume the risk, and travel at the higher speed.
Sometimes, jointly assuming the added risk is what it means to be functioning as part of a team and not just and independent individual.
However, this raises an interesting question, how much risk is too much? At some point, shouldn’t you consider the risk of traveling too fast in regard to the passengers in your own particular vehicle?
Let’s not even look at speed, and the possible ethics of that issue. Let’s instead look at something less controversial, like the potential issue of fuel. What happens if your vehicle gets low on fuel and you need to stop and refuel, but the other vehicles in the convoy do not.
You don’t get a choice when it comes to fuel. If you run out, your vehicle doesn’t go any farther. You must stop and refuel. Otherwise, there is no convoy for you.
This is where the concept of prioritizing your teams factors into the equation.
Maybe that prioritization comes in the form of you needing to stop and refuel your vehicle. Or maybe it comes in the form of you needing to take time off work to care of an elderly parent or a sick child.
If you communicate the urgency of your needs, the convoy will stop and allow you to refuel. Otherwise, it’s not a real team and you have an obligation to the passengers in your vehicle to break free from the convoy and seek independence…metaphorically.
Remember: Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
