Being a Team

At Foundations4, my friend, Dave Wheeler, who spent 24 years in the Airforce and is now a passionate trainer and advocate for single working parents, recently wrote a post on TEAMS, so defined as Together Everyone Achieves More. I like it.

In the post there is an inspiring video of the Blue Angles, the elite Navy flight team. At the end of the post Dave asks, "TEAMS...what makes them great or why do some fail?" Here's largely my response:

When looking at the video I could not help but to think of our sense of individualism. While I so appreciate the great American value of self-reliance, we never really only rely on ourselves, neither do we ever pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

It is always the support of others that lifts us up and encourages us to greater heights, even when it is we ourselves who have to participate in our own development. The same is true for teams. We need others for project design and implementation.

It takes humility and passion for a team to excel as well as like-minded goals. My mother often spoke of not being "unequally yoked." While this scripture referred to marriage it is applicable to friendships, romantic relationships and teams of all sorts, personally and professionally at home, work, in sports, and the performing arts.

There has to be a centralized core and understanding among team members, although views may vary. Being careful about who we yoke up with personally and professionally is significant. This to me is the first step and often the reason for failure.

Do pop over to Dave's blog by clicking on "Foundations4" above and leave your comments as to what makes a great team and why some fail. He'll be happy to hear from you.