It is the season of college basketball! Teams from around the country are competing in the NCAA championship. This raises some good questions about how your employees work in teams.
Just because you use the word team to describe a group of people who perform similar jobs, like the sales team or customer service team, doesn’t mean your workers really work in teams. We are referring to situations where workers collaborate. Where they work together to solve problems or deliver service to customers.
The nature of work is changing, and we live in a culture of teamwork. Undergraduate students are assigned 3 or 4 team projects each semester. Does this mean young people are better at it than we were? Well, they’ve had more practice; but, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better. Some people of all ages are more naturally individualistic, while others more naturally gravitate to teams.
America has historically been a land of individualists – meaning most of us think people should be self-sufficient. We tend to put loyalty to ourselves before that of others, including our team and our company. But it’s not all or nothing. Even the most individualistic of us will commit to a team if we perceive it to be in our best interest. Likewise, individuals who don’t see any benefit to contributing to the team will physically or emotionally disengage from that team.
Some of the greatest success stories in team sports are linked to coaches – or team leaders – who convince superstar athletes to sacrifice individual goals for team goals. Hey, star, would you rather score 36 points and lose – or score 18 points and win? We’ve also witnessed the team member who contributes very little but expects to benefit from team rewards.
How can we know before we hire someone whether they naturally tend to be individualistic or to be more team-oriented? Fortunately, one assessment instrument offered by The Davidson Group does measure the degree to which someone’s individualism is a motivator for their behavior. The more naturally team-oriented a candidate is, the less they’ll have to adapt or modify their behavior to support team goals.
This assessment can be extremely helpful as a pre-employment tool. Let’s say you need to hire a hunter salesperson with a high degree of individualism. But if you need a customer service representative who’s going to be part of a team that services customers collectively, it would be better to have someone with lower levels of individualism.
Contact the Davidson Group to review your hiring process and what motivates your employees.
