Work as a Team
Highly Effective Work Habits: Teamwork
To be able to function in the modern workplace, teamwork is crucial. Gone are the days where you could just clock in, work “heads down” all day, and then clock out. With more and more companies tightening their budgets and not hiring new talent, they are expanding existing roles within their organizations. Employees are now expected to interact with both business and technical folks in a variety of settings. If you can’t work with your “team” effectively (which could be multiple people across different departments), you likely won’t survive. And most companies, during the interview process, will look for evidence of team work from your previous jobs.
Every department has that one employee that you and/or others just can’t get along with. And, more often than not, it is someone you have to deal with on a daily basis. The ironic part is that if you refuse to work with that person, you look like someone who is not a team player. So, at a minimum, you at least need to work with them to do your job. You don’t have to interact with them beyond this if you don’t want to (i.e. social functions, extracurricular activities, etc), but you should try to establish a civil working relationship for the day to day tasks.
Put yourself out there. Don’t sit in your cube all day. If someone asks for help, no matter how busy you are, lend a hand – even if you can only spare a few minutes. That goes a long way for people viewing you as approachable and helpful. The worst thing you can do is just refuse to help. If you don’t have the answer, find someone who does or just let that person know you will get back to them as soon as possible. Also, share knowledge. If you hoard information, two things will happen:
1) You will end up being the “go to” person all the time if the process you are maintaining breaks or needs updating (likely at any time of the day). And few people want that.
2) You will be viewed as someone who doesn’t share with his/her teammates and might be trying to keep yourself from being fired by hoarding all the knowledge. Actually, in most cases, you are recognized for your contributions to the team and can help with training the staff while you move onto other things.
Be flexible. Schedules, roles, and tasks change all the time. You need to flow with your team (roll with the punches) and adapt to changing requirements. If you can’t, ask for help. This teamwork thing goes both ways. You can’t always do everything yourself, so reaching out to others shows them that you are humble enough to ask for assistance and that you trust their judgement.
