Question

Describe the top 3 qualities you believe a person needs to be a good team player. Be sure to back up your thoughts with a reference for support. Don't just give your opinion, but give an educated opinion backed up by evidence. Then, describe how you've seen someone exhibit one of these qualities in a team in which you've participated.

Answer 1

A good team player is the strength of team of any size. When many members in team fail a person with good team management skills come out to rescue the project. Member with strong commitment to solve the problems, ensure the task is being done as per the assigned timeline, answering to the queries given by all stakeholders both internal and external customers and spread the positive mindset to all the team members. All together, the presence of good team players enhances the sentiments of the whole organization and enhances the brand of the company in the market. The Management will appreciate good team players ability and other external stakeholders like customers and suppliers. Following are top qualities of good team player,

a) Adjusts quickly to changing environment and keeps strong communication with all the team members- In an organization people work along the team to achieve the objectives framed by the Management. A project lead by Project Manager with a team working under him or her have to adapt quickly to changing environment and should be keep strong communication with Management and team through review meetings.

b) Works continuously beyond the comfortable zone- The comfortable zone is the area, which is defined by individual beyond which he or she do not want, spend time on the assigned task. So team player with strong focus towards the target work without any time barriers to acheive the short term and long term goals. Ofcourse the person have to take several risks and come out with innovative ideas that will contribute to the success of the project. Good team player will be ready to take up additional responsibility and motivate his or her team members to work with dedication.

c) Being trustworthy among stake holders- Good team player is one of the most reliable person in a team. They display GO TO attitude during demanding situations. Organizations depend on people to overcome crisis like situations. During tough times strong team player display quality attitudes like- giving correct facts and figures to the cross functional team, prepares micro level plan and starts coordinating with all the people involved in the project, achieves milestones and thus becoming the most trusted person within the team and outside.

For example a company supplying automotive component to a car maker went on to a crisis like situation due to improper planning had during the Project phase, such as  inadequate machineries leading to lesser capacity to meet customer demand, shortage of manpower, lacking of training given to people and shortage of raw material to make the component. This entire shortcoming led to company not supplying the parts to carmaker on time and this ultimately led to carmaker not satisfying their customers. Team of dedicated Project Managers and Supply Chain Managers with good strong leadership skills and team building attitude formed by the Management of the component maker overcame this crisis. The team displayed excellent leadership skills and team building skills to overcome the crisis. Project Manager took the initiative and prepared the plan to overcome crisis- There were several follow time lines and formats used to strengthen the communication with all the stakeholders. The stocks were monitored on daily basis at all levels, it was reported to to Management and Car frequently. Strong communication and trust was slowly built up by these methods. Strong team players selected from different divisions like Engineering, Supply Chain, Project Management, Quality and Customer support, managed these activities. Project members used work without any time limits and ensure the targets are achieved. People from Human resource team quickly ramped up the hiring process and ensure that people with right skills on put on the job. There were organization changes as well and Management ensured strong team was built across functions. Overall crisis was overcome in a period of three months with committed team members. Finally, the car maker was satisfied since component maker did not have any quality defects even during crisis period.

Have come across many good quality person working with lot of dedication in a team. A person from Sourcing division of a carmaker company is an ideal example good team player within his company and displayed similar with the component maker. Here

A good team player is the strength of team of any size. When many members in team fail a person with good team management skills come out to rescue the project. Member with strong commitment to solve the problems, ensure the task is being done as per the assigned timeline, answering to the queries given by all stakeholders both internal and external customers and spread the positive mindset to all the team members. All together, the presence of good team players enhances the sentiments of the whole organization and enhances the brand of the company in the market. The Management will appreciate good team players ability and other external stakeholders like customers and suppliers. Following are top qualities of good team player,

a) Adjusts quickly to changing environment and keeps strong communication with all the team members- In an organization people work along the team to achieve the objectives framed by the Management. A project lead by Project Manager with a team working under him or her have to adapt quickly to changing environment and should be keep strong communication with Management and team through review meetings.

b) Works continuously beyond the comfortable zone- The comfortable zone is the area, which is defined by individual beyond which he or she do not want, spend time on the assigned task. So team player with strong focus towards the target work without any time barriers to achieve the short term and long-term goals. Of course the person have to take several risks and come out with innovative ideas that will contribute to the success of the project. Good team player will be ready to take up additional responsibility and motivate his or her team members to work with dedication.

c) Being trustworthy among stake holders- Good team player is one of the most reliable person in a team. They display GO TO attitude during demanding situations. Organizations depend on people to overcome crisis like situations. During tough times strong team player display quality attitudes like- giving correct facts and figures to the cross functional team, prepares micro level plan and starts coordinating with all the people involved in the project, achieves milestones and thus becoming the most trusted person within the team and outside.

For example a company supplying automotive component to a car maker went on to a crisis like situation due to improper planning had during the Project phase, such as  inadequate machineries leading to lesser capacity to meet customer demand, shortage of manpower, lacking of training given to people and shortage of raw material to make the component. This entire shortcoming led to company not supplying the parts to carmaker on time and this ultimately led to carmaker not satisfying their customers. Team of dedicated Project Managers and Supply Chain Managers with good strong leadership skills and team building attitude formed by the Management of the component maker overcame this crisis. The team displayed excellent leadership skills and team building skills to overcome the crisis. Project Manager took the initiative and prepared the plan to overcome crisis- There were several follow time lines and formats used to strengthen the communication with all the stakeholders. The stocks were monitored on daily basis at all levels, it was reported to to Management and Car frequently. Strong communication and trust was slowly built up by these methods. Strong team players selected from different divisions like Engineering, Supply Chain, Project Management, Quality and Customer support, managed these activities. Project members used work without any time limits and ensure the targets are achieved. People from Human resource team quickly ramped up the hiring process and ensure that people with right skills on put on the job. There were organization changes as well and Management ensured strong team was built across functions. Overall crisis was overcome in a period of three months with committed team members. Finally, the car maker was satisfied since component maker did not have any quality defects even during crisis period.

Have come across many good quality person working with lot of dedication in a team. A person from Sourcing division of a carmaker company is an ideal example good team player within his organization and also displayed similar characteristics with the component maker. A team of Engineers working with the component maker was involved in developing Hydraulic brakes to the carmakers. It was the responsibility of the person from sourcing division to ensure the right part reaches the carmaker at right time. He exhibited some great characteristics such as conducting frequent review meetings with all team members, kept close contact, ensure shorter and long term deadline are achieved, he built trust with all members and ensured that the information are obtained correctly and presented and he stretches to ensure the activities are getting completed as per the target dates.