All posts by : Success Bridge

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is a success.” – Henry Ford.

There is a saying that two heads are better than one. No matter how passionate you are about your life pursuit, you need people to turn dreams into reality. Teamwork and team building are essential qualities of successful people and organizations, as shown in companies like Alibaba, Walt Disney, etc.

As a young person, it is paramount to learn how to work with people and understand how to build a team. So many industries across the world are thriving today because of efficient and effective team collaboration. The inability to create strong groups of accountable and diligent people leads to failure.

We need collaboration with others in group assignments, inter-class debates, quizzes, inter-house sports competitions, etc. Sometimes, we find ourselves leading or working with people we did not choose to be in our groups. Still, the onus lies in building that team, whether as a leader or a team member.

HOW TO BUILD TEAMS

CLEARLY DEFINE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Have a clear vision and a set rule for all team members. Every team member must understand their job description and ensure its completion. When you do this, you ensure division of labor and smooth running of the team.

BE PROACTIVE WITH FEEDBACK

Feedback is the key to assuring any team is staying on track and improving each day. Feedback should be proactive and constant. Do not wait until a problem occurs before giving feedback. Feedback is simply the art of excellent communication.  It should be something that is part of one’s natural dialogue. It can be both formal and informal.

SCOUT FOR ACCOUNTABLE PEOPLE OR WORK WITH ALREADY AVAILABLE PERSONS

There is a need to select people who will buy into your vision, but in some cases, you have to work with people you find yourself in the same group. For example, your Mathematics teacher divides the class into three groups for an assignment, and you are in one of them either as a leader or member. You have to work with others on the team as a group.

RESPECT THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS

You need to be accommodative and welcome people’s opinions with respect. If team members don’t feel respected, they won’t be motivated to bring their best ideas to work. Also, take time to give your teammates the proper accolades they have earned and deserve. 

We always love to hear from you at B2SL to see how we can help you. Please drop your comments or questions in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alero Babine is a writer, professional photographer, and Secretary of B2sl, where show works to empower teenagers to succeed. You can contact her at alero@b2sl.org.

“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”– Patrick Lencioni

Developing the spirit of teamwork is very important in working in a team with a central goal. Cooperation is an invaluable lesson that you will carry on throughout your career as an adult. No matter where you work or what type of work you do, you will have to work with others, and to do it well to succeed, you must start developing the spirit of teamwork now with the few points below.

MAKE TRUST BUILDING A TOP PRIORITY

Trust is the foundation of high-performing teams. Trust is built by being reliable, open, straightforward, and accepting. Work towards being someone your friends and family can rely on by doing what you have promised to do and staying away from what you said you would not do. Be open by letting those around you know what you stand for. Be straightforward by not trying to cut corners, thereby putting friends and family in harm’s way. Be accepting by respecting people for who and what they are without undue criticism that will cause psychological damage. 

VALUE THE CONTRIBUTION OF OTHERS

You earn loyalty by caring about not only the performance but also the person. You must be patient to hear what people have to say from time to time. That kind of attitude shows you care and respect them beyond what they are saying at that time. That kind of environment will always promote teamwork because everyone will see themselves as an essential and valuable member of the team.

BUILD ON STRENGTHS; MANAGE WEAKNESS

Focus more on what your friends and peers can do better while looking out for how you can help with things they cannot do very well. Focusing and talking a lot about people’s weaknesses without magnifying their strength is undoubtedly not a way of developing the spirit of teamwork.

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

It’s hard to deal with not being first at choosing a beautiful dress or shoe all the time. Please, learn that your happiness is not always paramount. This kind of mindset or attitude will make you feel you will ever get things done your way. It would help if you got this right early that things will not always go your way, and that is okay.

We love to hear your thoughts, questions, and comments about this article. Please feel free to drop your comments and questions in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Adimah is an entrepreneur and the Project Manager of B2SL INITIATIVE, where he manages the vision. He is a great believer that a prosperous Nigeria is a product of successful Nigerians. You can reach him via email at charles@b2sl.org.

“Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress but walking together is success” – Henry Ford

You may have heard the phrase, ‘No man is an Island’ over and over again. Imagine if you were the only person in your class, your family, or city! If you were a trader, you would buy and sell to yourself. If you were a teacher, you would learn and teach yourself. If you were a farmer, you would sow, reap, and consume by yourself! Sounds really awkward, doesn’t it?

As humans, we all have weaknesses and excel. We need to complement those weaknesses through teamwork, which is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or complete a task effectively and efficiently. Essentially, there is more than one person in a team with each one having a specific role based on his/her strength.

A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal. It is also known as a group of people committed to achieving something worthwhile. Teams typically have complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort that allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses, as observed in sports with more than one player.

For example, if you find it hard to understand Mathematics and decide to meet other students who know it better than you do to teach you, and in return, you teach them the secrets of learning English or Literature, then you are working as a team. Some people understand faster and retain more when they engage in group reading or discussion on a particular subject or topic that may seem hard to study.

For you to achieve a comprehensive, well-rounded education, integrated teamwork on several fronts is vital. The more teamwork fundamentals exhibited, the more opportunity exists for students to learn the essential skills of compromise and collaboration.

Team or group work in a classroom teaches students the fundamental skills of working as a collective unit toward a common goal. This type of teamwork exposes you to skills that will be valuable for you later in the workforce, such as communication, compromise, and collective effort. In any group work, you must agree about who will handle various project components and work in tandem using one another’s strengths to accomplish assigned tasks. 

We all need people at one point or the other to be more productive. You can start leveraging on teamwork from now to make tasks easier for you.

I will love to hear your thought on this topic. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Henry Ibrahim Kwatadem is the Content Creator at B2SL. He loves working with young people to help them discover their purpose in life. You can reach via email at ibrahim@b2sl.org.

“Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work ” Kevin Durant

According to Oxford’s English Dictionary, hard work is a great deal of effort or endurance. It is also the constant, regular, or habitually engagement in earnest and energetic work to achieve a particular goal or the energy and time channeled into a task. Colin Powell once said, “A dream does not become a reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination, and hard work”. Success is more a matter of work than luck or magic. A student has an 80% chance of succeeding with hard work and a 100% chance of succeeding with smart work. Hard work separates the successful and unsuccessful, and we must not only work but also work hard.

HARD WORK LEADS TO SUCCESS

All successful people have the same story to say: almost 60% of their success is attributable to hard work. Everyone can succeed, but without hard work, this would be impossible. Hard work is what makes people stand out and achieve what seemed impossible. Most people who fail initially end up achieving success only if they are consistent with their work. Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

HARD WORK BREEDS CONFIDENCE

Hard work increases the belief we have in ourselves. For example, when you dedicate yourself to learning a difficult topic in Mathematics or any other subject, you will find that your level of confidence increases the next time you come across a problem on the same issue. The knowledge and experience you got from learning the complex topic and getting those smaller exercises right will serve as the bedrock on which your confidence to handle any future problem is based.

HARD WORK HELPS US SURPASS OUR LIMITATIONS

One of the factors that limit us in life is our ignorance. You will be surprised at how things seem easy to you once you are familiar with them. For instance, a student who has the mindset that Mathematics is complicated, but suddenly began to dedicate his time and effort into studying it, will realize that Mathematics is not as tricky, hence, overcoming his limitation. When you have a mindset that something is too difficult, you are already limiting yourself. If you want to overcome your boundaries, you have no other option than to work hard.

HARD WORK BRINGS OPPORTUNITIES

There are opportunities everywhere around us, but only hard work can unlock. Hard work serves as an opportunity magnet. If you want to win a scholarship, for example, there will be some requirements. You may need to write an essay or be involved in a project. The scholarship has a fixed reward. You have to put in your hard work to be able to access it. Let’s say there is a prize of 1 million Naira to be won for participating in a marathon race of 20 kilometers. No matter how much you desire the reward, the only thing that will most likely stop you is your inability to put in hard work. If you can put in the many hours of practice and discipline, you have the opportunity to win the prize.

HARD WORK BRINGS RESPECT

Hard work always draws attention in a crowd. Think about all the people you respect. What makes them stand out? Probably the fact that they worked hard, which made them stand taller with their accomplishments from the rest. If you want to be respected, you must work hard on achieving your goals. Lazy people are not respected because they have nothing to offer. Hardworking people, on the other hand, are respected and promoted everywhere around the world. Examples of people like these are Ben Carson, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, etc.

There is no success before hard work. If we desire something, we should not sit still and wait for it to come; that is laziness. We should work towards achieving it; it is called hard work.

We love to hear your thoughts, questions, and comments about this article. Please feel free to drop your comments and questions in the comments section below.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Timothy, Victoria, and Omole are secondary school students in Nigeria dedicated to success in their chosen fields. They are members of the B2SL Success Hub.

“Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance; it cannot be bribed or coaxed. Pay the price, and it’s yours.”  O.S Marden

I looked up the meaning of drudgery in the dictionary, which meant hard, menial, or dull work! Simply put, you have to engage in hard work for you to be successful, which can also likely be uninteresting to you. There is no short cut irrespective of the path you want to choose in life. All the great inventors or successful people we admire worked or work very hard. Think about any successful person and imagine if they would have succeeded if they were lazy. Not sure you can find one. The rule is simple, it is either you work hard and succeed or be lazy and fail!

The thought of hard work itself scares people. Most people do not want to get into an activity that will stress them physically or mentally. Most people will rather sit and watch TV all day than engage in hard work, including me! But we all know that this is unrealistic, especially if we want to succeed. So how do we approach hard work so that we are not bored to death? Below are some tips that may help you have a better perspective or approach.

APPRECIATE THE VALUE OF HARD WORK

Success is not easy, but it is achievable. Have you seen people building a house? Do you see the machines and human efforts that are involved? People put in these efforts because they know that their labour will pay off at the end of the day. The student who studies in secret continuously to pass examinations knows that Success will be the reward at the end of the day. Even if people do not realize immediately, they will begin to see your worth because of your hard work with time. Do not be deceived by short cuts. Hard work has excellent value and is appreciated worldwide. Try to envision a time when you worked hard to achieve something, and you got the reward for it? How did it make you feel?

BREAK HARD TASKS INTO SMALLER CHUNKS

If you ever face a difficult but necessary task, try breaking the task into smaller chunks. It is difficult and sometimes discouraging when you think about the big things you have to do. Let’s assume you want to read a book of 350 pages. It might look big initially, but if you decide to read 50 pages a day, you will discover that you have finished the book in a week. If you try to read the whole book at a go, it might be challenging for you. Remember the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH OTHER HARD WORKERS

Honestly, this is one tip that can make you less frustrated in completing demanding and tedious tasks. However, when you surround yourself with other hard workers, you will find the motivation to hang on. There is no use in hanging out with lazy people who cannot inspire or challenge you. The simple rule is if your friends or close associates are not encouraging you to do better than you are now, it is time to change them! Some people are already working hard in your field, look for them, and seek their help. These people may be in your neighbourhood or school, or on the internet. Just find them out, and they will make your tasks look simpler than you could imagine. I am not talking about your regular duties, like copying notes and reading; I am talking about the things beyond you, such as understanding a complex topic.

Hard work is not easy, but it pays if you cultivate the habit. Every time you want to be lazy, remember that the reward for laziness is failure. You don’t want to fail, so cultivate a mindset of working hard always.

Please post your questions or comments in the comment section below as I will love to hear from you. If you have any questions or need any help, please contact our team on info@b2sl.org and we’ll reach out to you ASAP.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bessy Ebule is the Project Director at B2SL, where he works to encourage personal development and building success networks. You can reach him at bessy.ebule@b2sl.org