how-to-become-a-team-player

HOW TO BECOME A GOOD TEAM PLAYER

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“None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard.

All teams have more than one person, and the most successful teams are the ones that have their members contributing their best to the team effort. No team can succeed without good players. Think about your favorite football or basketball team. You don’t have to be a professional footballer to be a team player. You belong to a team if you come together to do an assignment, sing in a choir, belong to a debate group, etc. If you want your teams to be successful, here are some ways you can be a good team player.

 

UNDERSTAND YOUR ROLE 

As a team member, you must understand what your role is in the team. Remember, everyone on the team is essential. Imagine a game of football, for example. The goalkeeper’s role is to prevent the other team from scoring. The goalkeeper’s role is not to score goals for his team. You may have watched a football match where a goalkeeper left his goalpost and conceded a goal. Whatever your role is in your team, ensure you put in the best of your ability. Some functions in a group might seem unimportant, but if you do not take them seriously, you obstruct the team’s goal. And if you have roles in a team you don’t understand, ensure you seek clarification from the leaders.

 

RESPECT OTHERS IN YOUR TEAM

Working with a team means there will be varying opinions and ideas. Even if you think your idea is best, you must respect the beliefs and values of other people. Understand that people will always be different, but their difference does not stop them from being part of a team. People can have different religious beliefs or come from a diverse ethnic group or belong to a different gender. Even if you don’t belong to the same team, you must respect other people’s views. You cannot work together for a common cause when there is no respect. 

 

HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

When you are in a team, you must be willing to be accountable to yourself. Holding yourself responsible means ensuring that you complete your part of the job, no matter how small you think the task is. Your role in your team may be to call people, register names, or welcome people. Take responsibility for your assignments and if you make mistakes, look for solutions rather than blame other people in the team. Understand that your actions impact the entire group. In doing so, you will learn from your errors and command more respect from your team.

 

FOCUS ON THE TEAM’S GOALS

It is good to distinguish yourself as a top performer poised for greatness, but ultimately remember that you are in a team and a goal you should be working to achieve. It could be a group assignment, a presentation, or preparation for a competition. Ensure that you put the team’s interest above yours because there can be no progress if you don’t. A major challenge facing developing countries like Nigeria is the overemphasis on self-interest.

If you want to be a world-changer, you must be a team player and work for the overall interest of your teams. Take the challenge to be a better team player and be a positive impact on the world. 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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

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TEAMWORK: THE SECRET TO EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS

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“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi

You may be very outstanding at what you do. For instance, you may be the best student in your class, or the best singer in your group, or the best player in your team. You may win prizes and have the whole world recognize you. Having that level of recognition is commendable, but you must learn how to work in a team if you want extraordinary results.

A team is a group with a common goal, and if you look around you, you will find that you inevitably belong to a team or group. You are a member of your family group, your class, church or mosque, village, local government, state, and country. In some cases, you don’t choose the groups you belong to—for example, your family, ethnic group, or country. However, your goal should be to work for the success of your groups.

Have you seen how ants work? They usually come together to take on more challenging tasks. When an ant tries to lift a crumb of biscuit and discovers it can’t do it alone by its effort, the ant looks for other ants to help it out. Before long, what seemed impossible for one ant to do becomes easy when other ants contribute their energy. Don’t despise members’ commitment to a group or the power of every group member committing a little of their effort to the same goals. Success becomes more accessible with such a mindset.

Part of the problem of being in a group is that the other members of your group may not be behaving how you want. But the onus is on you, who has the knowledge to do the right thing always. Because everyone in your class is not studying to pass but depending on others to help them pass should not stop you from learning. When you behave differently from the other members of a group who do the wrong things, you mark yourself out for greatness. Your right actions will inspire someone else, and before long other people will follow suit. It will then become easier to succeed when more people in your group behave in the same way. These things can be as simple as the members of your group being polite.

As the quote above implies, you must be committed to a group effort if you want things to work. When you are in a group, and things are not working the way you want, ask yourself if you are working in the group’s interest. For instance, you have a group assignment in your class, and your part is to research the project while the other people write it up. Failure is inevitable if you don’t do your part because your other group members will not have anything to write on. Groups or teams function because the individual members are committed to the efforts of the group.

Do you want your family, class, team, community, state, or country to succeed or work? You must play your part, which may be as essential as doing the right thing even if every other person is doing otherwise. Be part of the solution and not a problem to your group.

I know this topic is huge so let’s hear your questions and comments in the comments section below.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Besidone Ebule is the Project Director at B2SL, where he works to encourage personal development and build success networks. You can contact him at bessy.ebule@b2sl.org.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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USING YOUR KNOWLEDGE FOR SUCCESS

Knowledge is a broad concept with no possible ending. Acquiring knowledge involves steps such as communication, logic, perception, and cognitive processes. Knowledge is a human’s capacity to identify and accept the truth. However, it can be used for positive and negative purposes, thus giving the power to create and destroy. Knowledge can be used for personal, community, state, or national growth when used positively.

Knowledge impacts and influences our growth and relationship with work and life. It can last for a lifetime and is essential for personal growth and development. One can acquire knowledge through many forms such as art, dance, history, architecture, or even from one’s personal development. Your abilities based on what you know help you make life-changing decisions. 

When you know something, you have an advantage over others who do not. For example, suppose you are the only one who knows the solution to a complex calculus problem in your class. In that case, the advantage you have over others is that you will pass when it’s time for the examination, while others who are ignorant will fail. Your teachers and parents will be impressed, your classmates will envy you, and you might win a prize for excellence. That is an advantage for you. 

There are two ways you can look at this scenario. The first is to enjoy being the only solution to the problem and let every other person envy you. The second one is to share the knowledge with others in your class to have more people who can win prizes for excellence. The second scenario seems to be more beneficial and rewarding for everyone because even if you share what you know with other people; you don’t become ignorant; you become more knowledgeable. 

Our world needs more people who understand the power of knowledge and how it can make the world a better place. When we look at developed societies, what we see is the use of knowledge to benefit everyone. Without this, life becomes challenging for people and difficult to progress. Knowledge is an essential tool to obtain positive changes in our society, and we must be ready to embrace this fact.

Someone once said that knowledge helps people to bloom and keeps them away from corruption. It brings prosperity and happiness to one’s community or nation. Above all, expertise opens the door to success.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abubakar Suleiman is a secondary school student. He is dedicated to success in his academics and future career. He is a member of B2SL Success Hub.

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THE WRONG USE OF KNOWLEDGE

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“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.” – Thomas Jefferson

Knowledge is said to be the currency of destiny that determines ones’ purchasing power in the marketplace of life. Our ability to get the most out of life depends on how much we know and how well we use our knowledge. However, many people have used what they learned in the wrong way, with negative impacts on them and humanity. For example, Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin of Uganda abused knowledge combined with the power they had to manipulate humans for their selfish and greedy agenda.

Man has evolved from a simple primate to a complex intellectual being and has used knowledge to solve seemingly impossible problems. For instance, the invention of automobiles, telecommunication gadgets, ATMs, and lots more came into existence due to the wealth of knowledge man has. Knowledge makes you powerful and puts you at an advantage over others. But you must refrain from exploiting and manipulating others because of what you know.

You may have seen some students who prepare expos or what is known as “gadgets” to enter the exam hall. I think they will have better results if they channel the time and creativity they use in preparing those chips to read their books. Some students take advantage of their illiterate parents to ask for fees such as Medulla Oblongata money. You should not use your knowledge to cheat your parents or anyone.

Some students also misuse their knowledge of a subject to mock the ignorance of others. What you know should be for the good of others and not just yourself. Suppose you understand a concept in economics or Information Technology better. In that case, you should be willing to share what you know rather than keeping it to yourself and mocking every other person.  

Some people use their knowledge to falsify, tamper or even wholly change records and other vital documents, which may cause loss to an organization or person. When people act like this, we have a world devoid of morals, empathy, and sympathy. 

Finally, try to be productive but not in the wrong assignment. You should use your knowledge correctly.

I encourage you to keep using your knowledge in the right way, and we can be sure of a better world.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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

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BUILDING YOUR REPERTOIRE OF KNOWLEDGE

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“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” – Ralph Sockman

To be successful in your academics and career, you definitely will need to build on specific kinds of knowledge as you actually cannot assimilate all the knowledge in the world. With so much information presented to you at this time, comes the need to be clear on what kind of knowledge you need to go for so as to become successful.

For example there is specific information you will need to know and build on if you want to become a professional dancer that someone that wants to become a teacher might not need. There are certain things a student offering chemistry that a student offering government doesn’t need to know. It therefore is on you as a student to pay detailed attention to the things you need to know so you can build your knowledgeable base on them for success.

With respect to career, you can’t be aspiring to get to the highest positions like becoming a manager or CEO someday and not have knowledge of soft skills like communication, interpersonal relationship, problem solving and critical thinking. These are some knowledge that we at B2SL are feeding students on now so they can start early with building these skills via available resources.

Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook started building knowledge that made him successful very early enough. As early as 13 years when he was in Junior Secondary School, he started using computers and developing software. Around the same period, he started creating computer games by watching YouTube videos. By the time he was in Senior Secondary School, he worked under the company name Intelligent Media Group to build a music player called the Synapse Media Player. The device used machine learning to learn the user’s listening habits. By the time Zuckerberg began classes at Harvard in 2002, he had already achieved a “reputation as a programming prodigy.” It was in the university he started creating what we know as Facebook today that has made him one of the richest men in the world today with a total net worth of $111.5billion as at 1st April, 2021.

If Zuckerberg was able to build on some set of knowledge with which he became successful today, it means you too can become successful if you are able to build on the needed knowledge that is relevant to your career path.

I will love to hear from you so I can get to know the knowledge you are building on today for future success.

I wish you all the best as you keep building knowledge for success in your academics and career.

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.

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