TEAM players are usually people known for sacrifice, sharing and hard work. Many strive to be a team player at the workplace, but it takes more than just having a desire - it takes hard work. Being a team player often involves doing the right thing by not always having your self-benefit in mind.
Building confident, cohesive, well-functioning teams is an ongoing focus for leaders of corporations where specific and similar tasks are being performed. There are many pathways to building confident work teams. Whether you are working with a new work team or fitting into an established team, the guidelines here can support you in building and taking part in an even stronger and more cohesive team.
The following key principles are involved to become a team player:
- Look at the team you are on and define the team goals. Often these goals will differ from your personal goals. Be sure to keep the team's goals first on your list of priorities. Once you identify the team goals, think about the best way you can contribute to the team by reaching these goals. Try to think about reaching goals as an absolute destination, rather than just a possibility. That is to say, look at meeting team goals as something that will happen, not something that can happen. With this attitude, becoming a team player will become a reality. There has to be provision, a vehicle, for team building. At fixed intervals of time (for example, monthly staff meetings or annual retreats), allow some time for members in your team to bond and connect with one another. Listen to others - their con¬cerns and frustrations - to the extent to empower them to provide their solutions to their problems.
- Team players must recognise their individual strengths to provide the team with something useful. If you have a great ability to work with numbers, nominate yourself the maths person and try to work on all aspects of the project that deals with maths. Ef¬fective teams have a clear leader, with a clear role. Consistently communicate and play your part on the team. Proac¬tively address potential concerns and issues. Build a collaborative environ¬ment where every member's strengths are utilised and appreciated
- Always try to help others in need within your team. Often times team members will be so engulfed in their assignments that they fail to realise others are struggling. If one has the attitude that they will only do what they're being paid to do, then they may only achieve so much for the team. If one applies the attitude of helping a brother or sister in need, the team can build and succeed upon such efforts.
Teams can only be effective if there is a clear mission. Bereft of this mission the team becomes a boat without rudder. The resultant feeling of aimlessness leads to lack of clarity and fuel for productivity. Expectations for individual responsibilities waiver and remain unclear if not linked to the broader picture of team roles. And naturally, as there is no team understanding, you have to lay out the objectives and provide the team with direction and purpose.
The old cliché that teams are only as strong as their weakest member holds true in today's work environ¬ment. Remember that a team is a group of players expected to work together to achieve a mission. By defining goals, recognising strengths and helping others, you will give your team a better opportunity of having no weak members.
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Did you ever notice how there is never enough time to do everything, or so it seems? But there is always enough time to do the important things. I am always amused how some busy business people can never take time out for personal development or leisure time convinced that if they were not there "the place would fall apart". And so, they are always there, before everyone arrives and after everyone leaves, never taking time to do the important things they want to do.
Yet, that same person, who could never take off three days for a personal development seminar, gets a surprise phone call one afternoon. Their mother has just passed away unexpectedly. Three hours later, they are on a plane flying to attend to the funeral and family, dropping everything at work.
When they return, a few days later, is there anything to come back to? You bet. Sure, some things get fouled up, but they are corrected and life goes on. "The graveyards filled with indispensable people."
Why does it take a death, a heart attack or some other personal emergency to convince people to do what they know they she be doing in the first place? It is a choice. Life is a constant series of choices. We choose to work. We choose our relationships. We choose how we spend every hour (or we allow others to).
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Caffeine, sugar, tobacco, alcohol and drugs are the well-known bad guys. You know what you have to do. Cut down or cut them out altogether.
Poor nutrition is a common problem. At work, avoid doughnuts, candy bars and other sugar-laden snacks, eat well-balanced meals (including breakfast), and avoid greasy, heavy restaurant foods.
If you feel you can't function without numerous cups of coffee, try filling your cup with half regular and half decaffeinated coffee. Gradually reduce the amount of regular coffee (and sugar) until you've reached a more reasonable level.
EXERCISE
To improve cardiovascular fitness to the levels needed to combat stress, about three times a week each of us needs to elevate the pulse to around 130 beats per minute and maintain that pace for 20-30 minutes.
If your job is competitive and goal-oriented, you would be wise to choose a non-competitive, goal¬less activity like walking, swimming or jumping rope.
Often the need to exercise arises on the job, when we're least able to do anything about it. Try some of these ideas when you can't exercise.
Get up and walk. Walk on your lunch hour or to someone's office. If you're tense and ready to explode, walking from one end of the building to the other can be helpful.
If you can't take time to walk, stretch. Systematically stretch your entire body. Roll your neck, rotate and stretch your arms, fingers, legs, toes, and waist.
If you are tied to a chair in a meeting, try isometrics. Tighten the muscles in your legs, arms, abdomen, feet and hands. Hold each for a count of 10 and release.
RELAX
Few of us can take 20 minutes for relaxation breaks during the day. Instead, you may want to try periodic deep breathing. Breathing is the easiest physiological system to control. It can temporarily lower high blood pressure and results in sense of readiness to concentrate fully on the next task.
TALK WITH A PEER WHO WILL UNDERSTAND AND LISTEN.
Research shows talking with a spouse is not as effective in reducing job-related stress.) Choose someone who will maintain confidentiality and be non-judgmental and empathic. Sharing your feelings is a proven, effective release.
BUILD AND MAINTAIN HIGH-QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS
Numerous studies have underscored the importance of maintaining solid, interpersonal relationships on the job to continue good health in the face of prolonged high levels of stress.
COMPARTMENTALIZE WORK LIFEAND HOME LIFE
Don't let one spill over into the other.
DELEGATE SITUATIONS THAT CAN BE HANDLED BY OTHERS
Make priorities in your work, including the typical crises, problems and complaints. Choose a qualified individual to train to handle as many of these situations as possible. incorporate a few practice drill in your training so you and your subordinate will be ready when the time comes.
WATCH THE WAY YOU TALK TO YOURSELF
During periods of high stress, we frequently lose perspective. Ask yourself, "One year from now, as I look on this crucial emergency, how important will it seem?" This technique will help you think more rationally.
FINALLY, MAKE A CONTRACT WITH YOURSELF
Start small. Choose one technique that your would like to try and practice each change rigorously for 21 days. (Studies show it takes at least 21 days of practicing a new behavior to change an old pattern.) Then decide whether you wan to continue the stress management technique you’ve chosen. The important thing is to pick one and start one.
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What motivate us to get up in the morning and go out to work… every day? What determines whether we take an optimistic or a pessimistic view on things? What really makes us successful? Motivation is a fascinating subject, which has intrigued researchers for decades. Motivation is a state of mind which is influenced by our environment, by those around us and of course by us.
Everyone is motivated….to do something, whether that something is to put in full day’s work and achieve a task or whether it I to do as little as possible and hopefully not be noticed. The behaviours of managers and co-worker will influence our internal state of mind, just as successful salespeople with stimulate a motivation to prescribe in the minds of their customers.
“Whether you believe that you can or whether you believe that you can’t…you’ll be absolutely right!” – Henry Ford
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will” – Vincent T Lombardi
So what is motivation?
In 1938, Henry Murray developed a list of human psychological needs that lead to particular personality traits. These needs, summarized below, led to further studies of motivation by others.
1. Achievement:
A person operating from this need strives to accomplish difficult tasks or to compete with others.
2. Affiliation
This person seeks to develop close relationships with others. Loyalty and friendships are important and this person enjoys working as part of a team.
3. Aggression
This need results in a tendency to attack, injure or punish others. He/She will win forcefully and will enjoy making others look bad.
4. Autonomy
Some people need to be able to independently. They to he in control of their job and will take full responsibility for results.
5. Deference
Deferential people tend to admire and support their superiors and other authority figures. They support and respect traditions.
6. Dominance
These people will seek to control their environment through attempting to influence others to accept their views and opinions. They will manipulate others to their own advantage.
7. Exhibition
The goal of this type of person is to be noticed and to elicit a reaction from others - the life and soul of the party.
8. Nurturance
Nurturing people find satisfaction in helping others who are more needy or disadvantaged than them.
9. Order
This person is highly organized, clean, neat and precise.
10. Power
A high need for power results in an attempt to control other people and resources and to seek high status in society.
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Good management of one's emotions is the key to greater success in one's career and life.
Senior chartered psychologist and computer scientist from Oxford University Dr Shaun Zeng said the ability to manage such emotions depended on the health of one's emotional intelligence.
Self-discovery: Participants will learn to use their emotional intelligence at the EQ workshop on Jan 26.
He said work problems, like finding it difficult to work with others or leading co-workers as well as finding it overly challenging to meet one's work targets thus resulting in constant change of jobs, were usually symptoms of underlying emotional issues.
“If you feel unmotivated towards self-improvement or if you are generally unhappy with life and with people around you, you need to start looking into your emotional intelligence. You may find that once you can manage your emotions, you can manage anything in life,” he said.
Emotional intelligence or quotient (EQ), he explained, is a person's “emotional quality”. A person with a high EQ can handle his own emotions well and will be able to manage life well.
“Today, most people take the term EQ to mean one's social popularity or aptness. In actual fact, EQ incorporates a multitude of human capabilities.
“Under the rubric of EQ lies the complexity of a person's competencies to demonstrate intelligent use of emotions for self-management and social integration. People with a positive and high emotional quality are usually popular and are generally happy,” he added.
Another important quality necessary for attaining personal life goals is the ability to suppress the desire for immediate gratifications, an aspect of EQ, stressed Dr Zeng.
He cites author J.K. Rowling who wrote Harry Potter as an example:
“She was divorced, lived with her daughter under public assistance in a tiny apartment and her first book was rejected by 10 publishers. Despite the setbacks, her persistence in pursuing her goal led her to become the best selling author in literary history,”
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If you have too much to do and too little time in which to do it; find that the demands of others for your time are in conflict; or spend much of your time fighting "fires," you are probably experiencing excessive stress.
Managers ranked these three situations as the top job-related stressful situations across the country in a study conducted by John Adams, a Washington, D.C., consultant specializing in stress.
The right amount of stress can be a productive source of energy for getting things done, but finding
the right balance is often difficult.
Stress can cause us to "burn out" in a high-pressure job, but "rusting out" in a boring, stagnant one can be just as stressful.
According to some recent research, the stress we experience daily can have a more disastrous, cumulative effect on our health and productivity than an occasional but extremely stressful situation like a death in the family or losing your job.
"But I don't have time to manage stress!" "My stress comes from factors I can't control, so there's nothing I can do about it!"
Sound familiar? It's not surprising.
Most people think that stress management has to involve a large scale lifestyle or job change. (Indeed, in some cases it may be necessary.) But there are little things ail of us can do to relieve the daily stress we must live with.
Managers studied by Adams and others, who have successfully managed their own stress levels, have found several coping strategies that work for them. None of the following techniques takes a great deal of time, but they all require a strong, personal commitment. Decide for yourself.
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Motivation is a word used to refer to the reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. These reasons may include basic needs such as food or a desired object, goal, state of being, or ideal. The motivation for a behavior may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality. According to Geen, motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior.
So what motivates you? Certainly, you need some intelligence, knowledge base, study skills, and time management skills, but if you don't have motivation, you won't get far.
Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. Spiritual matters are those involving humankind's ultimate nature, not merely as material biological organisms, but as spirits with a connected relationship to that which is beyond both time and the material world. As such the spiritual has traditionally been contrasted with the physical and the earthly. A perceived sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to a metaphysical reality greater than oneself, which may include an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence, or such states as satori or Nirvana. Equally importantly, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Spirituality is the personal, subjective dimension of religion, particularly that which pertains to liberation or salvation
Combined the Motivation & Spirituality and go to unlimited success.............
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