Workplace is generally, a bigger picture that everyone sees from the outside. But if we took our time to take a closer look into it, it’s basically a team. Yes, a team. Being assigned to a group in some school projects back in our high school days is in fact, almost the reality we are facing in our everyday lives now as adults –because at work, we are naturally divided into these so called teams. To those who think they’re better off working by themselves because they don’t want to adjust to others’ uniqueness, well let’s face it, there’s no such thing like that in the world right now. Then again, what kind of a team member am I exactly? Some might wonder.
What makes a great team? Does having a group of people with the exact high capability, interests and thoughts help? I personally think that it does not. In fact, I often find myself realizing how a good team does not have to have all ‘Superman’s as the members. Each member’s individual strength and weakness make up for each other in order to really have a good dynamic as a team.
In this occasion, I would like to take The Avengers as an example. A group of such powerful super humans, whose sole mission is to save the world. Take a look at them, and we’ll see that everyone is different in their own way, yet their differences bring them all together and lead them towards success in every episode.
ONE is better than one
The very first thing we could learn from The Avengers is that “ONE is better than one”. One team is better than one person. This –of course– would be different from saying “Five is better than one.”
Turning 5 individuals into one, solid group is very difficult. This is where all members should put their respective egos aside, and trust one another.
For the Avengers (and for us –surely), this isn’t much of an easy feat either. Captain America and Iron Man, for example, often have different perspectives/views on things –and we see that compromise doesn’t come easy even in their case. That being said, they respect and trust one another, because they can see the value each of them brings to the table. When things get crazy hard and they really need to work together, they instantly unite and work simultaneously to run their mission, setting their differences aside and focusing on that one, common goal.
As a member of a team, it is only natural that we come across days where it seems like we need to step up and take over another member’s job. It’s good to be initiative, don’t get me wrong, but in this case, it isn’t right. Being in a team truly teaches us how to accept that things may not run as smoothly as we want them to, and people may make mistakes –and it’s our job as a team member not to step up and outshine the others but instead support and offer them a solution at those times. Because a huge part of becoming successful is simply –to become a part of a team, and focus on playing ONE specific role, rather than trying to do everything yourself.
This is very much like the Avengers, where every member of the team serves a different purpose. At a macro bigger level, Iron Man is the brains but also Tony –the man behind it is also narcissistic –super egoistical. He thinks he is special and superior, but in many ways (rather unfortunately) he’s right. Tony has the ENTP (Extraversion, Intuition, Thinking, Perception) personality; Captain is the moral center, he always honor commitments. Steve on the other hand is ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging); Hulk is the muscle; Thor has a very wide knowledge about things from the outside world, with an ESFP (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Perception) personality; Black Widow and Hawkeye brings all sorts of espionage to the table. And they all have a role …but NO ONE Avenger is more important than the others.
If you’re not bound by ego, watching people do things differently is more of an honor than a burden; you just have to be open minded and trust the members of your team, even if they do things that you haven’t done. Having an understanding of the other facets helps tremendously, but at the end of the day being part of a team means just doing your job—not all the jobs.
The lesson here is this: in life, you can’t be good at everything—but you can find people who are good at what you’re not. If you surround yourself with people who help shore up your weaknesses, you’re going to be more successful overall.
We are thankful that in our Godrej environment there are countless support to us leaders to understand each role we are assigned to, therefore making it easier to synergize in a team to achieve our common goal.
Like they said, TEAM : Together Everyone Achieve More.
