On being a teammate.

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? So for the very first time, I am working with a team at work. I'm not just freelancing on my own, I have a few people with whom I do multiple projects, right? They're the team that I'm working with, and that is something that is brand new to me.

[00:00:35] You know, the biggest team I've had for consistent projects before was maybe two people, three people at most, but they were on a project by project basis. Yes, some of those people worked on me with on multiple projects, but ultimately, they weren't a part of my team. It wasn't like a capital T [00:01:00] Team, like the kind that I am working with right now.

[00:01:04] And that is an experience that I explicitly went and sought out, right? Because I saw that this was a hole in my professional career. And so I've been thinking about, you know, what makes a person a good team player at work? Which is similar to being a good team player in other parts of your life and in other ways a little bit different.

[00:01:29] One of the things obviously is you have to be a good listener, right? Uh, listening to other people very actively, you know, and paying attention to those details, that's really important. Um, being able to accept when you make a mistake and own up to it. I think that is, something that can be a little bit hard to do, but is really important when you are in a team because you know we all work better when we are all [00:02:00] willing to realize our mistakes and commit to improving them.

[00:02:05] So that's something I've been thinking a lot about and I've been thinking about how, you have to be cognizant of the fact that not everyone in your team is at the same place at the same time. That's really important. It's really great when everyone's on the exact same page. Everyone has the same level of technical know-how, everyone has the same level of adaptability, but the reality is a team is comprised of multiple different types of people, and there's no guarantee that all of you are on the same page about everything, all the time.

[00:02:41] In fact, if that was the case, I think it would be kind of boring. So in line with the kind of things that I often talk about, you know, the concept of being excellent to each other, being kind to yourself and to the people around you. And you know, always trying to be a little bit better today [00:03:00] than I was yesterday type of thing.

[00:03:02] I've been thinking about how we need to be cognizant that when we are creating change, when we are introducing new concepts, when we are, you know, figuring out how to improve as a team, there will be times when people are not quite so ready to let go of how things were before and that doesn't mean that they're not adaptable.

[00:03:32] We are all some different level of adaptable, and we are able to adapt to some situations faster than others. Right? And a little bit of grace is needed when that happens. You know, give the other person, give yourself even – the room to have your feelings because you might have some feelings about the change or the new thing or the differences that are coming into play.

[00:03:59] [00:04:00] And once you've had your feelings, once you have given your teammates space to have their feelings, then you can move forward and, you know, affect that change or try that new thing you wanna do or create that new system. But ultimately, maybe the biggest important thing about being a teammate is recognizing that other people are different from you.

[00:04:27] Remembering that actively and coming at the situation, whatever it may be, with a lot of grace and a lot of kindness, not only for them, but for yourself too. So that's a little bit what I have been thinking about today. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.