Five elements necessary to be and remain a Most Valuable Team Player (MVTP) of your team.
What does it take to be a Most Valuable Team Player? This article names five elements necessary to be the Most Valuable Team Player (MVTP) of your team in today’s challenging environment. It asks you to start with the right mindset.
The right mindset
Joan was a welcome sight when she arrived. My small, windowless office was in the core of a 1,000-bed medical center where we both worked. The drab November day outside had affected my mood inside. Joan was an emergency room nurse. She was 30ish, had a solid athletic build, wore blue scrubs, had a calm demeanor, and pleasant smile. She handed me a Coke. Wow! She surprised me, and immediately brightened my mood. Joan is my best example of a Most Valuable Team Player (MVTP).
I had already shared deep concerns with Joan about our current rapid response plan for managing tragic accidents if they should occur outside our door. She sensed I was anxious. When she arrived and offered me a Coke, she calmed me down with a small act of kindness. We went on to collaborate, to strategize, and resolve the issues at hand. Amazing! In a subtle way, Joan was doing what MVTPs do. She sensed my personal need at that moment. She treated me as a human being. She met my need in a kind way that let me perform in a superior way.
Being a MVTP does not come easy. From Joan and others, I learned five key elements of what it takes. The first is having the right mindset
Joan had the right mindset, and not just for working with me. When her work situations seemed surreal, she could stay calm and see the dark humor in the moment. She and her team expected the unexpected. On a Saturday night there might be gunshots, stabbings, child abuse, and if you can believe it, worse. Joan and her team were ready. They had action plans for specific traumas, with procedures to prevent confusion when a patient came through the door.
From Joan I learned lessons that can be applied to all businesses:
• Be clear about why we are a team:
ER staff are clear about what they must do (treat the emergency), and what they refer on to others (Intensive care, inpatient care)
• Put the customer first and do what is best:
ER staff are famous for resolving personal drama outside of the hospital, and working long hours focused as a team on resolving the critical needs of their patients
• Be proactive:
Adapt people, process, and state-of-the-art technology to plan for both the expected and unexpected. (Extensive data entry is still a challenge that needs to be resolved.)
• Note that kindness along the way (that Coke) lessens the anxiety!
Treat the person before you treat their problem.
Collaborate with other teams
Jennifer Fondrevay is my friend and colleague. Jennifer’s book, Now What: A Survivors Guide to Thriving through Mergers and Acquisitions, Cortado Press, Chicago, 2019, supplies a template for being successful in a merger and acquisition environment. As part of her guide, she addresses the importance of collaborating with people outside our own team.
To paraphrase Jennifer, in order to serve our customers, we need to cooperate with different teams within our organization, with our vendors, and with our community. Specifically, we need to:
• Learn the language of the other teams to understand their culture
• Work with people on those other teams who are responsible, accountable, willing to consultant, and are informed, and
• Except that all teams have:
• their own insecurities, issues, shortcomings;
• their own strengths; and
• Accept that the different teams need each other to serve the customer.
*pp. 170-171.
Guidance like this has enhanced Jennifer’s reputation as her clients’ Chief Humanity Officer.
Be clear about your team purpose
Cathy “Fitz” Fitzhenry always presents what she is doing in her business as an adventure. That is her talent. She is clear about who she is, why she’s doing what she’s doing, how she is doing it, and what results she expects to achieve. She frames all of this as her current adventure. She shares this adventure with everyone she meets. She gets people to join her. Today, Fitz would tell you to share your team’s adventure and your joint talent in a clear and compelling way…with everyone you meet. Here are five ideas on how to share your adventure:
Make your interests known
• make it clear to the team that you want the best for your customers and team
• connect the dots between each team member’s role in serving the customers’ needs
Advocate for what you are doing
• share stories; give examples of Challenges you faced, Action you took, Results achieved, and Skills you have gained for resolving the challenges ahead (CARS)
• Sharing your stories will help team members become leaders as well.
Bridge the gap, take initiative
• Joan, Jennifer, and Cathy are examples of team leaders who have a unique perspective, take initiative, and do the things that are most important. …even if it is just bringing a Coke to a frustrated colleague.
Adapt your style to meet the need
• Positive psychology believes that there are no bad team members, only inflexible leaders. You don’t need to be inauthentic or compromise. Observe your teammates, be flexible, and cater to the other person’s needs.
Ask yourself questions
• People are team members for a reason, sometimes just for a season, and sometimes for the long haul. Asking what is important to you and your team for the long haul will let you be clear about why you’re building specific team skills.
• Asking why you are doing what you are doing for the team right now will result in more energy that all of you can contribute right now.
Demonstrate Healthy Team Agreements
All organizations, including small teams, come up with agreements that govern behavior. As organization, customer, vendor, and community needs change, so do the agreements. Jennifer Fondrevay supplies recommendations for developing and proving solid team agreements, which she addresses in her chapter on politics.
• Be known for your steadiness and what you can contribute (to the team and to the customers), p. 186
• Focus on that make you stronger together as a team.
You are stronger together than you are alone, and as a group, you have a much greater power to lift others up. Help your direct reports leverage their skills and talents, especially as it relates the vision…You will witness a lot of imperfect behavior…. It is especially important keep this in mind when things get hard… As individuals and as employees, we are stronger together than we are alone, even with our imperfections. Page 183 – 6.
Thriving as a MVTP!
Think about it, I suspect you have already been a successful MVTP. “” Remember a time when you did a positive act that moved a team from dysfunction to functional.”” (Your family counts as a team.) Recall what was going wrong and what you did to fix it. That qualifies you for a MVTP nomination! Here are additional recommendations and questions from successful MVTPs that will allow you to continue to thrive in your continuing role.
Keep “upskilling” teambuilding skills
…even when you are too busy. MVTPs are always working on a professional development goal.
What professional skill do you want to work on?
How can you practice it while you work on what is needed?
Be a solution-based person
Be a problem solver. Ask:
What things do I have control over?
What actions can we take to solve this situation?
Make sure your teammates understand your intention
Connect the dots between your values, mission, vision, and the activity that you and your teammates are currently involved in. Make clear why it is valuable. Don’t assume they know that or what you need them to do.
Be patient with your teammates
What can you do to be the best version of yourself when times are tough?
Your teammates are likely to follow your kindness.
Build your resilience
Tennis players find a way to rest and breathe deeply between serves. They recenter and prepare for the next challenge. What can you do to breath and recharge as you move through your team challenge?
Find effective ways to manage your stress
Stress management is an entire field of study. You can access articles and videos, and multiple experts with websites. The trick is to find what works best for you in your different environments and your stress triggers. My favorite Stress Buster is Belly Breathing. This is where you stop breathing from your chest or rib cage and start breathing from your belly or diaphragm. You can become conscious of your belly expanding as you breathe in and contracting as you breathe out. This causes you to physically get out of your head quickly and into your body. You can give yourself a short vacation while sitting at a desk, standing, or walking. What is your favorite way to manage your stress?
It takes a relationship to do business. The more important the business, the stronger the relationship needs to be. Being a MVTP requires that you focus on the relationship with the people that are doing the job. Addressing their humanity and wisdom supports team success. Joan did that for me with a quick, simple act of kindness.
Be a role model for successful team behavior. Demonstrate the agreements you and your team have made. Help others do the same. This is how you become a MVTP, and the best version of yourself!
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution.
Challenging Leaders to solve the Right problems by asking the Right questions!