Culture Corner: Humble, Hungry & Smart
There’s a saying, “Teamwork makes the Dreamwork,” so, what makes you a good team player? Chances are you can list off several things, but there’s always room to grow, right? Our challenge today is to see if you’re humble, hungry, and smart.
You may be wondering what we mean by humble, hungry and smart, Patrick Lencioni, a team/business management expert gave a TEDx talk about just that – what it takes to be an ideal team player. Lencioni narrows it down to three virtues, challenging each one of us to self-evaluate and ask, am I humble, hungry and smart?
·Humility – If you want to be successful, be humble, don’t let pride get in your way. Check your ego at the door.
·Hungry – Work hard at all you do. We need to be hungry (have a strong work ethic) to get the job done. Engage in your work.
·Be Smart – Check your Emotional Intelligence, someone with a strong EI understands how their actions impact others.
We all have room to develop and grow so if you need to do some work in one or more of the areas above, here are a few ideas to get your started. To become humbler, take an interest in others (be “others” centered) ask questions about them and listen. Before you walk away from work for the day, be hungry, ask if there’s more to be done. Finally, to be smarter about your conversations with others, talk it out, it’s okay to ask if you’ve upset someone and if you have, learn from it.
When we desire to become the ideal team player, it not only impacts our day to day, but it is key to our entire team. Effective teamwork achieves much more than any individual can and that paves the way for Teamwork that makes the Dreamwork!
Click here if you’d like to see the full TEDx Talk.
