Imagine you are in a rowboat, moving across the water, and you are tasked with powering one of the oars on one side of the boat. The other team members are also responsible for powering their own oars. Together, you will move your ship toward completing whatever destination the team has set forth to accomplish. Unless you all work together and as a team, you will have difficulty finding success. The best teams learn to row the boat in the same direction and with the same purpose in mind.  That is how successful organizations are run.  That is how winning in a group setting is done.  Why do so many fail?

Individuality Sinks the Boat

Our society praises the individual. We look for ways to ensure everyone knows we are the best, but in a team setting, having talent alone without a team accomplishment mindset will make reaching team goals very difficult. It doesn’t matter how strong you row your oar if you overpower your counterpart on the other side.

All you will accomplish is moving in a circle. Row even harder by yourself, and you will succeed in completing the process even faster.

The thing to consider is not yourself, your accomplishment, or your recognition, but the team goal’s accomplishment. And that involves assessing all your team members’ strengths and weaknesses. A great leader will create an atmosphere of cooperation to complete a common goal and develop a mindset of working on completing that goal as the primary focus. The best teams have an unselfish attitude and offer substantial compensation for working with their partners to maximize the team effort over their own. When the team wins, everybody wins.

No Clear Intention Is an Anchor

When you have no clear idea of your goal, it will make no difference what type of strength your team has. With no clear direction or destination, they will move powerfully in many directions and sometimes do positive things and achieve

great results. But equally will achieve poor results and mediocre performance.  Providing a clear roadmap to a team’s goals is the job of leadership. With it, a team can build toward that common purpose. Without it, they are lost.

Each organization needs to take the time to write down precisely the results they want to accomplish and be clear about the methods each team member has to contribute to bringing you to that point. Without clear leadership, any boat you are rowing is tied to a heavy anchor and will go nowhere permanently positive. Pulling up that serious detriment is as simple as ensuring all team members understand the task and what success looks like.

No One Cares About The Credit

I have always been amazed at what people can accomplish when nobody worries about who gets the credit. Taking the focus away from yourself and personal achievement and placing it on team goals and accomplishments seems to be the best way to bring a group to their highest achievement level.  But why is it this so challenging to accomplish at work or in working with any group? Why do we

struggle to put our egoic ideas aside and reach for accomplishment with others.

Our conditioning is the answer. We all have personal desires, goals, and thoughts about what we need to do, how we need to behave, and what we need to achieve for ourselves to be considered a success. I think striving for recognition, money, fame, or anything else is fine, but when you are overly attached to that thing, whatever it is, you will lose your way.  The crew on the rowboat will not function as a unit if your primary concern is how you are recognized or what you get out of the experience to further your cause. When focusing on achieving a positive result, all recognition and success take care of themselves.

See How You Row

Look at the many boats you are putting your effort into today. In your relationships, family, hobbies, and work-life. Are you rowing in a team concept? Where is your

focus? What attachments control how you view results, activities, and progress? Look at your efforts and decide if you and those you are close to and work with are rowing the boat in the same direction and for the same purpose.  If the answer is no, then there needs to be an adjustment somewhere, or success will be complicated to come by. Being aware of how you rowing is the first step in leadership and paving the road to success in anything you do. Move your focus from yourself to the goal of your desire to achieve.

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” –Michael Jordan

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Andrew Carnegie

“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” –Helen Keller

“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” –Patrick Lencioni

“I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.” –Jean-Francois Cope

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” –Ken Blanchard