There is an I in team.
There is an I in team. And it’s not what you think.
Peter Drucker’s argument that “no I in team” creates trust and gets the task done, while valid, is missing a solid piece of context. The team is made up of human beings with varying levels of emotions, experiences, personal lives, moods we wake up with on any particular day, energy levels and the all-important blind spots.
Without solid individual self-awareness around the table, a “no I in team” environment would be hard to achieve.
What is self-awareness? According to the dictionary it is “conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.” It is the extent to which people are consciously aware of their interactions with others and of their internal states.
Self-awareness is a tough challenge, and I see it in my coaching practice all the time.
“To know yourself, you must sacrifice the illusion that you already do.” — Vironika Tugaleva
Try telling people that!
We all think we know ourselves, until we have a conversation with a coach who is throwing some powerful questions at us and we realize a fundamental truth: blind spots exist in every single one of us, myself included.
It’s easy to expect the best from others.
It’s easy to ask others to change.
It takes courage to take a hard look at ourselves. At our values, behaviours, thoughts and actions, what drives us and our decision-making and why we react the way we do. But until we observe our thought process, make the unconscious conscious and gain perspective, we will continue to get in the way of our own success, and that of the team we belong to.
We owe it to our teams to bring our best selves to the table.
“No matter what they tell you, it’s always a people problem.” A saying made famous by Gerald Weinberg. And while it may be controversial, at some point in your career, like me, this has been your experience.
This is why self-awareness in the workplace is crucial. It is particularly useful when working with others in a team. By discovering how we operate, we begin to understand how to adjust our behaviours for better results. Self-awareness arms us with a greater understanding of our reactions, better management of ourselves and others, the ability to adapt our behaviour, improve relationships and gain personal growth.
We all want to work in a “no I in team” environment, but without the individual commitments to increased self-awareness, I’m not certain it is possible.
For those still considering it a nice-to-have, Korn Ferry discovered that self-awareness directly impacts the financial performance of a business: “Companies with a higher rate of return (ROR) employ professionals who exhibit higher levels of self-awareness.”
People with a more accurate self-perception tend to perform better in the workplace as demonstrated by a study of the Royal Navy, which found that more self-aware leaders were better able to tailor their leadership style to the needs of the situation at hand, proving that flexibility and agility in leadership are possible.
The bottom line is you are only as effective as your level of self-awareness.
