Team Dynamics

"If you can't pass [the ball], you can't play" - Coach Dean Smith to a freshman varsity player.

Characteristics that define an individual manifests when working within a team. Determining a person's personality, either good or bad, can influence the outcome of the team's efforts. Unfavorable characteristics expose the so called non-team players. These adverse qualities of non-team players do not always mean a person cannot work in teams. Learning to analyze them can help turn these characters to produce positive results for the team. The process of determining these non-team player attributes is just an exercise. An exercise that challenges each member to analyze the different personalities presented in each team that he or she will be working with.

Working with teams gives a great deal of advantages to the members. Collaborating ideas from team members makes the result, more often than not, better than a single person's own work. Of course, this depends on the kind of personality or behavior a person brings in to the table. According to Temme and Katzel (1995) assigning of teams within companies and hoping to earn favorable results is something that does not happen overnight. It involves changes in the behavior within the company, from the management down to its employees. Whichever type of team a person is in, the type of personality that he or she will bring in affects the whole team itself. Take for example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; a group of crime fighting turtles that were animated when a radioactive ooze accidentally poured over them in a sewer. Part of their success in the business is their teammate and leader named Splinter. Splinter brings in the type of personality that they need for the kind of job they are doing and thus the outcome is on their favor. Another group is the hobbits in the movie Lord of the Rings. These hobbits are to travel to a mountain and destroy the ring that brings chaos to their world. The person who is to show them the way to get there is this part-human, part monster named Gollum. Their road to this mountain turned out to be a tough one, thanks to the imbalanced personality that Gollum presented to the team.

Having known how important personality types are to the team's outcome let us examine the traits or the doings of the people who can still work in groups but would truly rather work alone. A basic team structure comprises of a leader and team members. A strong leader is a change maker and should have three strong attributes including ability, strength and character (Robinson, 2007). They should be able to motivate the group and possess the necessary skills to bring the team into a consensus. Team members on the other hand, should listen and respect the leader. The opposite is true with the non-team players. Although they can play the part of a leader or one of the members, he or she treats the team as a competition. They thrive in outshining the other member. When other team mates are sharing ideas, they would rather keep theirs to themselves. Participation is scarce, much less cooperation. They are rather reserve and have their own agenda brewing in their heads. How can I outperform these guys? Should I even share my idea? These are some of the questions that linger in their heads.

Examining further, the types of personalities that executes these deeds are the following; individualist, introverts and skeptics. These types of characters, when brought to the team can have a bad impact on the groups work. "Individualism is a point of view that emphasizes the value of the individual over society" (Macmillan Reference USA, 2003). Individualists give more importance to their own ideas rather than the group's. This can also be distinguished by having the Alpha male attitude. These types of individuals can be great leaders but might not thrive in groups because they are not open to new ideas. They can communicate their own ideas well but are closed minded when it comes to sharing opinion. They think their ideas are the greatest and therefore, the group should follow it. According to a research done by Lord (2003) "society has become more individualized as more fragmented social structures" (p. 19). That means individualist are more prominent in our society than ever.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia (2000), "an introvert directs activities inward upon himself or herself" (p. 13144). These are the people who like to do things on their own. They thrive in the idea of working alone. They might be forced to work in groups but they tend to keep their thoughts to themselves. Having a great idea or solution to a problem might be a good time