Category: Leading People

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player 

This month’s “Hall of Faith” hero focus is Rahab.  You could consider Rahab a team player from Israel’s perspective or not a team player from Jericho’s perspective.

So, what does a team player look like?

John Maxwell describes The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player in his 20-year-old book by that title.

As the saying goes, “You can lose with good players, but you cannot win without them.” If you want to have a better team, you must develop better players. Great team players, like great teams, are formed from the inside out. If you develop a team that exemplifies these qualities, you will have an unstoppable team.

The qualities John teaches in this book quickly take you to the heart of teamwork and are as applicable in the office as they are on the playing field or in a volunteer organization.

Click here to learn The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player

Leading Leaders by Mickey Addison

On this Memorial Day 2021, it’s time to pause and reflect on military heroes who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

I chose to highlight Mickey Addison’s book Leading Leaders: Inspiring, Empowering, and Motivating Teams because he describes it as a distillation of his experience leading people over a lifetime, in sports, Scouts, volunteer work, and 26 years as an Air Force officer.

Addison points out that only leaders who understand the relationship between them and their team, and then step up and lead, will ever be able to produce high performance in their organizations.

He points out that the foundation of any excellent organization is an excellent leader or leadership team.  As the late Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys’ head coach, once put it, “The art of leadership is to get people to do what they don’t want to do to achieve what they want to achieve.”

Good leaders get all their people, resources, and partners moving in the same direction.

Character—or who a person truly is as a human being, what he values, and how he approaches life—is the foundation of a leader’s success.  Character is composed of five elements, or “bricks,” that, assembled from that foundation, a leader can use to get his team to the next level. The “bricks” in this solid foundation are (1) Integrity, (2) Respect, (3) Leaders Lead, (4) Teamwork, and (5) Little Things Matter.

Click here to learn more from Mickey Addison on inspiring, empowering, and motivating teams