Wanted: Team Players

We are always on the lookout for good coworkers, whether full-time, part-time, or volunteers. Besides loving God and people, both fellow Christians and non-believers, one of the criteria we use is that they be team-players. What does that mean? While people have different definitions, to us it means at least 5 things:

1. He must be honest and trustworthy. Of course being able or smart is good, but what good is his ability if you can’t trust him. In fact, the smarter an untrustworthy person is, the more cautious you need to become.

2. He must appreciate others work styles, and not insists his way is the only way. Some people consider his way is the best and all others are not good. That may be true sometimes, but it puts down all his colleagues and won’t enhance relationships.

3. He avoids politics. Some promote only themselves, self-aggrandizement at others’ expense. Others put their own interest ahead of the well-being of the community. That’s a no-no. They need to put others ahead of themselves.

4. He adapts quickly. Some are stubborn but label themselves as having strong convictions. But names don’t fool those who are discerning. We need people strong on principles but flexible in methods. Rigidity does not help anyone.

5. He meets deadline. Team members depend on each other doing their part on time. We don’t want people who are always the bottleneck and hold everybody up. Good team players do that.

Others believe a team player must be a Teachable, Energetic, Achiever and Mission-focused. These are good leadership qualities but the above should be minimum requirements.