We have a lot to learn from one another, in terms of academic and business. To me, a good team player is one who contributes, is willing to take and act on criticism, believes in healthy debate and, once an agreement is reached, works towards it as a team member, irrespective of his or her personal stand. I also believe that we must play different roles in different work groups.
While pursuing my bachelor’s degree, we worked in student groups and this allowed each of us to contribute as per our strengths and, at the same time, help others overcome their weaknesses. Our group studies involved debates and discussions, which were very beneficial; in fact, even a certain degree of disagreement is good because it acts as a channel for better ideas and solutions. I remember a time in school when we had to do a project with a team of classmates. We were supposed to come up with an idea for a business and set up everything about the business such as the name, type of business, how it would be managed and so on. There were four students in the group and we were able to get many different ideas about what type of business we should have and what the names would be. Each person was able to be in charge of different parts of assignment, and that way no one was required to do a large amount of work in a set time. Although we did get an A, there were some failures as well. Some students in the group were more willing to give input and weren’t afraid to speak up about their ideas. Others had to be pushed for ideas and tended to go along with what the others thought was a good decision even if they might not have agreed. Even when it was time to divvy of the work, there were discrepancies. I particularly didn’t like the idea of giving each person something different to do, only because some in the group didn’t really care about the project as much as others and I felt they weren’t trying their best on their part. It might have been better in my opinion to work