(855) 556-4677 www.azcomp.com www.azcomp.com/it-solutions
JANUARY 2018
Empowering Small Practices To Deliver The Best Care
IT
WE CHECK OUR EGOS AT THE DOOR A Lesson in Teamwork
Given that we live in Arizona, there’s not much need for a coat check at our office. Nevertheless, there is one thing that every member of our team needs to hang up before they start work — their ego. In fact, our fourth core value is “we check our egos at the door.” I don’t need to go into a lot of detail explaining what this means to us. When you come to work, you can’t be an egotistical jerk. Our goal is to work as a team and do the best for our customers. That’s it. The core value may not be the most clever or original, but I was recently at an event where I realized just how powerful its meaning is. I traveled to Orlando for a conference called IT Nation. The keynote speaker there was the author Patrick Lencioni. I didn’t know much about him, but I came away super impressed. Not only was he funny and engaging, but he also taught me a few principles about teamwork that ended up relating to our aforementioned core value. Lencioni’s latest book is called “The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues,” and these virtues were the subject of his keynote address. On the surface, they may seem self-evident or obvious, but when you really think about them, you realize just how essential they are to creating an ideal team environment. As I was thinking about them on the flight back home, I realized you need to check your ego at the door to achieve each of them. The ideal team player, Lencioni told us, is humble, hungry, and smart. Humility is the most important virtue. The ultimate foundation of a team player is willingness to put the team’s interests above you own, and only a humble person can do this effectively. Humility allows you to put your own self-interest aside in favor of doing what’s best for
the team. A selfish person wants all the accolades and none of the blame. A humble person, on the other hand, always ask what they can do for others. They know that they’ll grow most when they work with their colleagues. Hunger relates to drive, passion, and the willingness to go above and beyond. Egotistical people lack hunger because they are self- satisfied. When you think yourself above others, you have no reason to better yourself. Hunger, then, goes hand-in-hand with humility. If you have the humility to assume you have room for improvement, you’ll have the hunger to improve. Finally, Lencioni doesn’t mean smart in the sense of having skills or a degree. Mostly, he’s talking about emotional intelligence. A good team player is smart enough to recognize the needs of others on their team and communicate effectively with multiples types of people. Obviously, this type of intelligence also stems from humility. An egomaniac communicates only on their own terms. If you can’t keep up with them, it’s your fault. They have no time for emotional intelligence or understanding communication styles. The humble team player thinks in the opposite way. They seek to communicate in a way that helps everyone. We all work in teams, regardless of what our position or status is. It stands to reason that we can all benefit from being a better team player. When you combine these virtues and check your ego at the door, you have the recipe for contributing to any team. Be humble enough to ask yourself how you can improve, and have the hunger to do it. Your teammates will thank you! Benson Bashford
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