Team Player

Some people are instinctively turned off by "team" talk. They have worked in environments where the PointyHairedBoss would say "you're not a team player" whenever they resisted his efforts to keep them down.

Q: What does one do when members of the team refuse to help with parts of the dataflow?

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A team worker

More than once in interviews I've been asked "are you a team player?" These days I answer "No, I'm not. But I am a team worker." A recruiter's response to this line can be very illuminating. -- KeithBraithwaite

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What are team players?

The very term "team player" is misleading. By definition, a team player is one who desires and is able to work cooperatively with other people to achieve the team's goals. Labeling someone a "team player" assumes that there is some fundamental part of their character that makes them effective in any team they are plopped into. What's missing is a realization that a person's values and the organization's values have to be aligned before a person can work effectively in that organization. In other words, DrMartinLutherKingJr? would have been a horrible "team player" in a KKK meeting, but labeling him as NotaTeamPlayer is ridiculous. -- AnonymousCoward

I'm not so sure... how often are really great leaders "team players"?

  if (badSituation)
  TeamPlayer = Conformist;
  else TeamPlayer = CommittedToTheCause;

Depending on context, of course.

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[some trolling deleted]