One of the biggest challenges we face on a daily basis as university students is who to trust. One of my professors once said that most of college is just going to class and toxic relationships. Whether it be friends or partners or somewhere in between, it is a constant discussion about who the real ones are. But the ones that we don’t talk about enough are the teammates. Frequently, as almost-professional we have to team up with people to work together on assignments, presentations, research, and a lot of other things. It is an uncharted dynamic with them, especially in the initial stages, where you do not want to be friends, and making it too professional just gets awkward. Obviously an ideal teammate is someone with whom you can get the job done perfectly and efficiently. For that, you must look at both your academic and occupational prowesses. The best kind of person for the job would be someone whose strengths, skills and interests can complement yours and hence, your teamwork can bring out the best results.
Although, life is tricky and finding the right people is not so straightforward. You can easily find people that have complementary personalities to yours, since the beauty of our world is that no two people are the exact same. We all have our own unique areas of expertise and rooms left for improvement. But, sometimes, even though it seems like you have found the right teammate in theory, reality turns out to disappoint you, and you cannot quite put your finger on what is wrong.
After collaborating with different people on different projects, I have come up with a checklist of traits to look for in my ideal teammate. And to make life easier for you all, after making mine easier, I am sharing this quick list.
- Open-mindedness and Optimism: it implies a readiness to adapt in unexpected situations. When kick-starting a project or a venture, we can know only so much, most of the situations and problems of the future inevitably have to be assumed. A positive, open-minded person understands the importance of adaptability, and maintains their faith in the cause.
- Innovativeness and Creativity: being adaptable to unforeseen challenges should be the primary significant trait of your ideal teammate. The secondary, after that, is being able to think out-of-the box. Most of the time “crazy ideas” are too crazy to implement in real life. But, with the minds of two creative thinkers on one project, and with hundreds of crazy ideas, it is possible to draw out at least one idea—if not a few—that will not only work and be a success but also be practically applicable in the real world.
- Passion and excitement for the goal: considering that you find a teammate possessing all the above-mentioned qualities, but they are not passionate about the same cause as you then their presence would be almost just as valuable as a presence who does not possess those traits. If my teammate does not understand our mission and goal, both intellectually and emotionally, then their input would not be a display of their own full potential.
- Patience: good things take time. I need a teammate who is able to, along with doing their best during the exciting parts of the journey, do their best during the boring parts of it too. Once you sow the seeds, you have to be patient and consistent with the watering and fertilizing of the field before you can reap the fruits of your hard-work.
- Punctuality: An individual’s commitment, priority, and discipline can all be judged by their punctuality.
- Transparent communication: every input is valuable in the way that every person is valuable. Whatever might be on a person’s mind, should be communicated without the fear of judgment. Similarly, there should be an environment within the team where nobody feels hesitant to talk about their ideas, feelings, or concerns. Your teammate must believes in the prominence of transparency of dialogues and intentionally put in effort to foster a community that is well conversed amongst themselves.
I hope this guide is useful to all the ambitious, women-with-a-plan reading this. And I hope this saves a lot of your time and efforts in the future being confused and unsure about the qualities you want in a work-partner.