Don't be a Lone Ranger

tonto-and-the-lone-ranger-19942-1920x1080

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” Helen Keller

Can you think of someone who never asks for help and prefers to work alone?

Usually, they will be in situations where you could easily help them, but they don’t create room for people to help.

We’ve all been guilty of this from time to time. We think that we are better doing something alone, rather than asking for help or working with a group. Learning to working as a member of a team is very important as a part of your personal development.

Lone rangers may have occasional success but typically struggle with accomplishing long-term goals and sustaining success.

Here are some reasons why you should not be a lone ranger and some benefits of working with a team:

  1. Encourages Creativity and Learning

Innovation flourishes when individuals cooperate in a group. Brainstorming as a group eliminates stale perspectives that would go unchecked if working alone. Creating a collaborative perspective that incorporates the views of the team makes a good idea great.

Collaboration amplifies ideas and provides new points of view you can incorporate later.

  1. Teams encourage strength building

Working in teams gives people a chance to develop the strengths of the group by utilizing individual strengths. While your strengths might be that of the visionary, you will need the person who is gifted in administration to help you put a plan in place to help fulfill your vision. It’s important to allow everyone to have a voice and feel validated by respecting their unique contributions.  In doing so, you can identify each member’s strengths and assign tasks based on strengths.

  1. Builds Trust

Depending on other individuals requires trust. Trust and cooperation creates a bond of synergy that allows for the group to multiply in their effectiveness as opposed to working alone. Believing in your team helps create a culture that allows everyone to work through obstacles to get the job done. 

When there is no trust, the team will disintegrate.  One of the first signs of its demise is a breakdown in communication. High performing teams believe in each other, empower each other, develop each  other, and support each other at all times.

  1. Demonstrate Conflict Resolution Skills

Disagreements will always happen when you create a team of talented people. But disagreements are actually a sign of the team’s health. Though we want our team to work together, we also want everyone to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. We want people to be passionate about their point of view as long as the end result is to help the team accomplish it’s goal. Many times the issue isn’t a disagreement on the goal. It’s a disagreement on which path to take to get there.

Learning to embrace conflict as an opportunity allows for new creative ideas to be brought to light that would never happen if everyone just said yes to everything.

  1. Energizes Healthy Risk-Taking

Someone dealing with a venture alone will presumably be reluctant to stick his or her neck out because there is little to no support if they fail. Working with a team not only provides support, but shared risk if things don’t work out as expected.