The Great Team Player Hoax

Are you a team player? What about the folks on your staff? In Higher Ed, a team player is the person who goes above and beyond their own job to pitch in where necessary to make sure things are working as smoothly as possible, right? They come in early, stay late, and pick up the slack when necessary. The more of those team players you have, the more likely you have a winning team. At least, that's what we tell ourselves. 

In reality, we're constantly asking our strongest players to stop focusing on their own role so they can cover for systemic problems within the institution and our departments. When you look at athletes, the MVPs are the people who invest in doing what they do best in their role - not running around the field or court trying to "help" and do other people's jobs. Yes, they work with each other to achieve their goals, but they stay in their lane. 

In this episode, I talk about how damaging this team player hoax is both for individuals and your overall team. There are too many of our most valuable team members getting injured and run down because they're trying to be "team players." If we want to create more wins for Higher Ed, we need to rethink this concept. Our staff and our students depend on it. 

When supervisors aren't being effective, teams aren't being effective. Unfortunately, most supervisors don't get the training and support they need to be successful. That's why we created the Supervisor Strengths Institute.

Join us for the Fall 2025 Cohort starting on Thursday, September 25th!

You'll get eight weeks of powerful online content, designed to help you better understand yourself, your talents, and how to better manage your team. This program combines online learning with weekly cohort calls to discuss the content. Plus, you get one individual coaching call to let you focus on the things that matter to you the most.

Get more information about the Institute and Register here - https://learn.strengthsuniversity.org/Institute

Have questions? Email Anne at [email protected] or set up a meeting with her HERE.

Want more information about Strengths University? Check out our website at https://www.strengthsuniversity.org/