Team work always pays

Robyn and Bruce know that there are always times when somebody in the team will reach a low point. In fact, during the race, everyone will hit the bottom at some point. When it happens, the team need to pick that person up and take some; of their load. Great team players are always willing to: help carry someone else’s bag. Now, that’s not a particularly earth shattering revelation.

Crucially, Robyn and Bruce know that the flip side is also true: great team players are also willing to let other people carry their bags. Although many athletes are willing to help others, they can be too proud to let somebody else help them. In adventure racing, this can have a very detrimental effect on the team. When people get tired, they slow down.

The team’s aim is to complete the course as quickly as possible, so slowing down doesn’t help. Those who are too proud to let others carry their bag inevitably slow the team down. As we get tired, our decision-making also tends to become compromised. Many people’s mood becomes negative, which can also have a negative impact on the team. Obviously, this is not just true in adventure racing.

I’m sure you’ll have seen examples of people who were unwilling to accept help and, as a consequence, slowed their team down. Robyn Benincasa’s formula for great team players is pretty simple: ’No ego. No blame.’
No ego:Before exploring how great team players operate with no ego, it's probably wise to understand what we mean by the term ’ego’.

One dictionary defines ego as, ’the "I" or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought. In this context, I am not suggesting that great team players have no sense of themselves, and that they cease to be thinking, feeling and willing individuals capable of distinguishing themselves from others. Interestingly, further definitions of the term ’ego’ also reveal that it is, ‘one’s image of oneself’.

It is this understanding of ego that leads us to talk of 'boosting our ego’, I tend to think of the ego as the part of our psyche concerned with how we present ourselves, how we’d like others to see us, and what we’d like them to think of us.

Have you ever noticed yourself thinking, I need to look good here, or I really don’t want to look bad? When our ego dominates, we might become concerned about how other people perceive us. This state of thinking can impact on our decision—making.

(By Simon Hartley, as published in ‘Stronger Together’)