There is no 'I' in team (but there is a 'me')

I know, I know, what a groaner for a topic.

We've all heard the above adage sometime in our lives. To be honest, I always ignored it. I used to hate participating in team activities. I mean, I would get stuck with some slackers who always let others do the work. Why work in a team when I can work more better by myself? Right?

Wrong. I'll tell you why:

Team work is an essential part of life. Anything you do professionally comes from team work. Huge, insurmountable tasks cannot be accomplished with team work. TV newscasts, public relations plans, retail operations and dozens of other things could never be done.

Lack of team work leads to little or no progress. The Gulf oil spill? Suffering from a lack of coordination and team work. Can you imagine the progress BP, the government, environmental groups and others could make if they worked together? BP is going solo and, unfortunately, making the situation exponentially worse.

Team work leads to new ideas. I cannot count how many times I thought I had the best plan in the world, only to have it refined and made better by my team. For editing, a team will catch errors you just glossed over. A team will make tasks faster and on-point.

Why am I pontificating over team work?

Well, a visit to Ruder Finn changed my perspective. One of the senior account executives talked about the world of public relations. He emphasized the word 'team.' You need to be a good team player to get anywhere. If you don't work well on a team, why would anyone want you on their own?

I hated team work because I always focused on the negatives. Realistically, you will have people who don't try as hard. You will have people who don't pull their own weight. But you know what, that's life. The benefits of team work completely outweigh the negatives. You learn so much and grow as a person.

There is no 'I' in team. You need to be the 'me' in team. Turn that 'm' upside down and be the 'we.'

We is team.