Are you a team or just individuals?

Does it make a difference if you are a team or just a bunch of individuals?

For a time in my life I worked for an insurance agency. Yes, a group of people who sold life insurance in different areas of a larger territory. The General Agent had a tendency to pit one agent against the other in a competitive way in order to increase sales. In looking back it did not have an impact on me. I type that because if I was pitted against another agent it did not make any difference on my work ethic. What that means to you is that it didn’t work for me in a number of ways. Number 1 – I knew that their other agent’s territory was different than mine. Number 2 – I believed that the actions of the General Agent were not bringing the agents together as a team.

You may wonder if this is ‘sour grapes’ or that I am complaining because I was not successful in this industry. Well for your information it was at this time that I realized that no one else was going to do anything for me so I blocked out all distractions and applied myself. The result was that I qualified for The Million Dollar Round Table, which at the time encompassed only 5 percent of the world’s life insurance and financial services professionals qualifying for this. So as you can tell I am not complaining.

So let’s get back to; are you a team or a bunch of individuals. What is the difference?

I believe that a group of individuals are formed for a reason. While a team comes together to accomplish a specific goal. Yes they are very subtle differences. To take this further, let’s look at the leader of a team or a group. In a group the leader is very dominant and gives directives. While the leader of a team acts a channel to improve the team members and move them in an upward personal growth spiral, then the leader let’s the team members decide on how they need to work.

Now you can answer the question; are you part of a bunch of individuals or a member of a team?