Not everyone enjoys going through processes but they are an important aspect of life. We just cannot do without them. They are everywhere you look and go. At the dentist, bank, doing a job, recruitment, birth, death, play…I bet you there is a process you are going through as you read this.

Developing yourself in a team is no different. There is the whole process you go through from the time you get on that team…whatever team it is.

Here is the general outline of the phases you go through into a team as you develop yourself.

  • Employ Yourself

When you join a team, you employ yourself to do what you came to do. Apply yourself in that capacity and just do the work you came to do. This helps you to get a feel of the culture of the team.

This is what John Maxwell calls “positional authority”. If you came on the team as the marketing manager, do the work of a marketing manager. If you came on the team as an auditor, do the work of an auditor. Your teammates respect you and work with you based on the position that you hold.

The idea is to get your “h ands dirty” with the work. You are “in the trenches” When you do this, you set yourself up for the next phase which is where you

  • Equip Yourself

When you are “in the trenches” applying yourself to do the work, you are not just blind to the realities around you and in you. Sooner or later, when you settle into some kind of routine, you begin to identify the gaps you have in that team. It may be the way you are not good at communicating clearly with other team members, it may be challenges with the equipment you use, or your tendency to procrastinate.

In this phase, you are also able to define where you want to be or do not want to be. What you want to achieve or not. Perhaps even the how-to of such things you find. Your teammates may already notice some of the gaps. It helps to collaborate with them in this process.

You take note of such as areas because the next thing you need it to equip yourself. Or to sharpen yourself in those areas. For others, it may mean reinventing themselves for a change of direction.

  • Deploy Yourself

After equipping yourself, the next step is to deploy yourself. You have been refined, upgraded, sharpened. Move to deploy yourself and add value to the team.

And there you have the three phases simply laid out but not that simple to go through but worth every pain you feel and penny spent. As a team member, you can use them to bring value to the team, to yourself. As a team leader, you can use it to help develop your team members. As a parent, it is something you are probably doing unconsciously.

There is only one thing left to do: apply them.

Sunganani L. Manjolo