I recently started playing tennis again after a long absence from the game. My son is just learning how to play and I want to be able to play with him as he gets older. While I played tennis in (high) school in Ireland, I was never a particularly strong individual player – I had several cousins who were champion tennis players and my mother was one of the top players in our local tennis club until injury sent her towards golf. Over time, I learned that my tennis niche was doubles and that I loved to play as part of a team.
My big tennis lessons as a kid were good life lessons.
My school tennis partner and I were both left handed. Our opponents generally couldn’t figure out how to deal with two lefties and the associated spins, ball placement and angles. We were unique and we functioned seamlessly as a team. We ended up winning the school senior doubles championship three years in a row, beating much stronger players, thanks to teamwork. My other key partner was my dad and we were the school parent/child doubles champions. In the championship final, our opponents were a local tennis coach and his daughter, a seeded player. They were much stronger individual players than my dad and I, but we were a scrappy team. We complemented each other’s strengths & supported weaknesses. We fought hard and had fun doing it. We played and won as a team. What enabled me to win in these cases was teamwork, clear communication, collaboration and each person playing to their strengths.
I learned that a team is more than the sum of the strengths of the individuals on that team, and that when people truly work together as a team, magic happens.
Which isn’t that different from today.
Today, I live in North Carolina, collaborating seamlessly with colleagues from all over the US using Lync. I work remotely and collaborate closely on a daily basis with colleagues I may only see once or twice a year. Lync allows me to jump on a conference call, instantly share my screen, instant message and add people to a discussion on the fly. It allows document sharing without the need to clog up my inbox. Teamed with SharePoint, Lync is an incredibly powerful productivity, collaboration and communication platform. Lync also allows an instant message to immediately become a phone call with just one click. This alone has vastly improved communication and collaboration, as little gets lost in translation, both parties can explain exactly what they mean. Not only that, but Lync works across devices – mobile, desktop, tablet – seamlessly.
While clear communication and teamwork allowed me to be a part of winning teams as a child, Lync, SharePoint and Office have enabled the same teamwork leading to success as an adult – Perficient is Microsoft’s 2013 US Partner of the Year award winner and has won Microsoft’s Healthcare Provider Partner of the Year award three out of the last four years after all!
What technologies are you using to enable your team to be successful?
Teamwork beats talent every time when it comes to team sport. There’s nothing better than watching a team overcome physically superior athletes with higher levels of skill by working together. Magic happens, I agree, that’s why I’m a sports fan.
great post Liza. I agree teamwork is essential for getting things done. Yes, many times an individual can get things done too, but as a team they can often be done faster and sometimes with a better solution. More eyes = more options. As long as the communication is clear and the goals are aligned teamwork wins.