How to Hire Team Players

Do your employees work in teams? 

Just because you use the word team to describe a group of people who perform similar jobs, like our service team, our sales team or our customer service team, doesn't mean your workers really work in teams. I'm referring to situations where workers collaborate. Where they work together to solve problems or deliver service to customers. 

The nature of work is changing. And it's incorporating team work cultures more than it ever has. When I was in college, I was only required to participate in 3 or 4 team projects during my entire degree program. Now, students are assigned 3 or 4 team projects each semester. Does this mean young people are better at it than we were? Well, they've had more practice, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're better. Some people of all ages are more naturally individualistic while others more naturally gravitate to teams.

America has historically been a land of individualists - meaning most of us think people should be self-sufficient. We tend to put loyalty to ourselves before that of others, including our team and our company. But it's not all or nothing. Even the most individualistic of us will commit to a team if we perceive it to be in our best interest. Likewise, individuals who don't see any benefit to contributing to the team will physically or emotionally disengage from that team. 

Some of the greatest success stories in team sports are linked to coaches or team leaders who convince superstar athletes to sacrifice individual goals for team goals. Hey, star, would you rather score 36 points and lose or score 18 points and win? We've also witnessed the team member who contributes very little, but expects to benefit from team rewards - like the character, Wally, in the Dilbert cartoon.

How can we know before we hire someone whether they naturally tend to be individualistic or to be more team-oriented? Fortunately, one assessment instrument offered by The Davidson Group does measure the degree to which someone's individualism is a motivator for their behavior. The more naturally team-oriented a candidate is, the less they'll have to adapt or modify their behavior to support team goals.  

This assessment can be extremely helpful as a pre-employment tool. Let's say I'm hiring a hunter salesperson. I would probably prefer someone with a high degree of individualism. But if I'm hiring a customer service representative who's going to be part of a team that services customers collectively, I might prefer someone with lower levels of individualism. If I'm investing in either of these important roles, I'd want to know as much about what behaviors I'm likely to observe from my top candidates and what motivates their behaviors as I can before I extend a job offer.