Struggling to Jump In on Teamwork?

A fear of taking on more than you can manage and living an unbalanced, stressful, stretched-too-thin life is a legitimate one. The road to burnout is paved with good intentions, desire to help, and superman/woman complexes. As with all fears, however, the better we know them, the more we can work with them to empower ourselves in moving forward into the life we desire.

One of my clients reached out to me for support around building motivation to pitch in on team projects to help lighten the load and boost the efficiency of those projects, citing Merriam-Webster’s definition of teamwork:

Her main concern is around being able to maintain a healthy balance in her life, managing her current responsibilities, health needs, as well as any potential new demands on her time and energy resources with team projects. As her Empowerment Coach, here’s the support I offered her, and I offer it to you now:

If you knew you could maintain a sense of balance, how would your level of motivation to pitch in on teamwork change? If you could maintain a sense of balance AND do your part when it comes to teamwork, here’s what I offer to help:

First, good for you for making the distinction around what you want. I’m reading your words and hearing that you want to contribute, you don’t want a leadership role, and you do want to preserve your need for balance. Luckily, this combination is definitely doable! Successful participation in teamwork hinges around being crystal clear around 3 main things:

1) Understanding what “balance” looks like for you.

Write down the most important activities in your life (such as [work], friends and family activities, nurturing your health, church, etc.). Take a look at what space you want these activities to occupy on your calendar, and ask yourself what kind of space your teamwork participation can occupy while still allowing you that sense of balance. Also, keep in mind that since school is out for the summer, balance will look different now than it will when school starts back up again.

2) Understanding exactly what it is that you’re signing up for and having clear expectations around your role.

Not all projects are created equal! What may seem like a simple project at first glance may end up being something highly complex or time-consuming, so asking what your exact responsibilities and contributions are expected to be before you commit to anything will be very helpful to you maintaining balance in your life.

3) Understanding your own boundaries and clearly communicating them to your team.

Depending on the project, teamwork can get out of hand quickly if clear boundaries aren’t set and communicated. For example, what days and times are you open to communicating about this work? Are weekends acceptable? Are evenings or late nights acceptable? Would you prefer email, phone calls, or texts? How often are you willing to meet virtually or in-person about this project? What about the type of work you’re willing to do? Setting these boundaries and clearly communicating them to your teammates will help them understand how you work best, such as a phone call at 3pm is acceptable, but a text at 9pm is not (as an example, some people are okay with texts at 9pm!)

Also, please know that if what you’re signing up for just doesn’t excite you, or if it sounds like something that would significantly detract from your life, it’s completely okay to not raise your hand! I strongly advise you to avoid signing up for things out of a sense of obligation, or “I have to,” “I should,” “I felt pressured/guilted into saying yes.” The overall quality and experience of the project declines when members of the team aren’t there willingly or enthusiastically.

These days we’re all wearing thin, mentally, emotionally, and for many of us, financially and socially, too. Stressors are more present than ever, and not everyone has the toolkits to process these stressors productively. You may be feeling pressure to jump in and do more, and while more hands on deck are definitely welcome to lighten the load and improve the efficiency of the immense amount of work that needs to be done across our society, I encourage you to examine these three points first, to find how you can best serve.

Teamwork is always done best when the team members are at their best, and conversely, teamwork suffers when team members are running on empty.