Lone Wolf or Team Player

Do you play on your own or do you need a team around you to fully motivate you? A lone wolf is someone that works and exists independently rather than with others as a member of a team. They have a strong preference for independence and doing most things on their own.

By contrast the team player needs the interaction of others to assist their own personal performance – we all know the cliché that two minds are better than one or the story of how the poorer sporting team performed better on the day enabling them to beat the all star team. So are you a lone wolf or a team player?

Consider a number of the following key team personality types – The Agitator, The Wild Card, The Leader, The Workhorse, The Glue, The Expert and numerous other characteristics that help build a team. When you look at them you will see where you naturally fall, and in some cases you might fit into more than one category. An old friend of mine Andy was definitely the glue – he held a disparate group of friends together – once he moved away that group dispersed.

I believe that as a Lone Wolf you need to feel comfortable fitting into each of these personality types – you need to be chameleon-like to achieve success as well as incredibly self sufficient.  I know I am not a Lone Wolf –a flaw in my current working environment, when I am often working on my own. I need the interaction, banter and support of others to help me achieve and strive for more – it’s my personality type – sticking me in a room on my own feels like solitary confinement to me.

There are times when we all need to be together or we all need to be alone, the skill is knowing when and acting upon it, finding the right team to help you achieve more and knuckling down on your own when you need to. Faffing about waiting for someone else to fix it for you will never happen – take the initiative and create the best environment for your personality, you will achieve so much more happiness and success.