TEAMWORK: Why Treating Everyone Equally Won’t Work

   

 

   As I was rewatching Haikyuu, I realized that the role of a setter in volleyball is very much like being a manager: you have to delegate tasks. “Who should I set the ball to?”

   Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. And morale plays a huge role in the success and flow of a team. Ideally, you would be able to bring out the best out of everyone.

  But it’s no easy task.

   Sometimes you’ll have people who don’t care or don’t put in much effort. Other times, there will be conflict among teammates. And there will be times when multiple people are competing for the same spot and you have to choose who gets it. Or if you try giving less work to the lazy and unreliable, you exhaust your most energetic worker. And of course, there will be times when team morale is contagiously low.

  You’ll be thinking to yourself, “Gah! (·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ ) How do I make all these different personalities work together? There’s a lot of work to be done.. And many wrinkles in our teamwork to iron out. How do I do it?”

  One approach might be to treat everyone equally, to say the same things to everyone. Of course in theory this would get everyone on the same page. But in practice, you will find that this cookie-cutter approach will fail.

   

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❝ 𝐈𝐟, 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥. 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 [𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫] 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲, 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞’𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞. ❞

 

                             – The 48 Laws of Power

 

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   Now, by no means am I saying that favoritism is ever a good idea—it is most certainly not. And yes, there will be times when you have to be straightforward with everyone and give them all the same information in a matter-of-fact way.

  But what I have learned is that you can’t ignore people’s differences or pretend they don’t exist. You must use those differences to your advantage; tailor your messages to the person you are speaking to. Soft skills are highly underrated and yet incredibly indispensable. Yes, technical skills are important, but really, it is people skills that will take you far.

  If someone has a more anxious personality, you as a manager must make the conscious effort to frequently remind them of the good job they are doing. Give them lots of reassurance when correcting their mistakes. Comment on their improvement. This will give them confidence in their abilities, make them more comfortable and efficient, and inspire them to keep improving. They will think, “My boss notices all my efforts. I want to keep impressing them!”

  If someone is hardworking and pleasant, never fall short of reminding them how much you appreciate them. Never take them for granted. Be very verbal about your gratitude; do not assume that they know you value them. Make them FEEL valued in whatever way is meaningful to them. Just because they are responsible and self-sufficient does not mean that they never need your attention. Do not neglect them in attempt to focus on the problematic ones. Make sure they feel that they can rely on you as much as you rely on them. This is like fueling a fire or mining deep into a resourceful cave.

   If someone has a more lazy disposition, find out where their ego lies. They might not care about this job specifically, but everyone cares about themselves. Use this to your advantage! Bring out their competitive side. They will fight tooth and nail to protect their pride. Especially if there is conflict between teammates, use their rivalry to improve both simultaneously—but be discrete about it.

   For example, if there are two people who complain about a task that neither wants to do and beg you to send the other person, send both of them to do it at the same time. Very subtly imply, but never outright say, it is a competition between the two of them. In their attempt to beat the other person, you will find that they go from lazy complainers to efficient workers.

   But most importantly, you must that as a leader, you reproduce who you are, not who you want to create. You set the tone for your team. If you seem exhausted and unmotivated, that energy will be matched. During stressful situations, if your team sees you calm and collected, they will feel more at ease and perform better. Be hardworking, humble, and a source of pleasure to be around—be the kind of leader that people are eager to work with. But do to set boundaries and expectations. that you can’t make everyone happy at all times. Just do your best and make sure that you yourself are improving as well.

 

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:warning: Haikyuu season 1 spoilers :warning:

  Is this next part just an excuse to geek out about Haikyuu? Absolutely. But I would like to analyze how beautifully Haikyuu presents these concepts in action. And for those of you who don’t know, Haikyuu is an anime about volleyball.

   There is a scene where the rival team has the momentum and the gap between the teams’ scores keeps widening. The protagonist’s team is exhausted and feeling an immense amount of pressure. Nothing they do is working. The situation is dire and there seems to be no way out.

  Then, the coach switches out the setters. Sugawara enters the court and adequately earns himself the nickname Mr. Refreshing. As soon as he enters, he is able to switch things around using his previous experience and knowledge AND the good rapport he’s built with the team.

   In particular, I was impressed with Sugawara’s interactions with Tsukishima, who is new to the team and doesn’t know Sugawara very well. At this point in the show, Tsukishima is a player who isn’t as motivated as the rest of the team. Tsukishima is somewhat arrogant and hard to get along with; he doesn’t listen well to others—particularly when he receives orders from the other setter that was switched out. But it is Sugawara’s humble, refreshing energy that allows Tsukishima take his advice.

   Sugawara explains to Tsukishima, “When we’re up against powerful teams, they usually aim for me because my block is so low. I figured the same would happen here. But man, I feel so relieved standing next to someone so tall!” He smiles and pats Tsukishima’s shoulder, continuously saying, “Nice, Tsukishima! Nice!” Other players also comment on how nice it feels when Sugawara praises them after a good play.

   I was really impressed at how humble Sugawara is. He could have lost his patience and argued with Tsukishima. But instead, he lowers himself and lifts up others, even attributing the success to Tsukishima’s execution when he was the one with the idea. At the time, I was struggling with a coworker who would not work and I would complain about how problematic it was. I only saw the obstacle. But Sugawara’s approach was completely different and yet so effective.

   And while he is gentle and humble with Tsukishima who is younger than him, Sugawara is firm when scolding Daichi, the team captain. He knows Daichi can handle his constructive criticism.

   Haikyuu also makes it a point to show that Sugawara sets tosses that the spikers like. While Kageyama would set tosses that HE thinks have the highest probability of success, the spikers would often struggle to hit the ball at their full potential. Sugawara takes each person’s preferences into and makes the tosses easy to hit, trusting his teammates will handle the rest.

  In short, Sugawara changes his approach depending on who he’s talking to. He doesn’t treat everyone the same way. He adapts to meet each person where they are. And it is in this flexible approach that Sugawara’s true abilities shine through.

thanks for reading my blog ♡