Source of article 2's Company - Magnus Insights.

The concept of team work receives considerable attention in many types of situations, from the workplace, to education, to sports. At Magnus, David and I wholeheartedly endorse team work among our employees and including ourselves. Although, in sports terms, I am the “team captain” at Magnus, I cannot perform my job absent help from other team members. This being said, I am always happy to help others when my schedule permits. Does the trash need to be emptied and taken to the outside bin? Do we have case documents that need to be shredded? Does the floor need to be vacuumed? These are tasks that are not, technically speaking, in my job description, however, I perform them, and many others, with regularity. We once had a colleague of mine work with us on several cases. Her tenure at Magnus was short lived because she was not a team player. An important part of every project is the debriefing session that is conducted after the research day. This debriefing session allows us to discuss, in an open forum, what went wrong and how we can avoid similar mistakes in the future. My colleague was a college professor who was horrified that she was being asked to participate in a debriefing session with people who did not have a Ph. D. In her world of academia, she functioned on an individual basis, controlling her class schedule and to some extent, the lives of her students, such that she believed our team approach was “beneath her.” Team work does not begin and end in the workplace. Some people are team players in their personal lives while others prefer to march to their own drummer without much regard for the rest of us. David and I host countless guests and we often remark what a pleasure it is when they offer to cook us a meal, clean up after themselves, keep their room tidy, and my personal favorite, provide their own beach or pool towels. Other guests, in contrast, sit back and do nothing to extend a helping hand, requiring extra work for us that limits our ability to enjoy their company. Just as in sports, with some involving a team working together to achieve a common goal and others that measure success on an individual basis, the game of life often breaks down into two types of people, those who are oriented toward co-existing with others and those who are more self centered. Are you a team player?