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Tom, The Effective Team Player

Tom is someone I work with and is a member of our COM (Customer Order Management) Council. As a team, the Council decided to throw a surprise birthday luncheon for the COM supervisor, Charlie. Charlie will be retiring soon after the transition is completed as a result of a recent merger. During our discussions of the tasks, I brought up the idea of playing a jazz/blues tune for Charlie. Charlie loves jazz. We talked about it some more and reached a consensus that it was a great idea.

Being a great musician (a composer and sax player), Tom was assigned the task of coming up with the arrangement. He enlisted the talents of Todd (alto sax) and Dante (drums) who are Customer Service Reps but not members of the Council, and myself (the pianist). Tom and I also approached Mark, the "poetic" Leader.

Recognizing my limitations in improvisations, Tom gave me a printout of the music for my part of the arrangement. He also gave a copy to Todd with the corresponding chords to guide him through. Tom also took the time to make tape copies for Todd and Mark. Mark appreciated this so that he can get the "feel" of the tempo as he attempted to compose the rhythm of the "poem."

We rehearsed a few times, and as we did, one or two members would come up with a change or another idea, and Tom would say, "Yes, ok, let's try that". And we would, and then agree by saying, "Yes, let's do that", or "No, maybe not".

The day of the surprise birthday luncheon came, we performed, and everyone loved it, especially Charlie. Afterwards, Tom received a lot of compliments because they knew that he made the arrangement. And the best part of it all was that he "shared the limelight" with the team. He kept saying, "Thank you, but it was all a team effort. We all did it".

Tom had also sent an email to Charlie to tell him that it was a group effort. He pointed out that the idea came from me, he created the music, and that Todd, Dante and Mark were the enthusiastic participants. He ended by saying that the performance would not have been possible without us.

All of Tom's behaviors throughout this special project for Charlie were characteristics of an effective team player, as well as an effective team leader. He enlisted the assistance of others outside of the Council, acknowledged our ideas and was open to suggestions. Tom also used his active listening skills and he shared the victory of the performance with his teammates. As a matter of fact, we're looking to perhaps do another one of those--for fun. Tom was great!

Shirley Casiano
Sunny5141@home.com

Prepared for Management 355, Team Management, Rider University.