The 7 Traits of a Stellar Team Player

Publié le 22 March 2024 Par Utsaha Thapa

An entire workplace can improve and reach new levels of success when everyone understands the 7 traits of a stellar team player.

Employees are the most valuable asset to every company, and their performance can be shaped by the quality of the workplace team around them. A strong team player can facilitate strong communication, boost problem solving and take the initiative to support teammates. Likewise, difficult coworkers can start to drag down the entire team with negativity.

Whether you’re hiring a new colleague or you’re about to enter a new workplace, you should be aware of the attributes that will help the team excel. Let’s take a closer look at the 7 traits of a stellar team player that will help everyone succeed in the workplace.

Why You Need Stellar Team Players in the Workplace

Recent research by the University of Warwick found that happy employees are 12% more productive. It’s not just a corporate cliche! These happy employees are also more engaged in the workplace and more likely to stay in a company for the long-term. This level of happiness and engagement can then be shared throughout the team.

An employee who is a stellar team player is someone with traits like ingenuity, imagination, and dedication. When employees act in the company’s best interest, demonstrate honest work, and have strong integrity and ethics, they are highly valued and appreciated by their employers and colleagues. Besides the ownership of work, companies value good employees and stellar team players because they play a crucial role in the organization’s success, corporate culture, and competitive edge.

However, building the 7 traits of a stellar team player in the workplace isn’t just essential to make yourself indispensable to an employer. Here are the keys benefits for employers and employees alike:

1. Promotion

NectarHR showed that 79.5% of employees know how to earn a promotion. It’s by cultivating positive traits like reliability, a strong work ethic, and consistent performance. Such employees are more likely to get rewards (e.g., salary raises or bonuses), promotions, and opportunities within and outside the organization.

2. Personal & Professional Growth

Learning new things, adapting to changes, and overcoming professional limitations are essential traits of a stellar team player and good employees in general. These traits help with personal and professional growth, boosting confidence and competency. Such professional development opportunities increase job satisfaction, which fosters a sense of belonging and achievement.

3. Increased Resilience

Resilience is highly valued for all employees in fast-paced industries. Cultivating good employee traits like adaptability and problem-solving enhances one’s ability to navigate workplace changes and challenges. Building resilience also helps one handle stress and uncertainty.

The 7 Traits of a Stellar Team Player: How To Spot Them?

Almost all employees reflect one or two strong traits, but when you’re looking for those workers who will elevate the workplace and help everyone excel, you need to look for some specific characteristics. Here’s how you can spot the 7 traits of a stellar team players:

1. Great Organizational Skills

A stellar employee knows how to effectively manage time, energy, and hard work in a way that leads to impressive results. They are driven to work smarter and manage their time while prioritizing the workload. An obvious sign is that they create extensive to-do lists that allow them to keep track of their tasks and make progress towards important goals.

Another quality of an excellent employee is high social intelligence because such individuals exude a positive and uplifting atmosphere for everyone during collaboration. These employees are humble, and aren’t motivated by ego to outshine their teammates. They also try to help and mentor other team members and celebrate each other’s successes.

3. Flexible, Dedicated, & Responsible

Admirable attributes of a good employee also include flexibility, dedication, and dependability. Flexible employees aren’t scared by changes; they recognize them as an inevitable reality of business and are keen to get others on board as well. They bounce back from any issue and are productive, engaged, and connected to their work through a commitment to adaptability. This is why such dedicated employees push through setbacks, keep others on track when schedules get hectic, and inspire others to give their best efforts on projects, making them a stellar team player in the workplace.

4. Good Communicator

Communication skills are one of the core attributes of all good employees, and stellar team players in particular. A good employee communicates and updates the team about their progress on specific tasks. They effectively listen, take an open-minded approach to new ideas, and communicate their viewpoints well with everyone in the workplace, including colleagues, clients, and managers. This helps reduce any chances of miscommunication and confusion, even as multiple projects and tasks are completed.

5. Always Prepared

Another trait of a stellar team player is that they are always as prepared as possible. They consider possible outcomes and challenges, and start thinking of ways to counteract them. Due to their resourcefulness, they are always prepared to complete the given tasks without the need for much supervision. They proactively take calculated risks and present new ideas to the team, improving the work environment for everyone.

6. High Integrity & Discipline

A good employee has high integrity and discipline. They take accountability for work and are honest and self-aware about their capabilities and preferences. Such stellar team players are integral in all business practices. They are aware of core values and demonstrate them regularly. If they make mistakes, they acknowledge those mistakes and learn from them, instead of trying to pass them blame or denying any issues.

7. Internally Motivated

When an employee is internally motivated, they enjoy the process of performing their tasks, and such behavior comes to them within rather than the external work environment or affirmation. Every good employee is internally motivated, especially during tough times. They inspire the rest of their team members to bounce back and refocus on the tasks at hand.

Time for A Personality Assessment: Do You Carry Perfect Employee Traits?

Now that you are aware of the good attributes and characteristics of employees, it’s time to do your personality assessment and see if you possess those perfect employee traits.

You bring a lot of value to your organization if you are a good employee. Cy Wakeman’s book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace contains a questionnaire that helps employees easily rate the value they bring to their organization. It is similar to psychometric assessments that have become increasingly common throughout multiple industries.

Answer each of these questions by scoring yourself (1 to 5). Score 1 is the lowest, and 5 is the highest. Remember to rate your performance honestly so that you can identify your actual weaknesses and work on them!

I’m consistent in my work and my results.

I improve my skills every year.

I move forward with purpose and do not rest on my past achievements.

I spend most of my time at work with top performers.

I’ve recently added to my job description on my own initiative.

I frequently set higher targets for myself.

I ask for feedback on my performance from my boss and my peers.

My performance compares favorably with that of my peers.

I frequently collaborate with others and have forged good professional relationships.

The lowest possible score is 9, and the highest score is 45. If your results are closer to 45, you are a valuable, good employee of your organization.

Don’t just think about what makes a good employee! Now that you know the 7 traits of a stellar team player, you can circle back to the question to which you rated low and generate a roadmap for professional improvement.