A few days ago, I went out with my family for some froyo. For those who may be a little rusty on their pop-culture slang, froyo is short for frozen yogurt.
I love froyo. I love cool froyo shops. And I love visiting them with my family. It’s one of our favorite things to do together.
Most froyo shops give you an empty cup, which you can fill from a selection of frozen yogurt flavors. You can choose one flavor, or you can mix and match different flavors.
Then, you head to a buffet of toppings—fresh fruit, cookies, brownies, candy bars, peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallows, nuts, and sprinkles. Again, you can mix and match, choosing as many or as few as you’d like.
A boy in front of me was taking the former route. He had chosen at least four different flavors of froyo and was piling every possible topping on them. EVERY. POSSIBLE. TOPPING.
I chuckled to myself at the grin on his face and the gleam in his eyes as his mother paid for his monstrous concoction, wondering if he would actually eat it all.
It didn’t take long for me to have my answer. The boy sat down, took a few bites, and then loudly declared, “This is disgusting! I can’t eat this!”
Nearly everyone within earshot rolled their eyes, shook their heads, and let out a sarcastic wow-what-a-big-surprise laugh. Did he really expect anything different?
Peanut butter syrup over banana or cake batter frozen yogurt is palatable. Peanut butter syrup over sour gummy worms and red velvet frozen yogurt? Not so much. In fact, that’s downright foolish.
When it comes to froyo toppings, the right combination matters. The same is true for teams.
You can assemble a group of extraordinarily talented individuals, each possessing impressive skills, admirable qualities, and remarkable accomplishments. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll make an extraordinary team.
Just as combining a bunch of delicious toppings doesn’t guarantee a delicious dessert, combining a bunch of talented individuals doesn’t guarantee a successful team.
The individual ingredients matter. But how those ingredients work together matters even more.
Consider the workplace filled with highly competent employees who constantly undermine one another. Or the sports team loaded with gifted athletes who refuse to share the spotlight. Or the organization whose members are more interested in advancing their personal agendas than achieving their collective purpose.
Individually, these people may have plenty to offer. Collectively, however, their interactions can produce something far less appealing.
That’s because team chemistry isn’t determined solely by who is on the team. It’s also determined by how those individuals treat one another.
Good teammates understand this distinction. They recognize that being part of a team requires more than simply contributing their individual talents. It requires adapting, cooperating, compromising, and occasionally sacrificing their personal preferences for the benefit of the group.
They understand that their actions, attitudes, and behaviors affect everyone around them. And they recognize that the value they bring to their team isn’t measured exclusively by what they can accomplish individually, but also by how they help others succeed.
The boy at the froyo shop learned that more isn’t always better. Adding another appealing ingredient to an already overloaded cup didn’t improve his treat. It made it worse.
Teams can fall victim to the same misconception. More talent, more experience, and more individual accomplishments don’t automatically translate into more success.
Sometimes, what a team needs most isn’t another impressive ingredient. It’s for the ingredients already in the cup to work better together.
As I often point out, teamwork might make the dream work, but ultimately, it’s the teammates who make the team work.
Unlike froyo toppings, teammates have the ability to change how they interact. They can adjust their attitudes, modify their behaviors, and make deliberate choices that improve their team’s chemistry. They don’t have to wait for someone to replace an ingredient. They can become better ingredients themselves.
As always…Good teammates care. Good teammates share. Good teammates listen. Go be a good teammate.
