Why It’s OK to Not Be a Team Player

You might work better alone.

You know yourself better than anyone, and you are the only person who can take an honest look at your habits, behaviors and patterns to determine what works best for you.

You might be more of a loner or find yourself to be more productive when working solo.

While everyone is different and we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to get a lot done without having anyone else around—and that’s okay!

Have you ever been forced to work with someone who just wouldn’t stop talking? Or someone who refused to do his or her fair share of the project?

Or maybe there was this one person who just got on your nerves in general? We’ve all had these experiences, which is why it’s important to try out different working situations until you find what works best for you.

Encourage yourself to try new things and experiment with different modes of thought about how you like to work.

If working alone is what ends up being most effective for your productivity levels, then don’t feel bad about doing so! There’s nothing wrong with being independent.

You might be forced to play a role you hate.

This is something you’ve likely experienced before. Maybe it was when you were a kid and someone cornered you into playing a sport or game you didn’t like.

Or maybe it was in office culture, where conformity and collaboration were valued over independent thought and freedom of expression.

You might not have been the leader or the follower—you may not have wanted to be part of the “in crowd” at all.

You just wanted to do your job and go home on time, but instead, you found yourself being pulled into things that made you uncomfortable or unhappy.

Maybe this was because your boss leaned on you as an extrovert, even though it drained your energy and led to burnout because you’re an introvert.

Or maybe it had nothing to do with personality type, but more with workplace politics—you didn’t want any part of it, so they piled work on top of work until they finally broke you down and got what they wanted from you.

Your teammates might be bad for your career.

As a team player, you might find yourself in the following situations:

• You might get stuck in a rut as a team player. If you work on a team with people who are bad at their jobs, they will inevitably make your life more difficult. They will frustrate you and hold you back from making progress on your own goals.
• You might learn bad habits. When working on a team with people who don’t have a strong set of skills, they can influence others to adopt similarly subpar practices.
• You might get stuck in a role you don’t like as a team player. Being part of a team means doing work that is assigned to you by other people, not necessarily work that fits within your skill set or interests. This can be particularly frustrating when success depends on other things besides what is within your control as an individual contributor. And if one person’s poor performance negatively impacts everyone else’s effort? That can feel unfair when it isn’t something directly tied into anyone’s job description (which happens more often than anyone likes to admit).

A lot of teamwork is just group-think.

The desire to be part of a team can create an environment in which people are afraid to speak up.

Group dynamics allow for this, and it generally takes one person to initiate the discussion before others join in.

However, some will never feel comfortable speaking up, especially if they disagree with the team’s point of view.

This can result in flawed decision-making processes known as ‘group-think.’

Group-think is a type of decision-making process where groups have a tendency to make bad or irrational decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of ‘mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgment.

The group’s desire for harmony causes members to suppress their own opinions so that conflict does not arise.

In addition, the group believes itself invulnerable, which may result in taking unnecessary risks.

Therefore, rather than being beneficial for organizations, teams can sometimes hurt organizations due to poor decision making resulting from group-think.

Working well alone doesn’t make you a negative person – it makes you a nonconformist.

Many people believe that the most successful employees are those who work well in teams, but this is a myth.

In fact, it is not always good to be a team player. Studies show that some people are simply better off working alone.

While teamwork is overrated, there’s no question that it can be important in some situations.

When you’re working on a project with several moving parts and tight deadlines, teamwork can help get everything done more efficiently.

But any employee can do this from time to time. The better gauge of someone’s value as an employee comes from how they perform when left alone to complete an assignment or project.

Companies should look for employees who can take initiative and follow through, who don’t need constant supervision or oversight to produce quality work on time and within budget.

When you’re able to work well alone, it doesn’t mean that you’re a negative person — it means you are a nonconformist!

You march to the beat of your own drum because there’s no reason for you not to — after all, your drumbeat works just fine and gets the job done with flying colors!