According to Forbes Magazine, the primary skills that recruiters for all majors look for in a candidate are leadership, diverse communication, philanthropy, and teamwork. Of the four skills, only one doesn’t contain the letter “I”; teamwork. This means two things: first,“I”doesn’t exist in the word teams and second, the letter doesn’t exist in the team acronym.
Acronym? Yes, the famous spelling lesson involving the omission of “I” in “teams” does have another aspect. The idea of teamwork can be described in the acronym TEAMS. The tricky part is that numerous combination of words meet the requirements to be the TEAMS acronym. For example, people who have had a negative experience when working in a group might describe their TEAMS experience as Twerking Every Angle Miley-Style or Taming Extraordinary Awful Madman Sheen.
However, in the professional world, TEAMS have a new, positive meaning of the acronym. TEAMS is a professional context most likely refers to Thinkers Exemplifying Attainable Magic Solutions.
How real-world is TEAMS?
Believe it or not, the reason that universities like Purdue center their curriculum based on teamwork is to prepare the student for the real world. Yes, that’s right. After graduation, most students end up within some kind of team. It could be a research team whose mission is to find a cure to cancer. A sports team, like the Indianapolis Colts. It could be within the state legislature who makes decisions as a group to pass laws, an engineering team that will design a bridge, or even a marketing team trying to promote a new product. All of these examples need thinkers exemplifying attainable magic solutions to accomplish their mission, to find the cure, or even win the Super Bowl.
So what does TEAMS mean for you?
If group work has become a nightmare for you, then it’s time to consider the positive side of TEAMS, since it’s nearly impossible to work on a group project individually. Remember that recruiters look for teamwork skills, which should be a motivation to stick to your team. After this motivational boost, the next step is to convert your group from twerking Miley Cyrus’s and madman Charlie Sheen’s to solution thinkers.
The most effective way to accomplish this is to conduct team business democratically. Let’s face it, if people know what is expected of them and they are welcomed to use their unique skill-set voluntarily, then work will be completed efficiently. In other words, each group member must have equal contribution to the project utilizing their unique skills. For example, a football team consists of both an offensive and defensive line. Each group has equal contribution to the game since each line plays during its respective time. In order for team members to know their “respective time,” communication and equality of the TEAMS is essential for success.
Final Thoughts on TEAMS
Recruiters strive to search for candidates that are assertive and engaging when it comes to teams. They want to improve productivity and profitability of their company, and the best way to accomplish this is by utilization of TEAMS. By remembering what TEAMS stand for and advocating clear communication and expectations to team members, your group work disaster will magically transform into a productive tool for success.
