The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player

Exercise…with it come strength and growth; without it come laziness and stagnation. Exercising the body is important to maintaining a good physical well-being, and likewise it is also important to regularly exercise the mind. For me, this has taken the form of reading good books and looking for ways to apply in my life what I am reading.

I recently started a new job and was delighted to discover that I now have access to hundreds (if not thousands) of digitized books thanks to the company’s partnership with Books 24x7. In between checking e-mails and waiting for clearance to work on the team’s projects, I’ve had plenty of time to spend perusing the wealth of information contained within the windows of my web browser.

First on the list of gems I’ve uncovered is John Maxwell’s exposition on the 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants. For each quality, Maxwell brings in thought-provoking quotes, engaging stories, practical advice, and probing questions to cause the reader to get a handle on each quality and begin the process of continuous personal growth in his life. I’m a fan of all things practical, and this book is full of first-rate observations from a man who has proven himself in the very areas he is writing about. For this reason alone it is a worthy use of time as his advice comes from experience. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who interacts with other people—and who doesn’t? As you read, you’ll be challenged to be adaptable, collaborative, committed, communicative, competent, dependable, disciplined, enlarging, enthusiastic, intentional, mission-conscious, prepared, relational, self-improving, selfless, solution-oriented, and tenacious—qualities that will take you far and will help your team achieve new levels of success.

What’s holding you back from being a better team player? The best way to improve is just to work on it—get out there and exercise your mind!

Through My Eyes

In my humble opinion, the best person ever to play the game of college football was Tim Tebow. I say this not because he won a lot of games or led his team to the national championship or because he set all sorts of records, I say this because of the person he was and is off the field. Being in the limelight can cause many people of lesser character to stumble, but Tim was able to use the platform he had earned through his athletics as a springboard for sharing his faith. Tim not just talked the talk, he lived it every day from being faithful in his backyard chores to being an example on the foreign mission fields. In his recent memoir, Through My Eyes, Tim explains why he is the way he is, and what (or more specifically, Who) has brought him to where he is right now, a starting quarterback in the NFL.

Tim's story begins before he was born, when his parents specifically asked God for another son to raise as a preacher. God answered by sending along Timmy, but not without much difficulty in the pregnancy. In fact, doctors recommended an abortion to save his mother's life, thinking there was no way both would survive. However, God's plan was much different than the doctors', and God delivered both mother and baby in a hospital room in the Philippines where his parents were missionaries. Their incredible story has been heard nationally through a Super Bowl ad that Focus on the Family sponsored.

After such a beginning to life, the Tebows knew Tim would be a special boy. He grew up strong and healthy and was always competing with his four older brothers and sisters. I'll not recount all the stories he told in this book about his growing up years—that's what the book is there for, so you'll have to go read it yourself. Many of them are quite humorous! As the book progresses and he moves from high school into college, he takes us inside his helmet to show what he was seeing and what he was thinking in the big games and major events he participated in. One of the biggest things that happened to Tim was being selected as a Heisman trophy finalist three years in a row. Tim was the youngest Heisman trophy winner when he won in 2007. This says a lot about his determination and commitment to being the best he could be.

It's not often that I prefer reading about sports than watching it happen in front of me on the TV, but with this book the commercial breaks were never long enough! I think I ended up missing most of the weekend's games due to being enthralled in this story. Well done, Tim Tebow, and all the best as you continue your legacy in the NFL while honoring your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.