Teammate’s Attitude

“People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” – John C. Maxwell

All teammates have different attitudes and each one affects others in a different way. I noticed this yesterday when I was at my bowling meet and each of our six team members had a different mood and I could tell that it affected the others, the coach, and me because of their attitudes. I’m not saying the attitudes were all bad even a good attitude can be affective to a team, just in a more positive way then a bad attitude. Here are some attitudes I saw and how they impacted the team:

1.     Not wanting to be there – This attitude is when one just does not want to do anything and just wants to go home or be somewhere else. They normally just say it out loud and that means that others can hear and they usually catch on to it and sometimes that attitude will transfer to others.

2.     Making excuses – In bowing this is when bowlers blame their own poor performance on other things like being tired or arm hurting. If you do hurt then obviously its going to be hard to bowl but don’t keep complaining about it to others. This can affect the team because no one likes hearing complaints and none of us can do anything about it.

3.     Standoffish – This is when you don’t cheer, clap or high five people, being uncommunicative. In bowling high fives and being loud are how we get pumped and normal behavior at meet. When someone isn’t really into high fiving it is weird for the rest of us because we want to congratulate him or her on their shot or we want to make them know that it’s ok that they missed one. High fives are really significant in bowling. I’m not sure where it came from but it’s just a big thing.

4.     Disappointed – This is when people get down when they do badly. I have seen people cry at meets before because they are getting down on themselves. This isn’t really good because the team tries to comfort them and its really sad to see a teammate down on themselves and we want to do all we can to help them. I don’t really think this is a bad thing on the team but definitely bad on the individual.

All these attitudes are something that can be worked on but that is all up to the person that is having the attitude. I even am guilty of some of these myself and I know it’s really hard to have a positive attitude sometimes. These attitudes are found in any team either at work, school or in a sport. There are teams everywhere. Just remember that your attitude toward something usually affects the whole team around you and sometimes can affect the outcome of the goal at hand.