Terrel Owens being disagreeable with Donovan McNabb.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you have no doubt heard the name of NFL wide receiver, Terrell Owens. Arguably one of the greatest receivers of all time, T.O. is almost certainly destined for the Hall of Fame, but he’s almost known more for his mouth than he is for catching touchdowns. While he does hold a number of NFL records, he’s had to break those records with three different teams because he eventually wears out his welcome and is either traded or released. He was originally drafted and played for the San Francisco 49ers for six years before problems with Quarterback Jeff Garcia and the 49er organization forced them to trade Owens to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. While he did help the Eagles get to the Super Bowl in 2004, he eventually had a falling out with Quarterback Dononvan McNabb and the Eagles organization, resulting in the team releasing Owens in 2006.

T.O. was then signed by the Dallas Cowboys in 2006 and his arrival, along with QB Tony Romo’s sudden success, had many Cowboy fans dreaming of the Super Bowl once again. Sadly, Owens is up to his old tricks again and he’s begun to publicly criticize some of the Cowboy players, including his Quarterback. Now while I love to see the Dallas Cowgirls in disarray, they really should have seen this coming given T.O.’s M.O. So what is Terrell Owens’ deal and why can’t he seem to get along with his teammates no matter what team he’s on?

Taking one for the team

To put it simply, T.O. is not a team player. He is far more concerned with himself than the success of his teammates, and while that can be swept under the rug for a while if the team is successful, the problem will eventually bubble to the surface the minute the team starts under performing. The problem is, a lot of the time T.O. is right—he should be getting the ball more and his coordinators should be drawing up plays to do that. However, instead of addressing the issue privately with the coaching staff, T.O. openly criticizes his teammates in front of other players, the media, and anyone else who will put a mic in his face. So despite the fact that he may be right, by attacking his teammates, he’s single handedly ruining the team’s chemistry. All the talented players in the world can’t help your team win consistently without some sort of chemistry between teammates (employees/co-workers) and coaches (management).

Working on a project team

Now your average web related project team is probably nothing like an NFL football team, but the same principles can be applied when it comes to working together as a team. No matter if you’re part of the design team, the development team, or the project manager—issues between you and your teammates are bound to come up over the course of a project. What will determine your overall success as a team, is how good your team is at:

1. Recognizing a problem

2. Bringing the problem to the attention of the offender or project leader

3. Coming up with a solution to the problem and…

4. Implementing the solution

Completing this process isn’t always easy, especially under a tight project deadline. But doing only one of the above items isn’t going to help you much and will likely be more detrimental to the overall team synergy as the problem continues to fester.

Right and Wrong

However, there is a right way and way wrong way in going about resolving issues that arise between team members. The wrong way, a.k.a. The T.O. method, is to openly call out your teammates performance via email, conference call, blog post, etc. Nothing good can come from this approach! Even if you get lucky and your teammate changes his behavior based on your comments, their resentment towards you will only build up over time, and will likely cause you problems later in the project.

The right way to address the issue is to first speak with your team member privately about your concerns. This way they don’t feel like they were shamed in the eyes of your other teammates and they won’t feel like you went over their head if it’s something that can be easily resolved between the two of you. However, if you’re unable to resolve your differences, your next step should be to speak privately with a project leader. Taking this approach will hopefully allow you all to discover a solution as a team, which not only promotes team chemistry, but it will also alert the project lead to the problem so they can make adjustments before it gets out of hand.

Be a real leader

If you work on teams for long enough, you will no doubt come across people that make your job way more difficult than you feel it needs to be. The important thing to keep in mind, whether your an NFL wideout, a web design Prima-donna, or a simple code monkey, is that you are a professional and you should carry yourself as such. Being a professional means being a team player and doing whatever is in your power to make your project and your team a success. Not everyone will follow this approach to be certain, but you can set the tone and positively influence your team’s chemistry by leading by example. Remember, real leaders raise up those around them, they don’t put them down.