There are a lot of team players working in offices. This is considered a positive quality - the ability to work in a team. Candidates emphasize this when they are interviewed. The impression is that everyone around is a team player.
But working in a team dilutes responsibility. As they say, success has many fathers, but failure is always an orphan. Therefore, everyone who has been even close to a successful project considers themselves a member of a successful team. If the project fails, a person in charge is appointed who could not justify the trust of the team. Who could it be? Either the most downtrodden member of the team or, on the contrary, the brightest, who gets into everything and wants to fix something.
Thus, the task of a team player is to successfully apply himself and not get attacked. Often this skill is called “being a team player.” But these are not the skills that are needed for real work. Many team players who are plucked from the team are nothing special. They swallow air like fish on sand, they want something, but they definitely need assistants, colleagues with whom they can discuss and agree on something (although team players themselves can be smart and quite competent). But they don't have the courage to do anything. Especially against the team.
I really appreciate people who can say “I did it” rather than “we.” A fighter who is alone in the field, also a warrior, will be able to perform well in a good team. But even without a team he is worth something.
PS
If you want it done well, do it yourself. Napoleon Bonoparte.
Not a team player.
