The Power of the Team

“The Power of the Team”—

When I was teaching, this was a popular catch-phrase meant to motivate us as teachers to work together and build community. Other phrases were tossed out to reinforce the idea. “There is no ‘I’ in team.” “A team that believes together achieves together.” The volume of platitudes astounded me. All of them felt cliche. I hated them. They seemed hokey and cheesy, and I knew for certain the words meant nothing to the people on high (administrators for those of you not familiar with the educational world) who tossed them down from their crenelated towers. They certainly didn’t practice what they preached. But that is a topic of another day and another blog site.

So, why, you may ask, am I spouting “The Power of the Team” now? Because last week I learned what those words truly meant. I also learned their pitfalls. I have written before about how Karen, Tana, and I have come together to hold each other accountable for getting words on the page and the power we have found in supporting one another. It is profound. Last week I learned what it is like when the team is missing. Certainly, Karen and Tana have felt my absence as I dealt with my aunt’s illness and passing at the end of last year. But I talked to them frequently, and we shared what work was accomplished. We still checked in even if I wasn’t writing. But this last week, Karen went to writing a conference. Yay! It was an actual in person conference! Hurray! (Get your shot!!) But that meant my morning routine was interrupted as I didn’t have her to hold me accountable and get me going.

At first, I thought, “No problem.” I made a schedule in my head about how I would work in the morning, and then, Tana and I would get together in the afternoon. It would give me time to focus on a couple of other things I wanted to do and still get my words in for the day. “PROBLEM!” I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain in either the morning or the afternoon. I think I wrote one morning and one afternoon. Who knew?! So, now I see the power of the team for what it really is—not just us holding each other accountable, but us making sure we each believe in ourselves and our writing.

Which brings me to the downside of the team. You can’t use it as a crutch to prop yourself up when one of you goes away. You have to believe in yourself and your ability and your words in order to lift up the others on the team. For some reason, I wasn’t feeling that in myself last week. I allowed my own excuses to deter me from maintaining the momentum I had going on my current WIP. Now, I feel removed from the story, have to take time to go back and re-read to find where I was. I have to write my way back into the story and out of my slump. All because I didn’t feel confident enough to go on without my team.

The team is great. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be as far along as I am without them. But it can be easy to believe less in your own power if you look more to the team for your validation as a writer. The team is only as strong as the individuals. (Yikes, another platitude!) If I can’t learn to work on my own, I can’t offer that same strength to them when our schedules don’t work. Even more importantly, I let myself down. I allowed myself to be distracted when I didn’t need to be. I relied too heavily on the structure and accountability the group offers when I should have been leaning into my abilities. After all, I was working on my own before we started working together.

Writing, like teaching, is essentially a job done alone. I’m built for that, but having a team to help me be accountable, to bounce words and ideas off of has turned out to be invaluable. They have helped me hone my craft and grow stronger as a writer. What I have to be aware of is looking more to the team for my worth. I lost sight of that awareness last week. As I move forward I have to be the one to hold myself accountable and let my team support me in those efforts, just as I support them in their own individual efforts.