Teamwork Is an Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility

Knowing how to work effectively in and through groups may be the single most important skill anyone can develop in today's collaborative, team-based workplace. Unfortunately, all of the resources available on teamwork put the emphasis on group process and ignore the role of-and benefits to-the individual. But effective teamwork isn't only a group skill set; it's an individual skill set as well. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill shows readers how to develop the skills to thrive on any team, under any circumstances. No longer will readers find themselves complaining, "I got assigned to a bad team." Instead, they'll know what to do to make any team work for them.
Drawing on over twenty years of experience successfully developing professional teams in product development, R&D, and high-tech environments, Christopher Avery and his coauthors use brief thought-provoking essays, personal and teambuilding exercises, case studies, and insights from business leaders to teach readers how to build responsible and productive relationships at work. The authors show how and why your ability to assume personal responsibility-for your own work on a team and for the team's collective work-is the most important factor in ensuring a productive team experience.
Teambuilding, the authors point out, is essentially a series of conversations between people who share responsibility to get something done. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill describes the way these conversations typically progress, and shows the reader how to predict and direct these conversations so that they can maximize the benefits to both themselves and to their team.
Designed for easy access and for use by both individuals and groups, Teamwork Is an Individual Skill will equip readers with the mental skills and behaviors that will help them achieve personal goals while contributing to their team's success.

Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D. is president of Partnerwerks and developer of the acclaimed Being Powerful in Any Team seminar for technical professionals (www.beingpowerful.com). He has consulted with Advanced Micro Devices, Applied Materials, Charles Schwab & Company, IBM, Motorola, Nokia, and Wells Fargo Bank, and many others.
Meri Aaron Walker is a principal of Between the Lines, an Austin, Texas-based strategic communications consultancy and a Partnerwerks associate.
Erin O’Toole Murphy, a Partnerwerks consultant, has trained Sony management in Japan and led other development initiatives..