Lone wolf vs team player: which are you?

Hi guys, if you follow me on Instagram, then you will know that I had a snow day last Friday - it started snowing heavily on Thursday night and by Friday morning, London was mostly covered in about 15 cm of snow. Hence I declared that I was not working on Friday morning, grabbed my skis and ski boots and headed to Parliament Hill - one of the highest points in London and rather close to where I live in north London. We had a cold snap in the UK right last week but sadly the snow has all but melted. Of course, it is nothing compared to a proper ski resort - it takes me about a minute to a minute and a half to ski down Parliament Hill, then about five to ten minutes to walk back up it in my ski boots, carrying my skis, depending on how tired I am. And of course, the schools didn't close because they were not expecting such heavy snow in London - it had been hovering around zero and the authorities had though that the snow would mostly just melt, so they didn't rush to cancel school on Friday. That meant that there were only a handful of people on Parliament Hill enjoying the snow and I had a fantastic time. When I came home, did I get back to work? No, I went to my roof and built a snowdog  (like a snowman, but a dog instead of a man) from the snow that has accumulated on my roof. So some of the people I have interacted with on Instagram have asked me, "Isn't it a work day? Don't you have to be in the office, how can you go skiing on a Friday morning?" So let me highlight a few points just to talk more generally about this topic.

Do you work well in a team or are you a lone wolf?

1. Break that correlation between working time and pay

I am a salesman - the bulk of what I earn comes from my commissions. It doesn't matter if I worked 80 hours a week and I don't sell, I'm still not rewarded for the number of hours I work. Let me compare this to another job I'm actually totally qualified to do: I had coached gymnastics in the past and this is part of the gig-economy in the UK. Allow me to explain: very, very few gymnastics coaches receive a monthly wage or salary in the UK. No, instead, you're paid on a per lesson or per hour basis. There is little or no reward for coaches to work harder or increase their productivity: so instead, they dumb down the lessons, make sure they don't take any risks or teach their students more difficult skills. They play games, it feels more like a fun PE lesson but the kids learn virtually nothing and in my opinion, that's a pretty lousy way to run a gymnastics class. But I've seen so many coaches go down the route where they try to keep the kids happy, so they play games instead of teaching challenging skills. "If I try to teach them how to do a back somersault, half the kids will struggle and feel upset - no, so instead let's play a silly game in order to make sure none of the kids feel left out. Then everyone will have fun and go home happy." You see, these coaches are paid exactly the same whether their students learn nothing or whether they produce the next national champion. In such a system, even the talented and motivated kids end up learning very little and that's a terrible shame. It's unfortunately a broken system but there are so many jobs which are just like that and people working in jobs like that are merely counting the hours to earn the money.

But if they don't work, they don't earn: so even if you do pay these coaches a fairly respectable rate per lesson or per hour, they are still faced with the prospect of having to put in a very large number of hours every week at work before it all adds up to a decent amount of money to take home at the end of the month. I often see people who are stuck in jobs like that constantly checking the time, literally counting the minutes before they get to leave work and the moment they can go, there is this mad dash to the exit of the building. I remember going to this shop when I was in Tbilisi - it was late in the evening and I was after a naughty late night ice cream. I walked into one of the shop which was still opened at 11 pm and I promptly said Gamarjoba to the cashier, expecting her to respond. She was this bored looking lady in her mid-20s who barely looked up from her phone - she was playing some kind of game on her phone and was engrossed in it. She gave me a grunt to acknowledge my greeting but I didn't even get any eye contact from her, she wasn't going to miss a second of her game. There was litter on the floor of the shop and good grief, things were in a mess in that shop but clearly, she wasn't the owner and couldn't be bothered. When I finally brought my ice cream to her and tried to pay for it, she looked quite annoyed that I had distracted her from her game to take my payment - I could have just walked out with the ice cream without paying and she wouldn't have even noticed a thing. Yeah that's one woman who wasn't going to get any commissions on the sales made during her shift - people like that are merely clocking in the hours to get paid.

Are you bored and unmotivated at work?

On the other end of the scale, there are people like my friend Karina who is a fashion designer - she doesn't keep to office hours, she is merely given a deadline for a job and she can work at night or during weekends. She can have a lie in if she likes and wake up at 12 noon if it takes her fancy, as long as she submits the designs for the clients before the deadline, that's all they care about. She can work in the office, she can work at home, heck she can go visit her grandmother and work from her grandmother's house (in fact she does that fairly regularly) or fly off to a beach in Florida and do her designs whilst sipping cocktails on the beach - as long as she gets the work done. But if Karina doesn't submit her designs to the client or if the client is unhappy with her designs, then guess what? Karina doesn't get paid - that's why she works very hard to make sure that she always keeps her clients happy. That's something Karina and I share in common - it doesn't matter how hard I work or where I work, if I don't sell, I don't get my commissions and I don't earn. We are rewarded for the results we deliver, rather than the hours we put in per se. People like Karina and I tend to earn a lot more than people like gymnastics coaches and people who work in retail - here's the key difference: we are trusted enough to deliver without being constantly monitored and managed because not being paid is a big enough deterrent to ensure that we can be trusted to do our jobs properly. Can you imagine if the gymnastics coach or maths teacher is told at the end of the lesson, "you delivered a mediocre and boring lesson today - you have failed to engage most of your students, so you're only going to paid get half the money as a punishment for not doing your job properly."

2. Setting yourself on the right path

If you intend to have a career like Karina and myself, then you need to have the right kind of skills in order to have this kind of flexibility over your working hours. So if the only qualification you have is say as a gymnastics coach, then this is simply not an option for you. Take my parents for example - they would never be able to go down this path because they are teachers and employed by a school, thus their working timetable is dictated by the hours the school operates. Likewise, there are loads of other people who have jobs which are tied to certain office hours and they have little or no say over those hours. People like Karina and myself are in fact in the minority - let's look at another case study of someone who enjoys that same flexible working. My friend Chris works is a computer programmer: he's a IT-geek who sits at his laptop all day coding away. Once again, his work pattern is rather similar to Karina and myself in that he can work anytime and anywhere, as long as he has his laptop and reasonably fast wifi (and preferably loads of good coffee). He is a highly skilled computer programmer - now let's compare him to the guy who used to work at the IT helpdesk at the company where I worked years ago, let's call him Jeff (not his real name). Jeff wasn't as skilled as Chris when it came to computers, he was basically keeping the servers running at the company, maintaining the website and responding to people when they come up with crap with, "Jeff, I can't remember my email password, could you help me login so I can then change it?" I'm sure Jeff would like to do what Chris is doing but he simply isn't highly skilled enough.

3. Don't expect to be able to do this from the start - you have to earn it. 

Now I am unique in that I am a salesman who operates very much as a lone-wolf - that's pretty rare because often in sales, those who are more junior are often managed by a sales director who would be monitoring their every move. So either you're being managed or you're managing someone. When I was younger and first started out in sales, when my sales director used to call me to go to see him for little things like being too casual with clients in my email. I remember I used the phrase "hi there" in my email to my client and I was told that was inappropriate and unprofessional - instead I had to use "hello" or "good morning/afternoon" when addressing a client. Yup, my sales director used to go through my emails for even the most minor things like that, there was absolutely no concept of privacy at all but back then I was a rookie who didn't know what I was doing and thus it was necessary for someone to manage me. But now that I am so experienced in what I do, I don't need to be managed, I know what I am doing - more experienced salesmen in my position usually end up managing a team of younger, more inexperienced members of the team but since I hate managing people, I have carefully managed to avoid that and thus I am not tied to an office where I have to manage people. Oh I had to work for many years to prove that I am excellent at my job to earn the right to operate autonomously like that, without being managed and still be able to deliver good results when it comes to my sales figures. I'm in a good place right now, but goodness me I have worked in some pretty harsh conditions in the past in order to prove my worth.

4. Understanding the concept of being rewarded for results.

Is there anything wrong with being paid only when you deliver good results? I don't think so - I got pretty used to it when I was a child growing up in Singapore: I studied hard to produce good results as a student. If I performed badly, then I would be punished for doing badly, but if I did well, then I suppose my reward would be being spared of any kind of punishment but also it was that personal satisfaction and pride that no amount of money can buy. What I have described is pretty normal for most kids growing up - sure I know there are some parents out there who would cuddle their kids when they fail their exams and say, "it's okay darling, as long as you've tried your best that's all that matters, please don't be upset. Mummy loves you so much no matter what happens." I simply don't understand parents who are like that. In fact, I remember how frustrated and angry I felt when my classmate Melissa who had somewhat mediocre, barely above average results was rewarded with expensive toys by her doting parents whilst I was merely spared any punishment for topping my class - it just didn't seem to make sense to me, it felt massively unfair.  As discussed in a recent blog post, I am against the concept of rewarding bad behaviour - in fact I believe that bad behaviour should be discouraged and if the person in question keeps behaving badly, well then s/he should be punished for it. So why should it be any different in the working world then? Unless of course, you're like that very bored lady in the shop in Tbilisi who was quite content spending her days at work playing inane computer games on her mobile phone - if you're as unmotivated and unambitious as she is, then perhaps you would want a job where you are paid the same regardless of your performance.

Let me use an analogy to make this point: I'm sure you're all familiar with the concept of a TV game show, now some of the game shows from the 1980s had a far simpler concept where the contestants simply participate in a quiz and try to answer the question. In America, there is Jeopardy! and in the UK University Challenge, both programmes are still running today. Then of course you have the more complex and high budget shows like Survivor and Amazing Race which do take the participants out of the studio to exotic locations all over the world, but the concept is still the same - you have to beat the other teams/contestants in order to win the grand prize and there can only be one winner. But whether you're dealing with a simple quiz game show that takes place in a studio or if you're getting the contestants to undergo some incredible challenges in a far away location like Tanzania, you never get rewarded for getting the answers wrong or making stupid mistakes - it is only the teams/contestants who deliver the right answers and avoid mistakes who win such game shows - in fact, producers go to great lengths to ensure that the shows do come across as fair because a result that can be perceived as unfair could potentially upset many viewers and harm their ratings. So even TV viewers essentially understand this concept of fair play, so why should we suddenly abandon that concept when it comes to how well we deliver at work then? We expect our game shows to be fair, so why should our workplace be any different then? Thus if you're the kind of person who understands the concept of being rewarded for good results, then this is definitely the path for you. Hence people like Karina and myself tend to be self-employed as this suits the way we earn our money.

5. Being a lone wolf who doesn't have a team

Some people work well in a team whilst others don't. It has a lot to do with your individual character and how you were brought up - I spent most of my childhood doing gymnastics and that's an individual sport. I would spend around 30 to 35 hours a week in the gym training, barely speaking to anyone and just doing my routines again and again in the quest for perfection - gymnasts are trained to be calm under pressure when we have to perform at big competitions so by learn to block out distractions when training and that often means something as basic as not speaking to anyone else when training. So imagine a gymnast tried to do a back somersault on the balance beam - that beam is just 10 cm wide and the margin of error is so small. Likewise, when a gymnast does a release move on the high bar or the uneven bars: let me break it down for you like this, from a big swing, you let go of the bar and execute a somersault or two, sometimes with twists and you have to then regrasp the bar at just the right moment. Again the margin of error is tiny - when you're psyching yourself up to do skills like that, many gymnasts would retreat into their own world, close their eyes and visualize the skill in their heads. That's why my many years of gymnastics have turned me into a person who would retreat into my own head with my ideas rather than like to be surrounded by a group of people who want to talk to me all the time. Some people are social creatures whereas others are lone wolves by nature: can you be trusted to work independently if left alone or do you need to be surrounded by a team in order to work more efficiently? Do you welcome that much social interaction with your team mates or would you rather they just left you alone to get on with your work? 

6. The pros and the cons of working on your own

I recall this conversation I had with my friend Lina the other day - she was facing some troubles at work with people she didn't get along with and I told her that one is likely to face that kind of challenges anywhere you work, in any industry. This is unfortunately but you can't expect to get along with everyone: I'm there to make money, not friends so if people are unpleasant, then I just accept that things are the way they are and not get upset. After all, once she finishes work, she is free to go see her friends and she gets to choose whom her friends are, quite unlike her colleagues. Nonetheless, the friction she has experienced with some of her colleagues has upset her - she really doesn't like some of them but has no choice but to work with them regardless. I remember this company where I worked at years ago - the people at worked like to go to the pub for a drink after work and there I was thinking, "I already spend so many hours at work dealing with you guys at the office, do you really want me to spend even more time after work with you when I don't even like the lot of you that much? Don't take it personally but no thank you, I'm going home now." I rarely went to the pub with them but by choosing not to do so, I was often labeled "not a team player" by some of my colleagues. By eliminating the need to socialize with colleagues, I am spending 100% of my free time with people I choose to be my friends. By that token, I'm a lot better off than Lina and I do empathize with her predicament, which is shared by many people out there.

Let's look at my friend Karina's world: she is a fashion designer so she can easily design a skirt or a jacket entirely on her own. But I also have another friend Ali works as a car designer - a car is rather big and comprises of many different components so different teams will work on different parts of the car and they will need to need to consult each other in order to ensure that the entire team has a clear understand of what they are working towards. There is a limit to what you achieve on your own and like Ali and his team, you can achieve much greater things when working in a group. I have also looked at instances where people like Lina do not get along with her colleagues, but for Ali - whilst he may not be best friends with the people in his team, they are all professional enough to put aside any personal differences and work together in a team in order to achieve a common goal - that shared desire to succeed is enough to make the work environment pleasant enough for Ali to enjoy working with his team. What Ali is doing isn't that unusual - we don't get to choose whom we have to work with or whom our clients are, but we find ways and means to get along with the people we have to face and deal with at work everyday rather than just throw our hands up in the air and declare, "I hate that bitch, I refuse to work tomorrow." I learnt that the hard way when I had to serve national service in Singapore - did I hate the people I had to work with? You bet I did. But did I have any other alternative but to learn how to get along with them? No, I learnt the art of diplomacy. Did I like them in the end? No, I still view them with contempt and disdain, but I give myself credit for having navigated my way out of a very difficult social situation and I did take away some useful lessons. 

Can you get along with your colleagues at work?

So that's it from me on this topic, what do you think? Are you a lone wolf or are you a team player? If you had the choice, which would you rather be? If you had the choice, which would you rather do? Do you work in an environment that depends on team work or is the emphasis on team work and delivering as a team? What are the benefits of working as a lone wolf then? Do leave a comment below please and let me know what your experiences are. Many thanks for reading.