His friends called him Q. He has become a legend in the entertainment industry. He has worked with the best in the business, starting in the bebop era: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, and the list goes on. He produced the best-selling music single of all time "We Are The World." He produced the best-selling album of all time: Michael Jackson's Thriller. He has been nominated for more Grammy Awards than any other person, and as of today, he has won a total of thirty-one. The person I am talking about is Quincy Jones.
Quincy Jones was born in 1933 in Chicago and spent his first decade in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods. By his own admission, Jones says that he and his brother got into a lot of trouble in those early days. Then his famil;y moved to Bremerton, Washington.
Soon afterward Jones discovered his love for music. At the age of elevn, he decided that he wanted to play an instrument. So he started with percussion. Even back then he showed signs of a quality that would mark him as a professional--his adaptability. He began staying after school and trying out a variety of other instruments. He tried the clarinet and violin, but ultimately he was attracted to brass. So he tried out all the brass instuments: baritone, French horn and trombone. Finally he landed on the trumpet, and he excelled.
By age fourteen, he had his first paying job as a musician. As a teenager, he became frirnds with Ray Charles, who is just a few years older than he. Jones began to compose music and to learn how to do arrangements.
Jones has always displayed a strong hunger to learn--which he calls an "obsessive curiosity"--an amazing adaptabilty. In 1957, when he thought he could use more education, he moved to Paris and studied under Nadia Boulanger, who had tutored Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.
His flexibilty and creativity have served Jones well. They have not only enabled him to work with all kinds of musicians--from Latin to pop and from jazz to rap--but they have also enabled him to bring out the best of any person he works with.
To Jones, being able to adjust or stretch himself is not a big deal: it's just who he is.
Teamwork and personal rigidity just don't mix. If you want to work well with others and be a good team player, you have to be willing to adapt yourself to your team. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter observed, "The individuals who will succeed and flourish will also be the Masters of change: adept at reorienting their own and others' activities in untried directions to bring about higher levels of achievement." Team players who exhibit adaptability have certain characteristics. Adaptable peopl are...teachable, emotionally secure, creative and service minded. How are you when it comes to adaptability? If improving the team requires you to change the way you do things, how do you react? Are you supportive, or would you rather do things the way they've "always been done before"? Are you willing to take on a different role and change positions to help out?
The first key to being a team player is being willing to adapt yourself to the team--not an expectation that the team will adapt to you.
Solutions are always a part of my opinions. In no way do I ever consider my way "the way." I only invite thought into your minds and hearts. Consider these 3 things to improve yourself and become a better "team player."
1. Get into the habit of learning: For many years I carried a 3 x 5 card in my pocket. Every day I learned something new, I'd write it down on the card. By the end of the day, I'd try to share the idea with a friend or colleague and then file the idea for future use. It got me in the habit of looking for things to learn. Try it for a week and see what happens.
2. Reevaluate your role: Spend some time looking at your current role on your team. The try to discover whether there is another role you could fulfill as well or better than you do your current one. That process may prompt you to make a better transition, but even if it doesn't, the mental excercise will increase your flexibility.
3. Think outside the lines: Let's face it: many people aren't adaptable because they get into negative ruts. If you tend to be prone to ruts, then write down this phrase and keep it where you can see it every day: "Not why it can't be done but how it can be done." Look for unconventional solutions every time you must meet a challenge. You'll be surprised by how creative you can become if you continually strive to do so.
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