“Report Hog”, “Lone Wolf”, “Guy who wants to do it all by himself without any help….” We’ve all heard these terms for folks who prefer to solo a project instead of teaming up.

“Lazy”, “insubordinate”, etc. These are a few words for those who perform minimal to no work at all. Pride and laziness are on two opposite extremes of work effort, but they are really both one in the same.
Before I reveal why, here are some points about both.

The FlyingRodentMan Complex

• The prideful overzealous worker who wants everything done alone.
• Unwilling to compromise
• Doesn’t value input from others (unless they are considered valid)

Suddenly certain heroes don’t sound so cool, huh?

In a nutshell, there are those who get nervous about the success of a project and decide to take it upon themselves in order to prevent any mistakes. This strategy usually only sounds good to two types of people. The person who is doing the most work, and the person who is doing the least.

Sloth Compl-(too lazy to finish the word)

• Not vocal about project plans
• Focused on something outside the project or distracted
• Difficult to contact for updates on project status

There are some folks who feel uncomfortable with the idea of a long term project. Especially if the end date is slow approaching. They tend to shrink into the background during the planning stages of the project or, if the team is working remotely, they are non-respondent/sluggish in responses to requests. Now, the reason sloths are equally as dangerous as the FRMen is quite simple. Both impede progress by obstructing cohesion.

Cohesion, or sticking together, is essential to a team. It’s what makes a project run smoothly from start to finish. When the team members work together as one, it makes communication easier and planning tasks more effective since everyone is assigned a role and able to discuss it with their team members. However, this is ruined when team members try to do more work on their own or stop working altogether.

FRMen, while focused on the end goal, should make more effort to divide work with the team. They can even offer to help other team members with their tasks. This method can help the project move along without disrupting the cohesion between team members.

Similarly, Sloths, who are usually counting the seconds until the project is over, can pass the time by working on their assigned tasks or discussing methods for finishing the project sooner with the other team members. Finding methods to save time and sharing them with team members can increase cohesion overall while getting work completed efficiently.

Where would the Power Rangers be without Zordon to give the orders, Alpha to teleport them, and the various musicians in the background to provide the hype music? A football team needs a quarterback for the snap, soccer teams need a goalie to defend the goal, and we all need a couple Rattata to use all our HMs in Pokemon. If we’re gonna beat Rita, win championships, or become Pokemon Masters, we have to work as a team! Sometimes we have to ease up and let others take part or step forward to make our contribution. But if we work together as a cohesive team, we can effectively accomplish our goals.

Then we can go back to our Netflix windows and NEVER TEAM UP AGAIN.

Join the mailing list to see updates like this every week!
Coding Fanatic