How to Identify and Protect an Exceptional Team Member Who Goes the Extra Mile

June 21, 2017

In a team, there is always an exceptional team member who takes the extra effort in making sure the team succeeds. Most of the time these exceptional members can also be the leader of the team. It is usual for the leader to go an extra mile for the team but there are also subordinates who do the same. An exceptional team member plays an important role in the team. They are not on the team because they balance the slackers and the responsible team members, they are in the team to help and improve the existing processes. Team building Sydney has activities that can help enable exceptional team members to influence others.

You can distinguish an exceptional member right away. They are the ones who see the positivity and enthusiasm in every task. They always take the opportunity to help and give more than what is expected. If you haven't distinguished who they are, take the time of the day to observe your team members. You will notice someone who is always there to help a team member if they are behind the deadline or you will notice someone who keeps on suggesting ideas that have been part of the team's success.

Here are some ways on how to keep your exceptional team member enabled:

• Give your exceptional team member a central position in your team and work place. This will mean removing any physical barriers that will affect the collaboration process of the team like partitions. It will give the exceptional team member a higher chance of getting the job done faster and easier.
• Let your exceptional team member take part on all the tasks in your team. This means that you have to give your exceptional team member a chance to check everything that has been done or being done in the task.  This will let your exceptional team member give advice to the person who will be responsible for the next stages of the task.
• Initiate more team monitoring and collaboration. If you initiate more collaboration and monitoring, it will give your exceptional team member a chance to offer help in a more spontaneous way. Once your team collaborates more, it builds a stronger communication flow which makes help and advice more accessible to everyone in the team.
• Promote and encourage your team to suggest more alternative ways on your existing processes. Every day is a constant change and same goes with the processes your team has. The process that you have before may not apply to the situations you have right now. It is best that you add some changes to the processes so that it can fit the situation your team has. 

An exceptional team member is a person that will offer assistance and advice to other members of the team spontaneously. He is consistent and creative when looking for improvements and solutions for a certain problem your team has. They are a great asset to the team and to the company as well. There are times that the exceptional team member will have collaboration overload and as a leader, your job is to keep him encouraged but at the same time protecting him from too much exhaustion and distraction.  If you are a bit challenged by handling an exceptional team member, you can read more from our blog!