Being a ‘team player’ in a business sense has always carried a certain perception – being agreeable, causing minimal fuss and willing to step into tasks and activities that may not be directly in one’s wheelhouse.

It’s been unequivocally regarded as a positive to be, a term used in development catch-ups, either in favour of or against an employee. However, this depiction is now being slowly challenged by those in the workplace and their leaders – is being an agreeable team member always a positive? Or does there need to be a sense of being able to push back in order to be a truly well-rounded employee and team player?

My take is that this shift in mindset and attitude has manifested due to a lack of accountability that currently exists within businesses, which needs addressing. There are several reasons for this, but one is that we have seen a slow decline in workplace accountability since the pandemic. We saw the scales tip in favour of employee demands, as demonstrated with the Great Resignation in 2021, as opposed to business outcomes.

The balance has somewhat shifted back, but it has led to leaders being slightly stifled in their decision-making around performance management – largely due to fear of a backlash via social media and other platforms. The lack of accountability and avoidance in making tough decisions has filtered into workplace culture where silence emerges, employees avoid pushing back and leaders avoid enforcing standards – impacting performance, decision-making, and risk management.

The value of push back

It leads me back to celebrating workplace environments that understand the value of being able to push back. The essence of being a good team player in modern organisations shouldn’t be just agreeing with the status quo but actually recognising when something may need to be said and change may need to be encouraged. Employees who challenge ideas constructively help prevent mistakes, spot risks, and drive innovation. Speaking up also sets the standard for the rest of the team and creates opportunities to act on learnings and feedback, with a view to making consistent improvements within a workforce. Without this culture of questioning, organisations risk stalled decision-making and, in extreme cases, financial or reputational harm – an example being an employee feeling unable to challenge a financial request from a senior leader, which ends up being fraudulent.

The ability of employees to feel empowered to speak up and push back at the right time, in the right manner, is dictated by the CEO and businesses’ leaders. They must set the tone and create a psychologically safe environment and one where employees have a sense of pride about their work and their organisation, and actually seek constant improvement, rather than settling for the mediocre.

Creating a framework for accountability

At Martian Logic, we have clear frameworks in place, including performance improvement plans, that provide a clear structure and bring a sense of accountability that development is down to individuals, not just the organisation. As long as these plans are fair, transparent and measurable and genuinely in place to support growth, then everyone should be a winner. What organisations are seeking is the “High Challenge, High Support” model, which is seen as the best method to drive growth – essentially setting employees demanding challenges, but giving them the necessary resources, backing and support to succeed.

When these accountability frameworks are done well, they foster both personal and professional growth and also provide a sense of fulfillment within employees. I’ve seen that most employees want to do their best and go above and beyond for their workplace or clients, but don’t always have the right culture around them that enables them to flourish. Constructive pushback is a key facet within this and needs to be applicable in both directions. For a business to succeed; leaders need to be able to drive performance in their teams through honest frameworks, and employees need to feel they can contribute and speak up to drive innovation.

As workplace dynamics continually shift and evolve, companies that encourage constructive pushback will be better positioned to succeed. It’s time that we redefined the term of ‘being a good team player’ to be someone who is prepared to challenge and question what’s occurring in a business. Blind compliance doesn’t help any individual or organisation – it’s time for all levels of businesses to rediscover and build their accountability muscle to drive performance.

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