Players vs. Pretenders

I recently read an interesting article from the John Maxwell Company that offered some great tips on identifying who your players on your team are versus who are the pretenders.  Pretenders look the part and talk the part, but fall short in fulfilling the part.  They can disrupt your entire team.  Pretenders put their personal agenda before the team. Check out these tips to distinguish between the two.

1.  Players have a servant’s mindset; pretenders have a selfish mindset.  Players do things for the benefit of others and the organization, while pretenders think only of benefitting themselves.  A pretender is singly focused on outcomes that are in his or her best interest.

2.  Players are mission-conscious; pretenders are position-conscious.  Players will give up a position to achieve a mission. Pretenders will give up a mission to achieve a position. For players, the progress of the mission is much more important than their own place within it, but a pretender will value his or her position more highly than just about anything else.

3.  Players deliver the goods; pretenders only make promises.  A player is a team member who can be counted on to finish a task every time. The pretender will claim the ability to do so; but in the end, he or she does not consistently execute.

4.  Players are job-happy; pretenders are job-hunters.  Players love what they do and do it well. For them, work is fulfilling and meaningful, and they are devoted to carrying out their responsibilities with excellence. On the other hand, pretenders always see greener grass elsewhere. Since they’re constantly on the lookout to better their situation, they have no loyalty and will break commitments whenever doing so helps them to get ahead.

5.  Players love to see others succeed; pretenders are only interested in their own success. A player is happy when another member of the team succeeds because it benefits all. The pretender sees success as a win-lose proposition, and resents it when another person “wins.”

6.  Players value integrity; pretenders value image.  A player can be counted on to do the right thing, even if nobody is looking.  Contrarily, pretenders do the right thing only when being watched, and they do whatever is expedient otherwise. Furthermore, since they focus on appearance rather than character, pretenders won’t admit fault when mistakes are made. They blame others for all of their problems instead of taking personal ownership of them.

7.  Players make the hard choices; pretenders make the easy choices.  With a hard choice, the price is paid on the front end; the payoff only comes later. Such choices almost always include risk, and they usually involve the sacrifice of placing the organization above oneself too. Players aren’t afraid to make those decisions.

8.  Players finish well; pretenders fade out. Some people start as players, but at some point they turn into pretenders.  It’s because they overestimate the event and underestimate the process. They make the choice to begin, but they get tired of the work it takes to continue. Or they begin and proceed until they are confronted with the need to change. Unwilling to adjust, they begin pretending in order to get by. On the other hand, a player takes all tasks to completion.

Copyright 2012 The John Maxwell Company.  Articles accessed via http://www.johnmaxwell.com may not be reprinted or reproduced without written permission from The John Maxwell Company, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Who are your players and who are the pretenders?  Players will always add to the team’s efforts.  Pretenders will cost the team.  It’s important to know the difference.  What’s been your experience?  Leave your comments below.

To print this or any other post, click the first icon in Share the Knowledge below.