The greatest compliment you can receive from another in your clubhouse, locker room or office is being dubbed a great teammate.

There are a plethora of ways we can demonstrate strong teammate behavior. We can provide an ear and not talk, but be present for a lockermate. We can offer words of encouragement. We can grab a man (or woman, though I’ve never played with one) by the shirt, look into his eyes and demand greater effort. We can study film for or with him or independently point out mechanical flaws. Basically, being a tremendous teammate is analogous to being a powerful friend. From Karlene Pick, M.A., Mental Training Consultant:

Merely being together at workouts and games doesn’t necessarily guarantee a team will be cohesive and successful, it simply means that they are occupying the same space at the same time. A cohesive team can be distinguished from a noncohesive team by many characteristics. A cohesive team has well-defined roles and group norms, common goals, a positive team identity, a good working relationship, shared responsibility, respect, positive energy, trust, a willingness to cooperate, unity, good communication, pride in membership, and synergy. Another indicator of the amount of cohesiveness in a team is the frequency of statements of we and our, in contrast to statements of I, me and mine. The we is just as important as the me. Developing cohesion is something that takes time and effort, but it is well worth the investment.

This shared identity and respect comes from trust. We trust our teammates to have our backs, just like we have theirs. Suppose I’m a closer with a runner on third base, 2 outs, bottom of the ninth, up a run, with 0 balls and two strikes on the hitter. I know with a high degree of certainty that if I deliver my best split, the batter is out and the game is over. In that moment, the thought flashes through my brain that I could very well spike the pitch. Now, if my catcher is flexible, nimble, and quick to his athletic positions, he has a good chance to block that pitch for us. Additionally, I’m trusting that he wasn’t liquored up the night before and is well rested so as to have his cognitive function firing at optimal levels.

If that catcher doesn’t work to be athletic, I’m furious and can’t trust him. If my teammate doesn’t earn my trust, I know I can’t count on him. This same principle applies in any team activity, but perhaps no more so than when life and death is on the line. Today, my good friend and colleague and I opined on this topic. He served our country and expressed to me the following.

There is a saying in the military: “Train like your buddy’s life depends on it.” The logic here is that if you are out of shape, you won’t be able to perform the actions that will save your teammate’s life, such as dragging them out of a firefight, or will put the team at higher risk through decreased performance. A related analogy can be seen in the tourniquets that we carried at all times to stop traumatic bleeding. If a guy was sloppy and didn’t have his gear squared away, organized and functional, it could kill his teammate. You don’t carry tourniquets to save your own life, you carry them for your teammates.

Trusting that your teammate is prepared, both mentally and physically, is critical for success. That trust is then demonstrated and communicated through our body language. If you’ve read our previous posts, you know the impact our body language can have on our own confidence and well-being, but the effects extend far beyond our own personal sphere. From the New York Times:

In a paper due out this year in the journal Emotion, Mr. Kraus and his co-authors, Cassy Huang and Dr. Keltner, report that with a few exceptions, good teams tended to be touchier than bad ones. The most touch-bonded teams were the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, currently two of the league’s top teams; at the bottom were the mediocre Sacramento Kings and Charlotte Bobcats.

The same was true, more or less, for players. The touchiest player was Kevin Garnett, the Celtics’ star big man, followed by star forwards Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors and Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz. “Within 600 milliseconds of shooting a free throw, Garnett has reached out and touched four guys,” Dr. Keltner said.

To correct for the possibility that the better teams touch more often simply because they are winning, the researchers rated performance based not on points or victories but on a sophisticated measure of how efficiently players and teams managed the ball — their ratio of assists to giveaways, for example. And even after the high expectations surrounding the more talented teams were taken into account, the correlation persisted. Players who made contact with teammates most consistently and longest tended to rate highest on measures of performance, and the teams with those players seemed to get the most out of their talent.

Turns out, all those high fives, handshake rituals and butt slaps make a significant difference to both individual players and the team performance as a whole. Ensuring that you have positive body language and are seeking our your teammates for the same may not mean the difference between going 0-4 and blasting 3 home runs, but over time, will add up to better performance.

Strong mind,

Kap