A definition for ‘Team’

By Jeff Becraft

Every Friday email starts off with the same greeting – “Team!” It has been that way for years.

Now some people might be wondering what “Team” the greeting is referring to. Well, to give a little bit of a history about the Friday emails, the Friday emails started during the Youth Corps era of my life. I started sending them out to the Board of Directors, mostly encouraging them in their lives and in what they were helping to accomplish as a team.

Then one day, a board member said, “I really look forward to the Friday emails.” I started wondering, “Okay, well, I’ll start sending them out to some other people,” like the Board of Reference, and then financial supporters, and then it grew from there. Sometimes, just anybody that seemed interested or somebody that I knew, they got on the email list.

But from the very first, the email started off with “Team!”, which referred to the Youth Corps team. Now, I simply have kept that. The reason being is that we really do need one another in this life… and in some capacity or another, we are on the same team. And when we work together as a team, whether that’s as a business or a family or a community or society as a whole, things go a lot better.

And so, it really is a great definition for all of us.

As far as teamness goes (my spellchecker is trying to tell me “teamness” is not a word… well, it is for me… and just shows how far sometimes we are from the concept…), yesterday we had a fundraising luncheon at Our Place of Hope. Now, various people had their various positions already in place of what they needed to do that day to help with the luncheon and everyone worked really hard. It is a great feeling to be part of a great team.

But to add to that, there were some people who simply showed up and jumped in. For instance, we have medical students that come through and do their psychiatry rotation with us at Our Place of Hope, which is a really cool thing. We had two of those students just show up. We didn’t even know they were coming, and they jumped right in and started doing things to help behind the scenes. One of them jumped right into the serving line and began serving the guests that were there for the luncheon. One of our members pulled up a chair and started filling cups with ice for people’s drinks. The list goes on and on.

When people jump in like that and they become part of the action, that’s really where the fun is… and that is where we accomplish the most. I have used this acronym before and it is not original with me, but it is true:

Together
Everyone
Accomplishes
More

It is exciting to see people work together as a team and it is exciting to be part of a team.

So that is why I have kept that greeting. Even though people may not live in the same community, we are part of this society, this time in history. What we do and choose affects those around us. Every action can help lift up another life.

We really do need one another. And things do go a lot better when we work together.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope(opens in new tab) located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected](opens in new tab).