Be a Good Teammate
During the course of my hockey career I was always told and taught to be a good teammate. If a teammate was struggling whether it be on or off of the ice, it was always taught that you be a good teammate, support them and lift them up. I have had great teammates and coaches throughout my youth and college hockey career who have lifted me up when I was down, pushed me to my personal limits, and have made me into the person that I am today but what happens when you are on a team with some not so good teammates ?
As a player, I consider myself to be very lucky when it comes to my teammates. I am still close friends with many that I grew up playing with in Colorado and I am still in constant contact with teammates from both the University of Connecticut where I got my start and THE Pennsylvania State University where I finished my college hockey career as a two year captain. These are the girls that will remain my teammates and sisters for life. Not to say that there weren't any disagreements or that everything was perfect but this is my tribe and these are the people who have and continue to stick with me through thick and thin.
Being a good teammate isn’t about telling someone something they want to hear but rather telling them what they need to hear. This can be done in a number of different ways and it depends on the dynamic. I think this is where emotional intelligence comes in and those that have a high degree of emotional intelligence and diplomacy, can say something that might be hard to get across but they have the patience to plan the right seeds. In other cases, what needs to be said or done needs to be done in a more direct way. Being a good teammate or a good friend or a good family member isn’t about enabling, it is about making decisions out of a loving place and sometimes the hard thing is the right thing.
I call on you to ask yourself if you are a good teammate or if you have good teammates in your life. If the answer to either of these questions is no, then there probably needs to be a little self reflection and behavioral adjustments. It is also important to remember that as human beings we all make mistakes and are far from perfect so give yourself a little grace if you have slipped up… we all do I know I have. What matters is that you get back up and you are growing moving forward.
