What Makes A Team?
Afternoon all,
Growing up going to local small businesses, I never looked at them as “small”. They seemed like pillars in the local community, with people that everyone knew. How could a place holding shared memories for so many people be deemed “small”?
Then I started a small business and realized what “small” really means. It means we have to be smart, hard-working and efficient just to stay in business. It means everyone has a purpose, there’s little opportunity for people who aren’t adding value.
Small business exemplifies what a team really does. Every person has a role that supports a larger mission. Without them, the mission fails.
Our team at Soma VT looks like that currently. Having been in business for a year, we may be looking back at this time in Soma’s history as “the golden years”. Not because of our balance sheet but because of our team.
We have three trainers, a physical therapist, a massage therapist, a dietician, an intern and the world’s best cleaning guy on our team at this moment. Eight people making a small business run as best as it can.
Today, I was out sick.
I rolled out of bed at 5:15am to a sore throat that I knew wasn’t going to make it to work. After working through the anxiety of missing a day of work, I sent a few messages about my absence for the day.
What happened next is what makes us the team that we are.
In less than an hour, my coaching day was covered or rescheduled. Our Week 7 intern picked up some coaching hours on a moment’s notice. One of our trainers picked up the slack of sending emails and responding to inquiries, another trainer sent me a “get well” message that made me smile.
Jes, our physical therapist, sent me a funny meme to cheer me up about a dog pooping on the floor and an afternoon interview was handled by all staff, with everyone chipping in to offer a question and learn about the new candidate for our team.
It was, in a nutshell, a beautiful day to be sick.
Not every day is smooth, our team suffers setbacks and our personal lives often challenge us to be our best in the workplace. Having played sports throughout my childhood and college, I’ve been on good teams and bad. This team that we have at Soma VT is one of the best I’ve been around for the sole reason that we have each other’s backs. If one of us falls, the others are there to catch them.
That’s what a team is to me.
Thank you for making this one of the better sick days that I’ve experienced.
Kevin