For the next 15 days, I’m going to participate in Reverb 10. It’s an open online initiative that encourages participants to reflect on this year and manifest what’s next. It’s an opportunity to retreat and consider the reverberations of your year past, and those that you’d like to create in the year ahead. We’re connected by the belief that sharing our stories has the power to change us.

Today’s Prompt – HEALING: What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

Teams are awesome. I love everything about them. I love the camaraderie, the collaboration, and the support that are inherent in them. I love the sense of working together to achieve a common goal. I love holding each other accountable, and being held accountable. I love the open communication, the pushing each other, the constant challenge to do your best because if you don’t, the whole team suffers. I love the friendships and the times of joy and even pain. The laughter, the venting, the headaches – all are made better with a team. Above all, though, the thing I love most about being on a team is the sense of belonging to something bigger than myself.

But great teams are hard to come by. They require the right group of people with the right mix of skills and talents. They demand the best, and without the best, they suffer. They are hard, but forgiving. Unconditional, but accountable. Demanding, but supportive. The actions of everyone are not only detrimental to the success of the team, but to the greatness of the team. This is the goal, in my opinion – to be a part of a great team.

Before coming to Fleishman, I spent about a year trying to start a division within a company by myself. It was Mike-the-one-man-band, and while I found that incredibly challenging and in its own right, fulfilling, I didn’t know how much I missed being a part of a team until I once again became part of one. And over the past year, it’s been quite therapeutic for me. It’s comforting and it’s given me a completely different sense of purpose. Now, I don’t feel like I’m part of a great team, I feel like I’m part of a special team.

It’s like family. There are special powers in family. And I’m excited about what the future holds.