Finding Successful Teamwork in Your Trading

In response to the posts on teamwork and performance and creativity and teamwork, several readers have asked how they might connect with others and enjoy the potential fruits of collaboration.

In her comment to the performance post, Michelle B. makes an excellent point. Teamwork cannot substitute for self-development. Before you have something to offer a team, you must first learn to coach yourself and bring the best out in you. Rarely can we offer more to others than we can provide to ourselves. Or, as Ayn Rand put it, one must have an "I" before meaningfully verbalizing "I love you."

This is why, in the Trading Coach book, Lesson 45 (Making the Most of Your Coaching Relationship with yourself) precedes Lesson 46 (Finding Positive Trading Relationships with others). Mastering our own self talk is helpful if we're going to talk constructively with others.

Michelle rightly points out that the Web offers a virtual treasure trove of potential collaborators. Take a look at your favorite websites and those that offer the best comments on those. Take a look at those who are sharing their work in blogs. Put your own comments and work out there. You'll be surprised at how many people you can network with and how many reach out to you.

Consider coaching in the world of athletics: the coach works with players in real time, during practice and during actual performance events. Teaching and coaching are seamlessly intertwined with the act of performing. Much of what makes teamwork powerful is that it occurs in real time, in the actual learning environment.

Real time electronic communications, from Twitter to IM and teleconferencing apps, make collaboration more possible than ever before. It is unfortunate that many of these efforts to date are pursued by performers who hope that teamwork will substitute for independent learning and gurus who desperately seek to profit from them.

You would not believe how many out-and-out frauds there are in the trading education, mentorship, and coaching worlds.

Don't let it get you down. Wherever and however it appears, seek out talent and let others share in your talents. Become your best and search for others who are doing the same. Over time, your team will coalesce.
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