Career North Star News - Issue 1: Mastering Teamwork & Solo Success
- jessica9071
- Oct 27
- 3 min read
Career North Star • Oct 27, 2025 • Issue 1
Highlights
This week, we discuss the first two of the five attributes of a great professional: the ability to be a soloist and a team player. These two pillars of professionalism, while they seem completely opposite, are integral to any successful career.
For all in today’s professional world, it is crucial to know when to excel as a soloist and when to roll up your sleeves and jump in to be a team player.
Soloist: Mastering the Mindset
Being a Soloist isn't about working alone. It is about owning work. And doing so in the context of a team environment to everyone's benefit. It can be difficult learning to become a great soloist, especially early in your career. But think about when you were in school. You perhaps had a study group, getting ready for the big exam. But that next day, when it came time for the test, it was just you and the test questions. It is only you who has complete ownership. It's the same concept in business. A soloist owns a piece of work. They drive it to completion. Not necessarily alone, you can work with others along the way. But the ultimate owner is you! Colleagues love to work with people who take true ownership of their work. Here are some tips and tricks on how to become or to grow your soloist superpower:
Hone Your Craft: By taking a task from start to finish, you become a problem solver, which builds confidence. You figure out what you're good at and what needs work by working on something independently.
Develop Discipline: Discipline is the "quiet engine" behind consistency and reliability, ensuring you meet deadlines and deliver consistently. Your ability to have the discipline to get something done on your own is hugely important.
Build Credibility and Influence: Solo wins build your reputation, leading to trust and, in the long term, the influence to shape decisions and take on bigger roles.
Team Player: Cultivating your Team
While it is important to be a soloist on some occasions, you rarely operate in a vacuum without consulting or communicating with others. Being a great team player means more than cooperating with your team. In order to be successful, you must collaborate with your team. If you really want to take it to the next level for your own career and your team’s success, you need to lead.
Adaptability is Key: Successful team members and leaders need to be adaptable and communicative. The ability to have empathy when working with a lot of different people, including those with different cultural backgrounds, experiences, or from a different generation is key to success no matter your role on the team. Emotional intelligence helps you to "read the room," understand other people's emotions, and respond appropriately, which creates trust.
Evolving Roles: From a leadership view, part of the definition of a great leader is you work with everyone and help them to be successful. You may be the subject matter expert one time and the note-taker another. The definition of a great leader is leading from the front, from the back, and beside your team to reach the end goal.
Intellectual Curiosity: The Key to Solo and Group Success
When you are feeling uncertain or nervous about where to begin, you can start by asking simple, yet pointed, questions to a veteran employee or leader. Ask:
Who does that currently today? / Who is the subject matter expert or the lead on that?
What can you own?
When or how often do we do that?
Where do we do that? / Where can I go for more info?
Why do they do it that way? / Why is it important?
How do we do that?
Asking the "why" question can often lead to the answer, "Because it's the way it's always been done". These types of questions open a door for you to come in with humility and suggest an improvement.
Whether you are starting out in a new role or trying to expand your existing role, the ability to discern the type of resource an organization needs is crucial. Maintaining a high level of intellectual curiosity and energy will ensure you can be flexible and adjust based on the needs of the task at hand.
Coming Next
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Career North Star is dedicated to helping early career professionals and leaders build the skills, confidence, and connections they need to thrive. We believe in purposeful leadership, proactive ownership, and creating opportunities for all professionals to succeed. https://www.careernorthstar.net/
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