While there is an i in tie, which is distantly related to team through teem, or etymologically, ahem.., abundance, the adage "there is no i in team" remains valid etymologically.
But what does it mean?
Great leaders, team builders, and coaches emphasize team work as a willingness to sacrifice ones personal glory for the greater glory of the team.
The premise is that winning is more easily achieved when working as a team.
This is undoubtedly true.
Life is a team game.
When people work together, the sum of their results is greater than the sum of their individual efforts.
1 + 1 = 3
[Caution! Define 'winner' in terms of (gentlemanly) behavior, not competition or results.]
Even the exceptional performances of champions in indivual sports, like tennis, golf, or cross-country skiing, are the results of team work.
It takes a village.
Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
Together We Achieve More.
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Everybody's heard those adages, and everybody knows they're true.
Think about your team
What is your role?
Is it the right role for you?
What can you do differently to improve performance and increase your contribution?
In what other ways can you improve the performance of your team?
What things should you definitely not do?
Find someone suitable to look over your list.
Write down a description of the dream team you would most like to be a part of
What would be your role in that team?
Make a list of 5 things you can do differently to make your ‘dream team’
Get started on one of them now!
Team [OE]
"Team The etymological notion underlying the word team is pulling. It goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *deuk- 'pull,' which also produced Latin ducere 'pull, lead' (source of English abduct, duke, etc). Its Germanic descendant was *taukh-. From this was derived a noun *taugmaz, whose later form *taumaz gave English team. This is originally denoted a group of animals harnessed together to pull a load, but the modern sense 'group of people acting together' did not emerge from this until the 16th century. Another strand in the meaning of the base is giving birth, offspring (presumably based on the notion of children being drawn forth from the womb). This has now disappeared from team, but traces of it can still be detected in the related teem [OE], whose modern connotations of abundance go back to an earlier 'bring forth offspring prolifically.' From the same source come English tie and tow."
~ John Ayto’s “Dictionary of Word Origins”
