Tom Brady has 7 tips for being a good teammate—how to apply them at work

With seven Super Bowl championship rings and a professional football career spanning more than two decades, Tom Brady knows a thing or two about being a good teammate.

So much so that last month, shared seven tips on how to lead effectively as a teammate in a Harvard Business Review article, co-authored by former Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria.

"Naturally, most people focus on his role as a quarterback," the authors said. "But we believe that another set of behaviors — how he helped the people around him perform better — was a vital part of why those teams won so much."

The authors argue that many of the behaviors can carry over to any team setting, and while there are important insights to learn from Brady's career, teamwork expert Liane Davey says she isn't completely sold on everything Brady had to say.

"Extreme elite athletics is not always a great parallel for work that we're going to do for 40 years," Davey, who has advised teams at Fortune 500 companies including Amazon and Walmart, tells CNBC Make It. "There's a lot we can learn, but I do think that we make a mistake in trying to equate elite professional athletics with the workplace"

Here's what Davey says we can learn from Brady, who recently became a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, about being a good teammate in a workplace:

"I began making a habit of giving credit to players in those underappreciated roles — not just because they deserved it but also to point out to others that no player should go unnoticed," Brady said. "To be a great team, everyone needs to feel valued — and it's up to the leaders of the team to make sure that happens."

Though Davey agrees with Brady that appreciating unsung colleagues is important, she says the tip is a better fit for the workplace if reframed as appreciating colleagues who have different goals.

Unlike a sports team, where everyone is working to help win a game, Davey says "there is inherent tension between roles on a work team." Even if everyone is invested in the overall success of a product or company, what that may look like may differ when working across departments.

Someone in sales may want to make a product more customizable to meet their customer's needs, but that may conflict with someone on the operations team who wants to focus on the quality of the product, which could even conflict with the person in charge of building the product, Davey says.

Good teammates should not only be cognizant and respectful of people with different goals, but Davey says they should take it a step further and appreciate colleagues with different goals.

Taking the time in a meeting to acknowledge and appreciate the opinions of team members who may have a minority opinion on a team can foster better relationships and lead to higher team performance, Davey says.

When Brady first joined the Patriots, he said he was part of a group of players who constantly competed to gain an edge on each other. Whether it was arriving at the weight room first or even drinking the most water, Brady focused on setting standard of 100% effort: "In this culture, we were holding ourselves to a higher level of accountability," he said.

While fostering a culture of 100% effort can benefit a team of elite athletes active only during their playing season, Davey says the advice may not be realistic for "mere mortals" who work year-round.

"I don't think 100% all the time is sustainable or healthy," Davey says.

Instead, Davey says teams and good teammates should clearly communicate when 100% effort is needed and when it's acceptable to ease off. Team members should also be transparent with each other when they might need to reduce their effort.

Understanding company culture during the recruiting process is also important, Davey says. She points to some companies such as Tesla that have a culture of intense effort versus others that may have a more flexible approach.

Something Brady says that carries over well to a workplace is the importance of giving frank feedback, Davey says.

"Because my teammates knew that I was invested in them, I was able to offer criticism without making them feel attacked," Brady said. "As a society, we've moved away from having those frank conversations."

Great teammates hold themselves accountable without blaming others in a "gotcha sense," Davey says — instead providing candid and transparent feedback about how individual actions affect the team.

High-performing teams embrace tension, healthy conflict and discomfort to improve overall performance, Davey says.

In September, Brady began his broadcasting career with Fox Sports. Before starting with his new team, Brady said they went to the Bahamas in May, where they bonded through beach games, shared meals and getting to know each other better.

"The camaraderie we built and the better understanding we gained of one another as individuals will help us perform better as a group this fall," he said in Harvard Business Review.

While it may not be trips to the Bahamas with your co-workers, Davey says connecting with teammates can build trust and support efficient decision making by fostering shared experiences, understanding each other as humans and encouraging risk taking.

"Risk-taking supports all sorts of productivity outcomes: better innovation, better engagement — all of those things follow when we have the connection that creates trust," Davey says. "I'm on board with Tom on that."

However, Davey says it's important to recognize that not everyone can connect outside work hours due to personal responsibilities. Creating opportunities for connection during work hours, whether it be a brief conversation at the coffee machine or an event during work hours, can help to ensure inclusivity and maintain team cohesion.

Unlike the clear objectives in sports, goals and priorities in the workplace often differ, leading to conflict and complexity. Teams are constantly shifting to align with changing strategies and environments, and Davey says great team members in the workplace must continuously reassess how their roles fit together and contribute to the organization's goals.

"It's great for us to ask what we can learn from other situations," Davey says. "But we have to be a little careful that we don't oversimplify or use a standard for the 1% of the 1% of the 1%."

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