It is trendy to ask workers to put aside personal aspirations for the benefit of the team. It sounds good, generous, devoid of greed, etc.

Truth is that Socialism failed because we are selfish individuals. In a positive way. It is only natural that we want for our families and for ourselves, the best we can get. We like to be recognized (individually, as for our contribution to community, society or team). We strive to be better. We would like to be the best of any team we are part of.

Is that wrong? No, quite the opposite. Since one can (at best) only ‘own’ and therefore be responsible for oneself, we can only direct our own appetite and efforts to improve and grow. That is precisely our best contribution to any team: because we care to improve ourselves, to master that unique instrument (us) so it can play better music in the band (team).

With little to contribute to a team resulting from lack of concentration on our own self improvement, we add very little value to the whole (team).
Being part of a team, we strive for the unit to succeed by improving ourselves first, our performance and our skills as an individual. For that we need to focus on us, to be self-centered, or selfish.

Only at that point, secondarily, we are then concerned and contributing to the success of such team.