Collaboration can be one aspect of being a team player.  Typically if you collaborate well with others in general it is not a stretch to imagine you play or work well as a member of a team or group.

I do however distinguish those who collaborate solely or largely for their own purposes as individualists not team players.  Collaboration with intent to fullfill your own goals can look like you are working well in a team but it is really illusory.

Common Goals or Objectives

For the individual (versus a true team player) to collaborate they require the motivation of getting something they want.  If the common goal or objective no longer applies the collaborative behaviour disappears.

A common enemy is a good example of this.  I have worked with groups or teams that bonded by their dislike of someone.  As long as the common goal of attacking the enemy existed the team collaborated.

When the enemy was defeated the collaboration stopped and individulistic behaviour returned.  Cooperation quickly  dissapeared and the team crumbled.

High Performing Teams

A key attribute of high performing teams is the ability to sustain high performance.  The teams  bond is formed by the teaming behaviour by each member of the group.

Like the musketeers of  Alexander Dumas famous novel, every member of high performing teams believe “one for all, all for one” is not a catch phrase but a way to behave.

The behaviour evident in these teams does not discount individuality but it leverages the power of diversity and shared skill.  This is something the individualistic collaborator does not do.