Most of us would concede that collaborating with others would provide better results. Why don’t we do it? It is like getting enough exercise and sleep, and eating a healthy diet are three things we should do to prevent disease and live longer. Why don’t we do it. We know we should. It is proven this will reduce stress and we would be happier and healthier. Time is ticking and it behooves to take action. The same is true about collaboration. We know that with better collaboration we can be more productive, have better results, and better customer satisfaction. So, what can we do? Read on.
What are the benefits of collaboration?
There are many benefits to collaboration. Indeed offers ten ideas and Mural offers nine more. The key elements are summarized here. It starts with realizing if you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together.
We as people are simply better when we come out of our own silo and work together. When we collaborate, we each bring our own ideas from various perspectives that allow our experiences to offer additional insights. Most of the time it is more efficient. Brainstorming with others offers additional ideas and improves problem solving. When we collaborate, we promote understanding and communication. The more we learn and work with each other builds trust. When we build trust with one another, we look out for each other too. Employees are encouraged to share their ideas, which results in a more enjoyable working environment. As a result, there is better retention. This reduces costs and enhances employee satisfaction.
By being more inclusive, this builds connections and drives innovation.
When conflicts arise, they are addressed positively, because everyone’s perspective is valued. They rely on each other for help and support. The talents of others are respected, and colleagues share professional skills. Appreciation is the norm. Professional relationships are enhanced. With constructive feed forward, self-awareness and understanding become the norm. All of these are elements that promote authentic connecting relationships and listening actively with one another to work towards a common goal. Knowing all of these benefits, what can we do?
How can we be more collaborative?
It starts with an attitude and a mindset. Incorporating everyone into a mindset that says we can do this together, but we need everyone on board, is the gal. Focusing on the problem and being tough on the problem is critical. We all make mistakes. You want to encourage others to try things that they think may work, but if they don’t be gentle on the people.
This will create an environment where everyone is valued for their thoughts, ideas, and work.
Healthy competition is good, but it can turn unhealthy quickly. If team members have to worry about looking good that takes time, energy and resources away from the overall goal.
How can you overcome a negative mindset?
A negative employee may state that “I only do what I have to do”. I heard that recently at a location. That tells me that the employee does not feel valued, may be burned out, and has decided not to fully collaborate with others. This is a challenge to overcome the negative mindset. Help them identify and express what they are feeling and why. Listen actively. Validate how they are feeling. Reflect back to them what you thought you heard.
Help them work through their frustrations. Coach them to help lead them to a better place.
If they can’t be coached it may be necessary to part ways. See how this is going regularly and reevaluate the situation. In the end it is up to the employee to determine their own mindset, but by being there for them listening actively, and coaching them positively, you may be able to make a positive difference.
Pause, reflect, and make extra efforts
Think about what you do and where you spend your time. If you paused to look at your schedule, your emails, the meetings you attend, and the actions you take, you may be surprised. Are you busy or do you have a full schedule? There is a difference. Being busy means you have lots of activities.
A full schedule means you are spending time on priority items and making a positive difference.
Where should you spend your time? How can this be changed? Can emails be more succinct and to the point. Are they clear? Do you need to attend all of the meetings that you do? Could they be managed differently? Could time frames be reduced to prioritize time in the meeting? If you pause, reflect and make some extra efforts to address these inefficiencies this could make a major difference.
When to ask questions and ask for help
Our brains are bombarded with to much information. When our brains feel threatened our natural reaction is to fight, flight, and freeze. We are ready to jump to a negative conclusion and fight back. We may react by saying I need to get out of here and go somewhere else. We may simply withdraw. We often overreact.
When you are stuck, reach out for help.
With software engineering, engineering in general, project management, team management, and leadership, often the time frame is as low as 15 minutes. If I cannot figure it out, who can? Who should I ask, call, or reach out to? I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole and waste a lot of time. By reaching out to others this tells them that you value them. Asking for help is one of the greatest compliments you can give to someone else. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, about underlying assumptions, or how to proceed. You would rather know earlier than waste a lot of time on a dead end. You will be appreciated for this.
So there you have the big three ways to enhance collaboration for yourself and others. Here are ways to be more collaborative even with those with negative attitudes. Pause, reflect, and take appropriate actions, Ask questions and ask for help early on if what you are doing is unclear or you do know how to proceed. These are ways you can capture the benefits of collaboration, reduce your own stress, enhance employee satisfaction, and better serve your customers.
Check out these links to my publications if you would like to learn more about collaboration, conflict resolution, or enhancing your servant manager skills.