FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR TEAM’S COLLABORATION
Whether you're a leader by title or nature, one of your most essential responsibilities is building and strengthening your team's collaborative muscle.
Collaboration increases effectiveness and leads to better problem-solving (innovation) and outcomes. Probably most importantly, though, a culture of collaboration lets your team members know they are never alone; that support is available if they need it, which increases their psychological safety – essential for a high-performance organization.
Four ways to help your organization build and strengthen its collaborative muscles are:
1. Communicate Cleary and Effectively.
Effective communication is the exchange or transmission of thoughts and feelings from the sender to a receiver using a channel that can be understood clearly, leaving both sender and receiver feeling understood, seen and heard. When you're about to engage in a conversation, read the room, and ask yourself, "Is this the right time and place to have a conversation?" If yes, make eye contact, invite the receiver into the conversation, listen actively, stay curious, manage your emotions, stay focused, get to the point, and read the room.
2. Set Common Goals and Objectives.
Having a shared goal helps every team member understand their value and contribution, the desired outcomes, and helps them stay focused and accountable. By promoting and encouraging cross-functional teams to work on those shared goals, you help them develop and strengthen those critical collaborative muscles.
3. Build Trust and Respect.
Trust and respect are the foundation of all successful collaborations. To build trust, start by being open and vulnerable. Share your experiences, then listen and be curious about theirs. Respect and appreciate their perspectives and contributions. A simple way to do that is by saying, "Thank you for sharing that – it helps me understand where you're coming from." Importantly, give credit wherever possible. Nothing deflates an individual like having their contributions undervalued or used to your benefit. Creating a safe and respectful environment increases that all-important psychological safety, encouraging your team to share more and work collaboratively to achieve your organization's goals.
4. Celebrate Success and Learn from Failure.
Success lives in the land of failure. The only sure way to be successful is to fail, learn from it and improve. Providing your organization with the psychological safety to solve problems in their way (another tenant of high-performing organizations) allows them the freedom to collaborate and leverage their strengths. A step most organizations skip, however, is the celebration. Taking a moment to acknowledge crossing the finish line of your project or goal tells your team that their work matters – an important motivational tool for longevity.
Let's be honest; building a collaborative organization takes intention, time and effort. The ROI, however, is priceless. How your team feels about their work and the organization separates good organizations from great ones. When you're ready to dig deeper into the abovementioned strategies, send me a message.
As your Executive Coach, I support you in creating the high-performance organization you've read about.
Published by
Trusted and Award-Winning Coach and Consultant | Heart-Centred Leadership & Organizational Development | Change Facilitator | Mentor
Published • 21h
Collaboration increases effectiveness and leads to better problem-solving (innovation) and outcomes. Probably most importantly, though, a culture of collaboration lets your team members know they are never alone; that support is available if they need it, which increases their psychological safety – essential for a high-performance organization.
