5 Ways Successful Collaborators Reach Their Goals

Welcome back to Work Smarter, your guide to reclaiming your time, restoring your well-being, and succeeding in work and life.

If you are beginning your journey with me to individual, team, and organizational success, you can learn a little more about what I do here .

Last time, I asked you, “How was your day? ” I hope that you were able to implement some of my suggestions to make your day even better! We identified our North Star Objectives, and this week I’m going to cover some of the techniques that successful collaborators employ to reach their objectives.

Focus on your strengths.

What are your strengths??

And what are the strengths that you want to use in your work?

You may be skilled in multiple areas, but what the most efficient collaborators have realized is that just because they’re good at something, that doesn’t mean they should be the ones to handle it. If you’re receiving low-level requests when you’re focused on super-complicated issues, it may feel good to take a moment and quickly solve the easier problem. But this distraction from your work and interruption to your flow might not be worth the ego-stroke. Pass it along to someone on your team, let them know you trust them, and allow them the opportunity to learn.?

Now you can get back to focusing on your strengths in a way that is most beneficial to both you and your company.

Focus on connections.

Remember when I spoke about the importance of initiating connections across short, medium, and long term horizons ? Allow your networks to span boundaries and proactively initiate network connections important to professional and personal success. We should actively seek out and make connections with people who can help us meet our goals by building a non-insular network.?

Don’t let the more-distant-horizon interactions fall away, as so often happens to people who are collaboratively overwhelmed. Listen to David Nour talk about what he calls “Curve Benders,” people who help you find solutions to your problems and become a better person, and how you can become a Curve Bender for others on LIFT with Richard Newman .?

Manage to your best rhythm of work.

Listen to your rhythms, work with them, and manage them.?

If early in the morning is a time of energy and clarity for you, what’s your best use of that time? For some people, late afternoon is a desert, but for others, it’s a low-pressure time of relaxed clarity.?

Schedule your most important activities to match your expected surges of energy and creativity and reserve the most routine stuff for your dead times.?

Sculpt your work to align with your objectives.

If we’re not careful, we can get pulled into all sorts of collaborative work that has nothing to do with where we want to go in our careers or who we want to be. It can be tempting to say yes to new projects for many reasons—an appetite for new and exciting endeavors, a fear of saying no, a reason to avoid more pressing issues.?

But when our efforts lack the purpose and thoughtfulness that characterize the most efficient collaborators, we can’t set a clear direction for our careers.

Block time in your calendar for more-reflective work.

Acutely aware that time is their most important asset, the most efficient collaborators use their calendars as tools to avoid unnecessary collaborations and consistently move toward their objectives through their professional and personal activities.?

One of my favorite aspects of the Harvard Business Review presents Coaching Real Leaders podcast is Muriel Wilkins consistently offers ways for her coaching clients to take a moment for reflection. It is an absolutely necessary tool for both setting and achieving our goals.

And stay tuned for my next newsletter where I will expand on Strategic Calendaring!

Learn more about how to be a more efficient collaborator. Subscribe to Work Smarter or connect with me for a network analysis of your specific challenges and goals.?