Collaboration

Collaboration is exchanging ideas, learning from one another, and taking that shared learning to create something.

Often there are countless opportunities requiring collaboration within your organization. Suppose you work in-house like me - I have needed to rely on, listen to, and learn from others in areas like IT, product development, and marketing to do my job effectively. The collaboration opportunities included reviewing a complex information security assessment and understanding a vendor contract relating to a new product development project.

I want to break down collaboration into a few essential elements:

·??????Being Communicative

I once worked with a couple of senior sales team members on a complex deal. One sales team member was highly knowledgeable about the agreement, while the other was new to this deal and located in a different country and was on video. I had worked with both before, but not together. We met for an hour and worked on the deal documents in unison. I made sure to ask questions, ensure that anyone understood what I had said, took notes, and listened just as much, if not more, than talk. As the meeting was wrapping up, I suggested summarizing the discussion. I provided my takeaways then each of them did. After a few minutes, everyone was on the same page about the next steps.

Communication is hard to get right, especially in a group. To get right in the above example, I did two specific things:

·??????I?actively?listened. Listening is hard. Listening involves far more than simply not talking. It means taking the time to note what the other person is saying, reading their body language, and when responding to what someone has said, sometimes paraphrasing to ensure you understood what they said. Listening also involves actively showing interest in what the other person is saying by looking at them, nodding your head to show understanding, and asking questions when you do not understand something.

·??????I talked?when appropriate. Talking for most of us is easy. But, when talking to a group, the rules of talking change a bit. Not everyone you are talking to may speak the same way you do or understand things as you do or may not be a native English speaker. It is essential to be clear and succinct with what you say. Talk slowly and carefully, and check in periodically as you speak with those you are talking to ensure they understand what you are saying and check to see if any participant has questions about what you have said.

·??????Being dependable

When I first began working in-house, I quickly learned that if I were to be a business partner, I needed to provide time-sensitive support to those who turned to me for assistance. I needed to be responsive to their requests and set expectations of when I would be responding to a question. They would trust me and know they could rely on me when they needed my help. When working with others, however, you need to develop trust with those you are working with to rely on each other’s knowledge and expertise.

·??????Being accommodating

I once worked for a company where I co-managed a team comprised of global team members. Some of these team members were less experienced than others and needed some training around some changes in processes that I was implementing. Training them took time because of cultural, time zone, and language differences. I also was patient as one newer team member kept making mistakes even after repeated training sessions. I recognized that I had to train this person differently from the others. This change in approach immediately paid off, and this member became one of the most valued members of the team. As different human beings, it is vital to give one another the flexibility to work in the way that we work best while still all working towards the same goal.

·??????Being emotional intelligent

We all face challenges in our lives, whether emotionally, physically, or psychologically. There have been days when I have been particularly emotional due to high stress.

I once had a boss who was tough as nails and had high emotional intelligence. During the middle of a particularly stressful week, she took me aside, and we talked for thirty minutes about managing stress and what she could do to help me. It made a massive difference for me. While the remaining days of the week were difficult, I managed them effectively and achieved the goals I had established for that week.

Human beings are emotional. We are dynamic. We are both predictable and unpredictable. We even sometimes let our emotions dictate how we act, e.g., we may purportedly believe in one way of doing something one day and the next propose a new way of doing that same thing the next day.

When collaborating with others, it is essential to recognize that there will be times when you may want to talk about a business matter with someone, but they instead need someone to provide a shoulder to rest on and an ear to listen. We all could do a better job of being there emotionally for our colleagues. A simple call or note to say hello can make a considerable difference in both the short and long term.