How to build collaborative working relationships

Collaboration may sound easy, after all working together is a requirement for effective teams, but it isn’t always that simple. People come from varying backgrounds and the default is often to take an approach based on personal experience. When that experience differs and people have different ways of doing things, clashes can occur.

The challenge is that often both approaches are feasible, but getting team members to agree when they feel strongly about something can be difficult. Ultimately this is what collaboration is about, and why as a soft skill, it’s essential for advancing in your career. To improve on this soft skill we share how to become a better collaborator:

Develop a big picture view

Collaboration becomes easier when goals are aligned. By learning to see the bigger picture, and what needs to achieved, it teaches you to zoom out and consider what possibilities lie beyond your experience and knowledge. When you’re able to see the bigger picture, you can also start to see what skills everyone brings, where they compliment one another, and where there are gaps. Then collaboration becomes easier because everyone is working to their strengths.

Know what you know

Understand the extent of your skills and knowledge. More importantly, recognise what you don’t know. The objective of collaboration is to leverage everyone’s strengths so that as a collective you have more knowledge to work with. When the focus is on what everyone brings, rather than comparing or competing on skills, collaboration is much more effective.

Learn to prioritise

On projects, it’s easy to get side-tracked by challenges along the way. The problem is that if everyone is pulling in different directions, the project will fail. Learning to prioritise the main objectives can help everyone to focus on what needs to be achieved and then collaboration becomes easier.

Practice giving feedback

Working with others requires listening to their input and being able to give feedback in a constructive way. A good approach is to keep things neutral. Talk about the idea, not their idea. Make the case for your feedback in a neutral way. This is especially important if it’s critical of their input. You don’t want to alienate co-workers through harsh criticism. Rather keep conversations constructive, focusing on the good elements of an idea and how to build on them to meet the project objectives.