How To Collaborate At Work

Learning how to collaborate at work is critical to career success. Even in a virtual work environment, working well with others is an important skill employers are looking for.?

Collaborating at work can help you in several ways:

• Meet people in different departments
• Learn other skills
• Increase creativity

To gain the benefits of collaboration, you must know how to collaborate.?

Below we outline three strategies to help you successfully collaborate at work.

1. CLEAR COMMUNICATION

When embarking upon a workplace collaboration, the most important thing you can do is make sure you are clearly communicating. Clear communication will help ensure everyone is always in the loop and on the same page.?

Consider the following:

• Communication Channel?– Choosing a?communication channel?is critical for the success of the collaboration. You want to have a place where all your information can be accessed.
• Meetings?– Depending on your situation, you may collaborate with colleagues in different time zones or departments. Because of this, you will want to clarify the time and place for each meeting.
• Be Timely?– Part of clearly communicating is making sure you disseminate information in a timely manner.
• Be Transparent?– You need to be transparent in your communication, especially when collaborating at work. This is because your colleagues count on you to be forthcoming with any issues or information necessary to the project.

In our e-course,?The Art of Communication, you will learn how to effectively and clearly communicate your thoughts and ideas.

As you collaborate, be sure you are clearly communicating with your colleagues. The more informed everyone is, the more successful your project will be.?

2. THE GOAL + PURPOSE

Collaborations are only successful if everyone understands the goal, and has a purpose. This means there is a clear vision for the result, and each team member has a specific role to play.?

There are several ways to ensure your collaborations are successful.

• Decide On Your Goal?– Your goal is the reason you are collaborating. If you don’t have a strong sense of what you are working towards, your collaboration won’t be productive. You will want to have a goal in mind before you begin.
• Role?– Every person on the team should have a specific function. If people don’t have a specific role, two things can happen. One, people will overlap duties. And two, some people may not do anything. You want to avoid both of these scenarios.

??We recommend the e-course?“Essentials Of Team Collaboration”?to help you learn how to set your team up for success.

Having a specific goal and purpose will help your collaboration be successful.

3. RESPECT?

When collaborating, you need to show respect to the other people on your team. If you are leading a collaboration, you will want to foster respect within the team. When everyone feels respected, creativity and ideas can be generated without fear. Respect will also increase productivity, and your collaboration will be more likely to succeed.

There are several ways to showcase respect when collaborating.

• Open-Minded Communication?– Collaboration means you will be sharing many thoughts and ideas on how to reach your goal. To maintain a culture of respect, you will want to have open-minded communication. This means being open to any and all ideas.
• Actively Listen?–?Actively listening?is one way to show others you respect them and their ideas. Active listening requires you to set aside what you are doing and fully pay attention to what the other person is saying. There are several ways to show you are actively listening.
• Take Responsibility?– One way to show your team respect, is to?take responsibility?for your actions. This means, if you say you are going to do something, you do it. It can also mean being honest about a mistake you made.

Being able to collaborate effectively is key to career success. Don’t be afraid to over-communicate during a workplace collaboration. Collaboration can lead to successful projects and exciting innovation when everyone has a clear vision and knows their role.

Click here to read the full article.

__

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways we can help you:

1. Discover your communications style so you know where to start. Over 4,000 people have found theirs here.

2. Attend our monthly communication workshop to build communications confidence (new topics: public speaking, advocating for yourself, building credibility, etc) here.

3. Get your brand in front of 43k+ people by sponsoring our newsletter or Soulcast Media | LIVE LinkedIn events [contact: [email protected]]

Join us for an exciting Soulcast Media | LIVE on December 1st. This event is free to attend. RSVP for your spot here!

__________________________________________________________________________

This article is part of the?Soulcast Media Newsletter, which has over 10,000+ subscribers. If you like this article, feel free to?subscribe.

Be sure to follow Jessica Chen on?LinkedIn?and?Instagram?for regular communications tips you can use at work immediately!?Her videos can also be seen on?YouTube.

If you'd like to learn more about our communications services and how we work with individuals and companies, check out our website:?www.soulcastmedia.com.?