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Collaboration skills are nothing new. Humans have been collaborating to achieve goals since human history began. The great architectural wonders of the world, advances in medicine and technology, mesmerizing special effects that jump off the movie screen—these are all the result of collaboration.
Most work environments require a certain level of collaboration among team members. Even in companies where employees work mostly on their own, there’s likely some collaboration to connect the business with other businesses and customers.
It’s every manager’s dream to have a business where employees and various teams within the company are united in spirit and can seamlessly work together. However, fostering a harmonious collaborative union is probably going to require some effort.
What Does Successful Collaboration Look Like?
Good collaboration is when team members are all united in accomplishing the same goal. The teams may have very different duties and responsibilities, but they work well both as a unit and with the other departments or teams within the business.
The result of good collaboration, of course, is a business that flourishes and reaches new milestones. Startups and SMBs need collaborative teammates if they are to survive the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Effective collaboration among the teams and employees of businesses requires both strong communication and interpersonal skills—whether working under the same roof or virtually. There’s a balanced flow of sharing ideas and feedback and teams hold themselves and others accountable for getting the job done in a unified fashion. Simple enough, right?
5 Key Collaboration Skills
Here are five key collaboration skills to bring teams together and knock those big goals out of the park.
1. Active Listening
Let’s go ahead and put a gold star beside this one because, without strong active listening skills from all teams, the chances of good collaboration are slim. Clear and thoughtful communication requires self-awareness because employees need to understand their preferences and still strive to hear the concerns of others.
Strong active listeners are excellent communicators, both verbally and with written communication. According to a 2017 corporate recruiters report, listening skills were one of the most highly sought-after skills for job candidates and second only to oral communication skills.[1] Knowing how to convey ideas is essential for team collaboration, but so is listening to the ideas and feedback of others.
So how can team members improve their active listening skills for better collaboration? They just need to do 3 simple things:
- Be present.
- Don’t interrupt.
- Ask follow-up questions.
2. Organization
Go ahead and look for an unorganized team that collaborates well together and gets things accomplished on schedule. They’re like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot—you won’t find one because they don’t exist.
While in an ideal world, everyone on your team would be a perfectly organized individual, that’s not always the case. There are steps to learn to be more organized, but that’s not our specific focus here, and hopefully, you’re already hiring organized folks.
No, what we’re talking about here pertains more to team organization and building a cohesive unit that collaborates well together. And for that, we need to look at delegation or in layman’s terms, making sure everyone is on the same page and knows their role. Automation apps may help team members stay organized and focus on important tasks.
It’s up to whoever is leading the organization to ensure that each team leader has assigned the people on their team duties and responsibilities they’re best suited for. If one person isn’t sure of their role, it’s only going to slow progress and cause problems down the line.
Managers and team leaders should strive for good communication with their teams and other departments to ensure that organization doesn’t deteriorate.
A few benefits of an organized team:
- Better productivity
- Higher employee morale
- Lower employee turnover
3. Engagement
Successful collaboration is going to be the result of team members who are engaged with each other and the work they’re doing. If teams aren’t in at least somewhat regular communication with each other, then it’s more likely to result in people feeling disconnected from any setbacks and gains in the work.
Creating strong engagement and thus, better collaboration skills that unite teams should include regular feedback and discussion. This allows employees to voice their opinions, share ideas, and even explore potentially taking on new job duties.
For example, Google reportedly allows employees to dedicate 20 percent of their time to pursuing new projects or further education.[2] While this might t seem counterproductive at first, it results in employees that are more focused and engaged with their everyday work.
Employees who feel valued and heard are more engaged with their job and are going to overall be more enthused when it comes to collaboration.
4. Transparency
When it comes down to building collaboration among teams in the workplace, transparency goes a long way. Without it, people feel that they’re working “for” rather than “with” their managers—and that’s not always a good thing.
Let the people on your team know about where the company is regarding any projects, why certain aspects are important, and any challenges that may come up along the way. This allows each team member to take the right steps in their respective duties to avoid any complications and do the best job possible.
While providing transparency at the beginning of a project is important, leaders should also regularly keep lines of communication open and not avoid challenging topics. Be honest if you don’t have the answers to difficult questions.
This sort of transparency is what fosters trust in teams and results in greater success. Studies have shown that companies that emphasize transparency and fostering trust tend to be more profitable.[3]
5. Adaptability
People are not always going to agree with the workplace choices of other team members, their boss, or other departments. That said, being open-minded and learning to adapt and compromise will increase the chances of successful team collaboration by huge leaps and bounds.
It’s just a fact that people have different ambitions and ideas for how a job should be done and what aspects of it deserve the highest priority.
For example, the creative department likely isn’t going to always be on the same page as the accounting department. This is where adaptability and compromise come into play.
Obstacles will arise and not everyone will agree on the same solution, but to move forward, some compromise is probably necessary. Oftentimes, this is going to require a bit of conflict resolution from team leaders and again—this is where those active listening skills are so important.
Teams that know how to compromise and adapt will be that much stronger because they’re showing consideration for others and putting the long-term goal ahead of their egos.
How Can Leaders Foster These Skills in Team Members?
Now that we’ve outlined the essential skills for building strong team collaboration, it’s time to look at how to go about doing it. Unfortunately, simply sending out a memo that reads “Hey everyone, please collaborate better” won’t cut it.
A surefire way to set the tone for team collaboration is to create opportunities for team members to get to know one another. It doesn’t take a sociology expert to realize that people tend to collaborate better when they know who they’re working with. A few ideas for this could be something as simple as gathering everyone around for introductions or something like company happy hour or a more structured event such as a company retreat.
Teams must regularly come together—either in-person or via Skype or Zoom—to share updates and progress. This gives everyone a chance to provide and hear feedback and ensure that everyone is engaged and on the same page.
Perhaps the best way that managers and team leaders can foster strong collaboration skills is to lead by example. A leader that is an active listener, organized, adapts well to challenges, and strives for a healthy level of transparency with their employees, is going to have a team that is much more capable of successful collaboration.
