Fostering Collaboration (Part III)
Posted by Warren Carter | Posted on 22-08-2011
Category : Executive Search
Posted by Thomas Despres in Blog, Thought Leadership with no comments, in QualiFind’s website
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As a search firm, when we’re engaged to find a functional leader for almost any role, it’s virtually guaranteed that collaboration will be a key necessary ingredient they need to see in a successful leadership hire. Can you call your leadership style collaborative? Maybe you should consider the question, “How do I coach on collaboration?” |
- First and foremost as with all positive workplace behaviors, you must walk the talk. Employees mirror what you do in meetings and pay particular attention to how you act after meetings, in private when only your team is around. If you sound collaborative in a meeting, and then are spiteful or resentful in private, don’t expect much from your team. You may need coaching on integrity more than the team needs it on collaboration!
- Test for “collaboration-speak”. Collaboration sounds real, genuine, helpful, concerned, empathetic, and unselfish. Terms and tone that support these traits are collaborative. An occasional comment to the converse is human; consistent words to the contrary present an urgent need for coaching, asking, “Bill, I’m not sure if you realize this, but did you see the body language when you said such and such in today’s meeting with Sales?” Give Bill a chance to self-indict first, and help him get to that conclusion with more questions, rather than telling him.
- Check-in with your team’s workload. Everybody is swamped, particularly in today’s “do more with less” economy. However, is the team fully loaded with important and urgent tasks, rather than with work that masquerades as either urgent or important? If so, then there is a finite amount of assistance it can give to other departments time-wise, and should collaborate with cooperation, understanding, and flexibility rather than with taking on loads of work. However, we find that most teams have more time for active collaboration (which always includes time and strategic thought) than they think. Test for this.
What are your thoughts and experiences?
Our next series will focus on “managing what we measure”, a frank discussion on goal setting, aligning goals with strategic direction, and putting in place pragmatic management approaches to stay on track. |
