Collaboration – 8 reasons why it’s important and how to build it.

1. Leadership is tough – Collaboration makes it easier.

The burdens of leadership are many, and any effective team manager knows that delegation can be critical to a successful project. That is if the team is operating at their maximum capabilities.

2. It’s your first priority. 

A leader’s first priority should, therefore, be putting together a team that does just that: functions symbiotically, effectively, and efficiently. A team’s performance depends entirely on their ability to work together towards a common goal.

3. In building or training a high-performance team, leaders must consider the following:

      a) Skill-sets: what does each member bring that is unique and of value?

      b) Personalities: can these people collaborate effectively?

4. Collaboration  breeds a positive work ethic.

Bosses who nurture a spirit of collaboration soon find themselves rewarded with a positive staff work ethic and heightened performance. In a well-constructed and directed team, members strive to bring their A-Game to any project but also work hard to bring the best out in each other. Under the auspices of a trusted leader, individual performance is amplified, and the sky becomes the limit.

5. Communication is, as ever,  key.

What’s the secret to building a high-performance team? Communication is crucial. Prioritising the development of effective collaborative strategies, which can be applied to a broad range of projects, forms a solid foundation on which any team can build performance. Such strategies can range from the team group-chat on WhatsApp and regular collaborative activities outside of the workplace, to an effective team-management platform such as Asana, Slack, Trello or ZohoWorkplace, clearly defined channels of communication, or weekly progress updates.

6. Collaboration needs people-skills and emotional intelligence.

They are deciding factors in a leader’s ability to manage their team. Ego, competitiveness and individualistic work ethics, although beneficial in small doses, can wreck a project before it even gets off the round if they become too strongly expressed. The facility to manage people’s egos, make sure everyone feels valued and supported and keep collaborative communication channels open and receptive need to be the trademarks of the effective leader.

7. Collaboration raises morale. 

Powerful collaboration and a workforce who feels productive contribute to generally positive staff morale, which in turn boosts productivity and collaboration. A leader who can tap into this self-perpetuating cycle of productivity has genuinely built a high-performance team.

8. A team that plays together, stays together.

In one company, split over 3 floors, the drinks trolley comes down on Friday afternoon (different floor each week). This encourages people to mix and socialise. It’s also a great thing to do on Friday afternoon. 

If you are looking for an activity to help build collaboration in your team then drop us a line at the Ceilidh Club and we’ll sort you out a discount code. 

You can find out what Wikipedia says about Collaboration here.