Good Leaders Facilitate Collaboration
In order to get the most out of your team, you need to be a leader that facilitates collaboration. New advances in technology have increased the number of ways that we can collaborate across long distances. There are also new workplace trends, such as the hiring of remote workers, which demand businesses place a focus on collaboration. The best leaders find ways for their employees to collaborate on projects and to integrate new ideas and concepts into the projects that they are working on.
In Toxic Work Environments, There Is Little Communication
If you have ever been a part of a poor work environment, one of the things that you quickly notice is that there is little communication. Whenever employees stop communicating, it becomes impossible for them to work together and reach a high level of productivity. Good leaders encourage communication, and remove toxic individuals from the equation who stifle growth. Team building exercises are a great way to establish trust and to get your employees to communicate more often.
Technology Has Created New Ways To Facilitate Collaboration
With new technology, it has become much easier to collaborate than ever before. Skype, Google Docs, Slack, Asana, and Trello are just a few of the document sharing, communication, and task management technologies that have been developed over the past decade or so. These new tools allow businesses to work with people from all around the world. If someone is talented in Australia and wants to work remotely with your team in New York, they can do so. It is important for leaders to take note of all of the new ways to communicate and collaborate, so that they can utilize these new technologies for their own teams.
When People Trust Each Other, There Are Fewer Problems With Accountability
Despite all of these new ways and tools to collaborate and communicate, it is still critically important to build a culture where everyone trusts each other. When people don’t have trust, they are less likely to communicate and collaborate. And worse yet, people who don’t trust each other find it difficult to hold each other accountable. Make sure that you are working to develop trust between teammates. Workplace collaboration has been proven to dramatically increase project efficiency and improve work outcomes. When workplace morale is poor and when communication is low, you are likely to see very little collaboration. That is why good leaders encourage their employees to communicate and collaborate on the projects that they are building. Great leaders recognize the value of one-on-one interaction without technology in the mix, and the best way to do that is the old fashioned way of bringing everyone together for a day of team building and fun! People need to get to know one another and interact “live” in order to develop trust between team members and departments. When people trust each other, they are more likely to collaborate, and they are more likely to hold each other accountable. If you focus on finding opportunities to bring your team together to “learn” each other, collaborate, and bond, you’ll have a high performing team in no time!
* Team Building Activity image credit goes to: rawpixel.
* One-on-One Communication image credit goes to: rawpixel.