The Rare Art of Collaboration

Collaborating in the work environment is rare and priceless. So few of us communicate openly, share ideas, ask for help and team-up. The very best performers collaborate all day long and would feel lost without it.

On the other hand, weaker performers don't want to collaborate. They are independent, they have to be hunted down and stalked in order to find out what is going on. They keep everything on a "need to know" basis for fear of being criticized or exposed. By rejecting the idea of collaborating, they make their lives harder, their ideas are less innovative, and they make needless mistakes...all because they want to go it alone.

When you collaborate the equation is 1 + 1 = 3.
Go it alone and it's 1 + 0 = 0

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
PB&J Newsletter

Collaboration is more important than ever

With so many corporations downsizing, an interesting trend is taking place. The employees that are still at those large corporations are more hands-on than in ever. They're doing more of the work that their suppliers would have done in the recent past.

These employees are becoming more entrepreneurial, which I think is good. They see their hands-on approach as a form of job security. This changes a supplier's relationship with them, too.

Today, it's crucial that a supplier collaborate with the client. More than just "take on a project," the supplier needs to allow the client to carve out a portion of the project that they want to do themselves and not just deal with it--embrace it.

The traditional model of an agency is to be artistic, to want to do it their way. This used to play well with clients. Now, that agency has to sit right next to the client and work hand in hand--much more humbling, less freedom, but today, much more effective.

Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
http://www.labov.com/

Volunteering: One "Do" and One "Don't"

I'd like to cover one "do" and one "don't" about volunteering at a company.

The "do:"
Volunteering for an assignment or opportunity is great and motivational. And, it sets a great tone at the company - if, and only if, the person volunteering is 100 percent sincere and dedicated to it. If it's a negotiation ("I'll do that, but here are a couple other things I can't get to") or, if it's not from the heart ("I'm willing to volunteer"), forget it. It's worthless. If it is sincere and you can feel the passion and dedication in the person's voice, then it's great.

The "don't:"
You can't volunteer someone else. Just like in baseball, if there's a pop-up and two fielders are going for it, one is supposed to yell out, "Mine." Yelling out "Yours" is an obvious mistake in baseball. The same in business. We can't volunteer a co-worker for something we should do ourselves. If you're the right person for the job and you can do it - but you don't feel like it - it's best to look internally and figure out why.

The "do" is a boon for a company. The "don't" is a downer and it is seen clearly by everyone.


Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond Marketing Communications
www.labov.com

Collaboration makes all the difference

Real greatness, tremendous breakthroughs and fantastic relationships have something in common: collaboration.

When Lennon and McCartney were at their peak writing those phenomenal Beatles songs, their focus was on making great music, not on whose job it was to write the words and whose responsibility it was to write the music. Sometimes they'd share both the words and music, sometimes one of them would write most or all of a song. It didn't matter who took the credit or who did what. What mattered was the song.

In business it's much the same. We can tell who the great performers are in the workplace. They're the people that work with others, that ask others for their input, that share their own ideas freely--they don't pull rank on those below them. And they don't play victim and sulk because they don't have the authority to tell others what to do. They purely focus on doing great work, no matter who gets the credit or whose job it theoretically should be.

A collaborator, whether he or she is a boss or a part of the team, brings people together and gets the best out of them. This is a rarity in business. That's why we hear things like, "It's not my responsibility" or "The powers that be want such and such to be done" or "It's my client and this what we're going to do." These statements are polarizing and they stifle creativity and teamwork.

If our focus was on collaboration and not org charts, imagine what could happen.


Barry LaBov, CEO
LaBov and Beyond
www.labov.com