The collaborative team player

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller

Today, the social implications of a multi-generational workforce joining with the informational implications of new technology make collaboration a priority in many organizations. Collaborations, partnerships, alliances are the mark of great organizations and communities—the indispensable arsenal of the organization and communities of the future.

Moving beyond the walls, finding the right partner, collaborations change lives, build empowering communities, and sustain the quality of our connections.

Remarkable results can be achieved when you join the skills and talents of everyone on your team. Several heads are always better than one! Each person brings something to the table that continues to add value to relationships and overall synergy of the team.

So what do collaborative team players have in common?

Attitude

A collaborative team player mind-set is not about what’s in it for them. It’s about what’s in it for the team. It’s the collective mission that they are dedicated to. This attitude is shaped from knowing you want to serve other people on your team on a daily basis. It’s more about giving rather than receiving.  It’s about knowing that other people have as much potential as the rest of us. We trust and believe in their abilities to create a beautiful team environment. If you focus on your team and not just yourself, you will reap the rewards of development and growth in your organization. We never win alone.

Create more celebrations

When you find joy and energy in working with people, you begin to feel the synergy of a great collaboration. It’s a force multiplier. The positive energy keeps compounding for endless potential. Collaborative team players find the champions on their team to move along a rewarding path that sometimes take a fascinating course toward more and more personal discoveries. When you begin to highlight the accomplishments and the strengths of the people on your team, the culture becomes one big celebration of everyone’s contribution.

Think win-win

Collaboration is really about everyone winning. In order to move into the win-win mindset of a team player, one has to find a common ground when there are differences and challenges.  The collaborative team player seeks to facilitate and lead conflict into a winning zone. It requires a lot of courage and vulnerability to let go our assumptions and judgments of other people's perspectives. We must embrace diversity and debate to avoid potential pitfalls. We want to encourage all points of view, but at the end we have to bring it all together and let everyone on the team feel safe and that their voice was heard.

Focus on solutions and new ideas

Collaboration is not just a beautiful word. It’s really about shifting the problems into innovative solutions with as many people as you can. When you lead and facilitate collaboration in your team, you encourage new ideas to come about. Bringing these ideas to a new light and picking the best ones is one sure way to focus on solutions and move forward quickly as a team. The collaborative team player takes the lead in encouraging and mentoring others to focus on solutions which create momentum within the culture. Take the time to seek out and explore where opportunities can be solved together synergistically.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson