Getting Results through Collaboration

SUMMARY

Throughout my entire corporate career, I was a bit of a loner. I used to just get stuff done and got it done well. The problem with that, though, was as I moved into positions of leadership, I didn't allocate bandwidth in my day to help others get the results that they needed to get.

A leader needs to be available and be able to inspire but I didn't grasp that.

Since the performance trap that I was operating under “served me well” (or so I thought), I thought that when I just kept doing what I do well, my team would love me, we’ll all keep on going, and my career will go where it needs to go.

Collaboration is coming together. It's using the knowledge, skills, energy, and ideas of individuals and putting them in a collective.

Today's leader does not have the luxury of being across everything. If you were, then your team wouldn't be necessary.

A leader needs to be able to look at the strengths of their individuals. They need to build bonds and inspire everybody in their team who desires to use those gifts and talents to do what they can do and their part in this whole team collaboration.

Collaborating with others gives you leverage.

Your workplace can be a place of harmony and unity where people are okay with who they are as individuals. They're working on their identity, they're teachable and coachable, and you're able to then move forward without all that conflict and stress.

If you need some help to get this happening, then contact me. I'm not just here to do a video each week. I am available to come and work with you and your team so that you can get these different results that I promise every week.

TRANSCRIPT

Do you find it difficult as a leader to get everything done?

You got promoted into a leadership position, and now your to-do list is still as big as it used to be, but now you've got these other people that you need to look after as well, and you need to help them to get their stuff done?

Wow! No wonder so many people feel burned out and stressed.

Well, stick with me because this week, I'm going to show you what I learned to do to change this and the way we think. It's a mindset shift, and then the behaviours to back it up, that will release you to have more energy to get the things done that you want.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, VUCA Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach and today I want to continue our conversation in relationship management by helping you to get results through collaboration.

Throughout my entire corporate career, I was a bit of a loner. I used to just get stuff done and got it done well. The problem with that, though, was as I moved into positions of leadership, I didn't allocate bandwidth in my day to help others get the results that they needed to get.

A leader needs to be available and be able to inspire but I didn't grasp that.

Since the performance trap that I was operating under “served me well” (or so I thought), I thought that when I just kept doing what I do well, my team would love me, we’ll all keep on going, and my career will go where it needs to go.

But unfortunately, there's a transition that you and I need to make as a leader to go from somebody who was getting results from their efforts alone to getting the results through people.

In the work that I do, this key area is something that is a major problem for most of the leaders I work with. They continually tell me they don't have time to get enough done, that their people are eating into their day, or they're always putting out fires, etc. It's all working at effect rather than taking responsibility and looking at things this way:

“Well, hang on, what am I doing that's causing that problem?”

The main thing that I was doing, and that they all do, is having a lack of trust in their people.

That lack of trust in their people says:

“I'm going to micromanage them because I can't guarantee that they're going to get the results that I need — the ones that I'm going to be judged on - unless I'm there doing it.”

The other side of the equation is:

“I'm not going to get them to do anything. I'm just going to do it all myself.”

Put your hand up right now if you've ever had an internal or external conversation where you thought:

“It's just easier for me to do it myself.”

Yet, in the same breath, think:

“I don't have time.”

These contradicting thoughts may seem to not make any logical sense.

But it does to you and me when we are operating out of those uncertainties, meanings, and all the things that we've talked about before when we worked on our identity.

There are four pillars to great teamwork.

I’ve talked to you about this before.

The first one is communication (we already have talked about this).

The second one is collaboration.

The other two are how they handle change and negotiate through conflict.

So, collaboration is a key element in you being able to get your team from where you are now to where it is that you're all going together.

Collaboration is coming together. It's using the knowledge, skills, energy, and ideas of individuals and putting them in a collective.

To do this, you need to be a leader who is okay with not having all the answers.

You need to be a leader who is okay that other people who are junior to you might know things you don't know.

I definitely did not like that at all. I wanted to know everything because if they knew stuff that I didn't know, then perhaps someone above me would see that, and you know the story that would go on, and I would convince myself that that person might get the job that I want or whatever uncertainty I was working on or working through at that particular time.

Today's leader does not have the luxury of being across everything. If you were, then your team wouldn't be necessary.

A leader needs to be able to look at the strengths of their individuals. They need to build bonds and inspire everybody in their team who desires to use those gifts and talents to do what they can do and their part in this whole team collaboration.

So, to collaborate with others, the first thing you need to do as a leader is realise that it's okay that you don't have it all together — that you’re going to make mistakes yourself and that you are going to say and do things which are going to rub people the wrong way.

None of that matters in a team that is working together.

I like to compare this with a rowing team.

There’s a person at the back of the boat going:

“Stroke, stroke…”

Then, in the same boat, people line up holding their ores. And every time the person in the back says “stroke”, they all hit their ores in the water at the same time, and their ores all pull back the same amount.

That means that they’re going to power forward in one direction.

When a team is not collaborating well, what happens is that the ores hit the water at all sorts of times. Some people will be going forward while others are going back. What happens is that they’ll end up just going around in circles, or the worst-case scenario, everybody falls out of the boat.

But when a team learns to hear the voice of their leader, they will be inspired to do their part, and that is (in this metaphor) to hit the water at the right time when they look at the person in front of them, and they work with them, and that person looks at the person in front of them.

And if you continue to work through that metaphor, you'll see that that is a great way to run your team.

Collaborating with others gives you leverage.

No longer is it just your efforts that are getting the results. Now, you’ve got this beautiful team of individuals coming together.

A single rope by itself can lift a certain weight. It can withstand a certain amount of tension and stress. However, when you take two ropes and tie them together, it doesn’t increase by one; it multiplies it tenfold.

So, bringing a team of people together, learning how to collaborate with them, teaching them how to collaborate and then letting that also go out to how you collaborate with your suppliers and clients, so that at the end of the day (if I put it in simple terms), you just work together, help each other and have each other's back so that you can get done what it is that you're all trying to get to do.

It's not a competition, nor is it a battlefield.

With the word VUCA (a term coined by the American military to describe the difference in the battlefield environment at the end of the Cold War) used a lot of the time in business, I think many people see their organisation and their workplace as a battlefield and it doesn't have to be.

Your workplace can be a place of harmony and unity where people are okay with who they are as individuals. They're working on their identity, they're teachable and coachable, and you're able to then move forward without all that conflict and stress.

Learning to collaborate is a combination of all the skills we've been talking about.

It's about being able to communicate in a positive way.

It's about managing the response to your emotions and being able to read, understand (or at least want to understand) and have empathy around what the other person might be going through.

It's about being able to build those bonds and learning to be more agile.

When you put all these things that we have talked about together in the individuals, then you and your team can go anywhere.

If you need some help to get this happening, then contact me. I'm not just here to do a video each week. I am available to come and work with you and your team so that you can get these different results that I promise every week.

Well, that's it from me for another week.

Join me again next week as we continue this conversation by helping you get rid of performance management and learn how to coach sustainable performance.

I'll see you then.