Success Through Collaboration
What is Collaboration?
Collaboration is a process that involves people working together toward a common goal. It requires equal participation and cultivates a strong sense of shared purpose. In the collaborative process, team members share ideas among themselves, enhancing collective problem-solving and innovation.
For Supervisors, collaboration takes shape in daily interactions by emphasizing trust and clear communication among team members. Your role in encouraging teamwork ensures a cohesive environment where ideas are exchanged freely.
Important to Note: Collaboration has to start at the top. Company culture is not set by words but by the actions of the founder. At Arete, this means treating everyone with respect and providing regular, constructive feedback. Trust is required for every successful collaboration.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
Self-Assessment:
Success Through Collaboration
Here’s a leadership self-assessment to evaluate your ability to drive collaboration within your team. You can rate each question on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is "Never" and 5 is "Always." After completing, reflect on areas where you scored lower to identify opportunities for improvement.
1. Never
2. Seldom
3. Neutral
4. Often
5. Always
Set Clear Objectives and Roles
1. I ensure that the team understands our common goals and objectives.
2. I define roles clearly to prevent overlap and ensure accountability.
3. I communicate expectations clearly and consistently.
Foster Open Communication
4. I encourage team members to openly share their thoughts and feedback.
5. I regularly hold team meetings to align and check on progress.
6. I am approachable, and team members feel comfortable coming to me with concerns.
Leveraging Diversity of Skills and Perspectives
7. I recognize and utilize each team member’s unique strengths and skills.
8. I actively seek out and value diverse viewpoints within the team.
9. I encourage innovation and different approaches to problem-solving.
Encouraging Mutual Accountability
10. I hold team members accountable for their contributions and commitments.
11. I model accountability by owning up to my actions and decisions.
12. I address issues constructively, promoting accountability without blame.
Promoting Psychological Safety
13. I create a safe space for team members to voice their ideas and concerns.
14. I encourage risk-taking and learning from mistakes.
15. I openly share my own vulnerabilities and areas for growth.
Which area did you score highest in, and how do you see these strengths benefiting your team?
In which area did you score lowest, and what steps can you take to improve?
This assessment can help you gauge your collaborative leadership strengths and areas for growth, guiding you toward strategies that can foster a more collaborative, engaged team environment.
Why is collaboration important?
Collaboration helps in problem-solving.
If someone encounters a roadblock while pursuing a project, what should they do? Give up? Absolutely not. Instead, they should seek help and a different perspective. This can be achieved by scheduling a brainstorming session.
Collaboration helps people learn from one another.
Collaboration brings together individuals with different skill sets, creating opportunities for learning and idea exchange. Learning from colleagues isn’t just a benefit of collaboration; it’s the first step toward building a workplace focused on individual growth.
“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.”
Collaboration brings employees closer together.
In many organizations, teams often work in isolation. Encouraging collaboration breaks down silos, bringing people together and improving productivity.
Collaboration promotes effective communication.
Effective communication is essential in any business. Collaboration encourages communication through brainstorming and equal participation, ensuring no one is left out.
Collaboration enhances personal communication skills.
As team members interact and play to their strengths, they become more authentic and effective communicators. They reach agreements faster and improve their interpersonal skills.
Creating a collaborative workplace takes time, but the long-term benefits outshine the obstacles you may face getting there.
The Leader’s Role in Creating a Collaborative Culture
Strong leadership is essential for guiding collaboration, from setting clear expectations to identifying opportunities for growth and delegating tasks effectively. At Arete, leaders should establish a foundation for teamwork by defining roles, promoting synergy, and ensuring responsibilities are clearly distributed. Making collaboration a core part of the culture naturally creates an appealing workplace where teamwork thrives.
The Story of a Collaborative Leader
Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors (GM), is widely recognized as a highly collaborative leader. Since becoming CEO in 2014, Barra has been instrumental in transforming GM’s culture and guiding the company toward a future centered on electric vehicles, sustainability, and technological innovation. Here are the reasons why she is considered a great collaborator:
Creating a Culture of Transparency and Openness: Barra inherited a company facing significant challenges, including the fallout from a major ignition-switch recall. Instead of deflecting blame, Barra openly addressed these issues, cultivating a culture where employees felt safe to report concerns. This transparency helped to build trust and encouraged collaboration across all levels of the company.
Breaking Down Silos: Barra advocates for cross-departmental collaboration, bringing together teams from engineering, marketing, and IT to foster a unified approach to product development and innovation. This collaborative environment has been essential in helping GM adapt to the rapidly changing automotive industry and remain competitive with both traditional automakers and tech-driven newcomers.
Partnering with Technology and Mobility Companies: Recognizing the importance of technology and new mobility solutions, Barra has formed strategic partnerships with companies outside the traditional automotive industry, including Honda, Lyft, and LG Chem. Her willingness to work with other companies, even competitors, has strengthened GM’s position as a leader in next-generation mobility.
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion: Barra has championed initiatives that promote gender and racial diversity, acknowledging that diverse teams bring a wider range of perspectives and stronger decision-making. Her focus on inclusion has created a collaborative environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute, driving innovation and boosting morale.
Empowering Her Team: Barra encourages employees to voice their ideas and actively contribute to GM’s vision for the future. Her emphasis on empowerment has helped to create a collaborative atmosphere where everyone feels they have a stake in the company’s success.
Focusing on a Shared Vision for the Future: Barra has united GM around a shared vision of “Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, and Zero Congestion.” This ambitious goal has united employees and stakeholders under a common purpose, driving collaboration across the organization.
Mary Barra’s collaborative leadership style has transformed GM, making it more agile, forward-thinking, and inclusive. She is a powerful example of how a collaborative approach can transform a large, complex organization.
Have you ever been part of a team where there was no collaboration? You may have felt that everyone was out for themselves, with little trust or connection among team members. People were working in silos, and miscommunication was rampant—leading to confusion, duplicated efforts, and a lack of alignment on goals. Trust and camaraderie were low, leaving team members feeling isolated and undervalued. The result? Poor performance and diminished satisfaction for everyone involved. Unfortunately, this scenario occurs more often than we’d like to admit.
As a leader, being able to lead successful team collaboration is a game-changer. Not only does it create synergy across teams, but when departments work together, it can elevate the entire organization.
There is one essential factor for effective collaboration that we would be negligent not to mention: psychological safety, which a leader must instill for a team to truly achieve success.
Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It reflects a shared expectation among team members not to make anyone feel embarrassed or rejected for sharing ideas, taking risks, or requesting feedback. This mindset is critical for successful collaboration.
However, psychological safety doesn’t mean that everyone is always nice to each other. Instead, it means people feel free to “brainstorm out loud,” share incomplete thoughts, openly challenge the status quo, give feedback, and navigate disagreements—knowing that their leaders value honesty and create the space for open dialogue.
Colleagues who feel psychologically safe at work are more likely to take the interpersonal risks required for innovation, such as speaking up, asking questions, voicing reservations, and respectfully disagreeing. When leaders create this environment, the results extend beyond collaboration to a workplace marked by trust, creativity, and shared success.
It is the leader’s responsibility to cultivate psychological safety and, in doing so, lay the foundation necessary for stronger collaboration.
Supervisors have the critical task of promoting a psychologically safe environment in day-to-day interactions. By consistently modeling respect and openness, you encourage your team to communicate honestly and take interpersonal risks. When employees feel safe to express their thoughts and share feedback, collaboration flourishes, and team performance improves.
Best Practices for Creating Psychologically Safe Teams:
Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, concerns, and feedback. Regularly solicit input from everyone to ensure diverse perspectives are heard. Start meetings with a roundtable where every member shares their thoughts without interruption.
Model Vulnerability: As a leader, openly share your own mistakes and lessons learned. This demonstrates that imperfection is part of growth and encourages others to take risks. "Last week, I miscalculated the timeline for a project. Here's how I plan to adjust moving forward."
Respond with Curiosity, Not Judgment: When team members share unconventional ideas or admit errors, respond with curiosity rather than criticism to keep the dialogue constructive. "That’s an interesting approach. Can you walk me through your thought process?"
Celebrate Risk-Taking and Learning: Recognize and reward efforts to innovate, even if they don’t succeed. Highlight the value of learning from failures. Share a "lesson learned" from a project during a team meeting and frame it as progress.
Set Clear Team Norms: Establish group agreements that outline respectful behavior, active listening, and support for one another. Make these norms a cornerstone of team interactions. Agree that all critiques will focus on ideas, not individuals.
These practices build trust and create a foundation for collaboration, where team members feel safe to contribute and innovate without fear. Creating psychological safety lays the groundwork for effective collaboration by cultivating mutual respect and open communication. These elements enable teams to share ideas freely, learn from one another, and innovate together. A truly collaborative team thrives when all members feel valued, heard, and empowered to contribute their best. As a leader, focusing on these steps will lead your team toward greater success and unity.
Elevate your understanding of Collaboration by taking flight with the following resources. Use this opportunity to navigate, uncover, and expand the horizons of your leadership influence.
3 Powerful and Engaging Ways to Create Psychological Safety at Work
Matthew Goodman
Teams That Collaborate, Innovate
Ted Lasso: Be Curious, Not Judgmental (4:14)
Mapping the value of employee collaboration
McKinsey & Company