The Type Of Employees That Encourage Collaboration

To define collaboration in the workplace, the easiest way would be to say that it is simply teamwork taken to a higher level. People who are working together, sharing ideas and thinking in order to accomplish a common goal are the ones who are collaborating well.

Today, with advancements in technology like video conferencing, cloud-based knowledge sharing solutions, file sharing, collaboration happens not only in the office, but across geographies and becomes the most productive way to accomplish a task.

Businesses that have found a way to create high-performing collaborative teams are reaping numerous benefits.

Is your team one of them?

It might be if you can recognise one of these types of personalities in your team.

The Innovator

Having an Innovator in your team is a huge advantage. Innovators are the ones who shake things up. They can transform a plain group into a team and find an innovative way to implement and improve processes resulting in this otherwise-unremarkable group becoming the best performer in the company. Innovators know how to reach goals in new and unique ways, and are not afraid of a challenge.

If you recognised an Innovator among your employees, feel free to move them into a leadership position if possible. They function the best when they are able to manage the way things work and excel in dynamic environment.

The Motivator

You’ve probably crossed paths with a Motivator. Motivators are passionate about what they do. Their desire to learn more in a given field and their inner motivation to excel is visible to everyone in the team. They lead by example and are not afraid to publicly praise their fellow co-workers which results in increasing motivation within the team.

Growing up, they’ve always been high achievers. They hold on to high standards and have a healthy dose of self confidence. They are not afraid to be wrong, willing to take a chance and take on new,exciting projects.

If you’ve recognised a Motivator within your team, congratulations! This is a valuable employee. In order to keep a Motivator, try to create and maintain an environment where they can learn and grow. Invest in Motivators, it will come back to you tenfold.

The Problem Solver

Problem Solvers think outside the box and have a unique set of skills and viewpoints they can use to come up with great ideas and solutions. They do this to not only take care of challenges and issues the team may stumble upon, but to find areas in which the business processes can be improved so the project can run more efficiently.

Problem Solvers are mostly the ones who indirectly manage the process, they understand the quality of each team member and use this information to achieve the best result when faced with a challenge - a common trait they share with leaders.

Problem Solvers don’t panic. They calmly and rationally assess situations, find weaknesses and develop appropriate solutions.

The Collaborator

Collaborators are team players. They care about the team, care about their fellow team members and are willing to go the extra mile to help.

They understand that businesses succeed based on the efforts of the whole team and are dedicated to make it happen.

Collaborators care about performing well in their own roles. They are great communicators, able to express themselves in a clear manner and get their message across. They are willing to help, and even offer help proactively.

They believe in free information flow, and are doing everything they can to increase access to information and break the silos.

If you have a Collaborator in your team, enable them to do their work, or better yet, make them team-leaders.

The Agile

The Agile employee is a perfect employee for small to medium sized businesses. Agiles adapt quickly to shifting priorities, changing demands and schedules.

Agiles are not defined by a job description, as they quickly evolve beyond that and adopt a new set of responsibilities. They learn by accepting additional tasks.

If you have an Agile in your team, you will soon find that they are more than willing to jump in and help if there’s an issue which needs to be resolved quickly and they know how to do it. They won’t wait. If you are picturing  a worse-case scenario here, don’t. The agile is fully aware of what they can and can’t do and wouldn’t dream of jeopardising the project.

Final Thoughts

Executives often say that profitability increases when workers are persuaded to collaborate more. Today, teams are the fundamental unit of organisation, in companies and conglomerates, but also in schools and government agencies. If your company wants to surpass its competitors, it needs to influence not only how people work but also how they work together. These types of employees will help you do that.