Queen Strategy Partners

Success is no magical key handed out to us on a silver platter. It is the sum total of all the years of grit and grime we have struggled in. There are no shortcuts to real success, so forget about those self-help books of getting rich fast. It’s all sweat, blood and a whole lot of patience which makes a person super successful. Those little pieces of toil and trouble you go through add up to many gains. Make your efforts day in and day out and see the unbelievable difference you make in your own life and everyone around you.👌

With so many of us working on teams distributed throughout the globe, real collaboration can bring its own unique challenges. To more effectively work together, we should use video communication tools to better bring remote workers into the loop.

Some team members love to meet face to face about everything. Sometimes it’s because we feed off of the energy of others, and there’s no doubt that the nonverbal communication of face-to-face meetups can convey volumes that text messages and emails can’t. But, unscheduled interruptions harm collaboration and can leave everyone feeling like they didn’t accomplish anything at work.

A recent Forbes article explains: “When people get interrupted frequently, there’s only a 44% chance that they’ll leave feeling like ‘today was a really successful day.’ By contrast, when people can block out interruptions at work, there’s a 67% chance they’ll leave feeling like ‘today was a really successful day.’”

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Sharing is caring. Walling off and putting our heads down to work may seem individually productive, but truly collaborative teams:

🔹 Keep their project information in shared drives or in the cloud.
🔹 Send out regular notifications to managers, team members, and stakeholders on the progress of their projects.
🔹 Share information regarding who is working on what and when those projects are due.

Because teams that do this already know what’s happening, collaboration gets right down to facing challenges and solving problems.

In the struggle to achieve your goal, there may be times when you are tired and just want to stop and sit down, there may be times when the world forces you to bend down or divert you from track. It’s easy to lose sight of the original plan and the reason behind working towards it. In that case, ask yourself why you are doing this and use the reason to pick yourself up, motivate yourself, focus on your goal, push yourself forward and be successful.

Work can be difficult, especially when things aren’t going smoothly. The best collaborators bring an attitude of positivity to the table. We all want an upbeat work dynamic. It’s more fun to have fun, after all.

People trust each other more and work better together when we are exactly who we are with everyone we work with. Do what you say you will do. Speak up when you disagree. Admit your faults. Honestly offer praise. 👌

Excuses are the lies we tell ourselves for our failures or inactivity. We often get so overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task ahead of us that we start procrastinating. When we are answerable for it, we make excuses. When we start making excuses to ourselves, knowing well that we cannot deceive our conscience, we wallow in self-pity and guilt. 👌

Offering specific awards for teamwork well done can further breed an environment of collaboration. Make these awards or small parties that happen with each milestone. 👌

In this harsh judgmental world, it’s hard to prioritize what truly gives us a sense of achievement to make a difference.👌

Did you know? 57% of project managers cited poor communication as the leading cause of project failure. The solution is better, frequent communication.

Collaboration, at its core, is effective work communication. This doesn’t mean we should interrupt each other whenever we have a thought about something. We should still use communication etiquette and boundaries.

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Listening intently and actively is probably more important than speaking when it comes to true collaboration. This means being patient and making a conscious effort to really hear what the other person is saying. 👌

Whiteboards, Kanban boards, huge sticky notes, PowerPoint visuals, or even some guided team meditation might bring out some much-needed team conversation.

Struggles and trials in your life will make your body and soul exhausted. It is bound to tempt you to give up and believe that all this hard work is not worth it, so just let it go. This is exactly why you need to stay firm and promise yourself not to rest. You should celebrate only after you are done with the task and achieve your aim. Only then the world will dance with you to celebrate your victory and you will bask in the glory of success with much-deserved rest.

Being asked to collaborate on a project or new initiative feels good. But be careful. Collaboration is a two-way street. It’s just as much about fostering others’ ideas as it is about making sure our own move forward.👌

Email, often the go-to tool for communication, takes up critical work time and creates situations where important details get lost. Brainstorming ideas and following through on work isn’t effective in an email chain among a narrow list of recipients. 👌

Share your thoughts in the comments below. 👇