Collaboration in your Career
By Srabon Nath
While each job has its own technical skills that are looked for in a potential employee,
some soft skills can apply to many jobs. Therefore, no matter what direction you’re planning to
go in terms of your career, being able to collaborate with others is one of the most important skills.
You might be an expert at your work, but it doesn’t mean anything to employers if you aren’t
able to work with others to do your work more efficiently.
The way that collaboration works are that a leader usually takes charge and manages the
team. Without a clear leader, collaboration won’t go too far and usually leads to the work being
unfinished. Leadership is another quality that makes you stand out even more. But even with
the best leader, if you are in a team you need to do certain things to make sure that you are
contributing to the work.
The first thing a team should do is get to know each other. And this isn’t something that
should be taken lightly. It is extremely important to know the skills and strengths of everyone on
your team so that you can properly assign roles, distribute tasks, and set expectations. Another
essential part of getting to know each other is setting realistic goals. By knowing what everyone
is capable of doing, you are able to figure out what the team will accomplish.
Communication is what really keeps the team going. Without communication, the team
will quickly fall apart and no work will be done. Communication means updating others about
your work, asking for help, and letting others know about any situation. It’s necessary to have
set times or meetings where each team member discusses what they accomplished, what they
were having trouble with, and what goals they have. These status updates should be consistent.
Depending on the work that is being done, they can be done daily, weekly, etc. Asking others for
help is really a skill and it’s a skill that many people have a hard time with. Especially for people
who like finishing work alone, asking for help isn’t the easiest thing to do. However, the point of
a team is that there are more heads to solve a problem. Finally, when you’re working with
others, you need to keep in mind that others are relying on you. So, if things come up, you need
to let your team know.
Finally, working with others also requires you to be able to handle unfavorable situations.
Things will happen that you don’t really like. However, being able to compromise and move past
these things is what will set you apart. For example, many times your team will decide to do
something that you don’t quite agree with. No matter how much you think your way of doing it is
right, in the end, you will either need to compromise or accept it. Other times, you might be
disappointed that your team didn’t meet all the goals. However, instead of getting hung up on
that, moving past it is what really matters.