026: Effective Collaboration

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This week on the podcast, I'm talking about collaboration, which, if executed correctly, can vastly improve your problem solving and decision making. To be effective it takes building trust and setting clear expectations.

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Collaboration done right can be a game changer for your organization. Enjoy the episode.

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Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. This is episode number 26. And today, I will discuss the keys to effective collaboration. I'm gonna talk about four areas. Number one, how collaboration can solve a problem. Number two, you need to build trust and set clear expectations. Number three, you need to get the right people involved. And number four, you need to communicate the results across your team. And across the company. Michael Jordan said talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. Now today we're getting into collaboration. And that's about teamwork. And figuring out things together.

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It's about asking for help to solve problems, and not trying to figure it out on your own when you don't have to. Now I'm not talking about the formal project management process that you may have in your company that considers high level executive team Sponsored Projects. Now those are already built for collaboration, at least I hope so. And they usually have a formally educated project manager who can lead teams and who can lead teams effectively through solving a problem that the executive team has given to them. Now these teams usually have an understanding on the benefits of collaboration. And it usually takes a little leadership from the project manager and the executive team member who has sponsored the project to kind of lay down what the expectations are, and a work schedule, and how people are going to work together. This discussion today is also about maybe a project that an executive team member has given to an apartment or to you that probably doesn't rise to that level of executive level project. But it's still an important project. And it's also about everyday problem solving.

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Now, before COVID-19 set most everyone into working remotely, I definitely liked impromptu collaborations that could probably occur around the cubicles, you know, a teammate might have mentioned a problem they were having. And then another teammate could speak up to share an insight or resource to help solve getting over that obstacle. And we are missing that level of problem solving right now, of course, while everyone is working remotely, it's a challenge. Nowadays, it's a challenge to get that team up and working on a collaboration to solve this Southern real quick, or maybe something that will takes a couple of days. Now you have to use technology in a smart way, get on the phones are using a good texting app or another app that may be installed on your laptops where you can develop a good team to solve your problem. Now, if we ever do get back to the cubicles, and I'm sure we will, I want to encourage you to use this style of problem solving this impromptu problem solving in order to get through whatever obstacle that you're facing at the time. Now we did it in the army all the time. It was really part of our culture, it was part of how we go ahead and try to figure out something that we're having problems with, we expected people to speak up and we expected people to ask for help, and also to kind of state what problems that they're having. And we also whoever was an earshot and was hearing the problem, there's an expectation that they speak up because especially when you're dealing with military matters, it can be life or death. And we have an expectation that people speak up all the time. And I want you to speak up when you have an issue because somebody on the team can probably help guide you with whatever problem or whatever obstacle you're dealing with.

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Not everyone is sold on collaboration, because it means we are going to group solve instead of having a top driven process, it really comes down to your culture comes down to what the expectations are in your company and how the leadership approach problem solving. And also just general leadership in general management techniques.

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If you have micro managers at your highest level, if you have a lot of micro managers in the organization, you're probably going to have a top driven process. But if you have people who are more open minded and flexible, you're going to have an expectation to collaborate more. I believe in teamwork. I believe that it's about working together to move the organization forward. I believe you have to be open minded and flexible so you can get to the good ideas and and in order to get to the good ideas. You have to be willing willing to listen to the bad ones too. And be open minded about that and having the right attitude to listen to the ideas that probably won't work anyway, because eventually the good ideas will come to you.

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This, of course takes that right attitude by leaders to encourage your team to take the risk to share ideas and give input. It's about appreciating all the input no matter what, even if it's a bad idea, we still appreciate it. If you don't appreciate it, the good ideas will never come to you, we should be collaborating. When we are involved in a project or task that is beyond our scope of knowledge or has a greater impact on the organization, we do more collaborating than we realize, even when we are only trying to fill out a report for in the month close, I enjoy collaborating on a project even when it's an impromptu gathering. For a quick solution, people tend to want to solve problems in a vacuum and don't want to ask for help when you operate alone. You'll miss out on critical information and insights you miss out on lessons learned previously. And I believe this is how time and effort is wasted. Why waste hours trying to figure out something as someone already knows the answer to or already knows what you're looking for, you'll waste hours. Why do we do that? I've been in organizations who like to waste hours and let people just grind away at something when your neighbor who's probably in the next cubicle, or who is on your team who already went through this same problem. And same issue can give you a quick solution that can save effort and also give you a better work experience.

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Instead of grinding through something that you don't know what you're doing, or you're missing a piece of information, just ask and then get that piece of information, put together a couple pieces of information from across the team. So you can move forward and create a great product or whatever you're working on. And also you can have a great work experience.

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Instead of being stressed out and worried about that you're not going to complete the task on time, our teams really are not resourced or trained on how to collaborate effectively. Now, when I served in the Pentagon, our physical team setup was designed for collaboration. And also we were specifically chosen for the role because of our approach to group problem solving. Our team in the Pentagon was a group of eight officers for people with two rows of desks that phased out and we had a table in between anytime that we needed to solve a group problem, we could turn our chairs immediately into the middle to the table. It also had a whiteboard at the end, we could quickly problem solve whatever the group was facing as an issue or an obstacle or a problem, we could quickly get input around the table. And then as soon as the problem was solved, or as soon as we had some type of conclusion to the problem that we were given, we can easily return to our desks, turn the chairs around and continue working. It was set up so well for collaboration and so well to group problem solve.

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It's an ideal situation. And I wish organizations when they laid out their cubicles in their office buildings that they actually laid it out in a proper way that people could easily collaborate. Instead of just have rows of desks facing the same direction as most organizations have chosen to do in finance and accounting, We are often asked to participate in a collaboration to solve a problem or to improve a process, I want to go back to the last episode that I talked about on growing your influence. And when we're asked to collaborate, this is a great opportunity for us to grow our influence and to show off our skills and to also make connections in finance and accounting, we bring in a unique set of skills and also insight about the entire company. So it's our opportunity to help execute the current strategy and also to shape future strategy in whatever projects we have been included in. We can also communicate the linkage of dollars to strategy so that everyone understands not everyone in the company has an opportunity to see what we see in our unique role, we often get the advantage of knowing the strategy because we are working on it every day and deal with his results or lack of results when we close the month and close the year. Because we get to see the actual results against What was projected every month. Now I want to take you through very quickly four keys to better collaboration. Now number one is how collaboration can better solve the problem.

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Now I believe that we need to make collaboration a part of the culture group solving should be part of the culture going forward. As leaders we need to make it acceptable that we group problem solve again, there are organizations and leaders who don't believe in it because they believe in only a top driven process. We need to build a culture that the solution is what is best for the company, not just one team or department.

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When you solve problems alone you miss out on key issues, facts and assumptions and also insights, I believe that collaboration should be an ongoing exercise and not just a one time event, we need to continually practice it. And it needs to be more organized.

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And it also needs to be in addition to the formal project management process to consider high level projects that the executive team may be interested in group problem solving ensures you see the problem from all angles within the organization.

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Number two, you need to build trust and set clear expectations. I want you to be open to ideas, lots of different ideas, and be respectful of where those ideas are coming from, and want you to capture everything wants you to analyze the problem, and then piece together the relevant information into a viable solution. Also be understanding and be very wary of any private agendas of those who come to your collaboration meeting. And hopefully, your company has a culture that is not accepting of anyone having their own private agenda to get what they want done. instead of considering the organization as a whole wants you to define the problem and what you're trying to accomplish. Communicate that across the team continue to be flexible to ideas and input and then consider all the alternatives. And also be aware of your bias when considering making the final decision on where the project should be.

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Number three, it's about getting the right people on the problem.

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And getting the right people in the room with any meeting is definitely about getting the right people on your project.

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And also keeping that number to a minimum, you want the right number of people but you don't want too many people you want the right experts and the right people who can help you move forward, you need to clarify roles. And of course, clarify the expectations continue to build relationships and partnerships for ongoing problem solving, I want to encourage you to just not use this opportunity for this one time project. But any projects down the road, continue to make that connection, build that relationship. So whenever you have a similar problem, or an issue where the same people who have come to your collaboration meeting, maybe they can help you solve a problem in the future.

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And number four is about communicating the decision and the results across the organization when you have the permission to do so I believe that you need to be sharing information, don't leave people in the dark about what is happening. When you share information about a key decision, you build trust, because if you don't share information, people will come to their own conclusions that are not fact based. So I'm encouraging you is that once you have a decision on this project that you've been given, that has an impact on the organization, that the results of that decision needs to be shared. And also a linkage to the strategy needs to be communicated so that everyone understands where the organization is going. Of course, it depends on the level of project it is and how many people it impacts definitely the people who had impacts the most should be communicated about what is going on and try not to keep information, I believe that information needs to be shared, because people are always thinking and overthinking and worrying about where the company is doing or where it's going. So I continue to encourage you in every episode, I believe on this podcast is that I believe that information should be shared.

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And it should be shared quickly.

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Again, I believe in teamwork, it's the best way to move the organization forward. Now, unless we get into a crisis mode or crisis situation, you know, top driven solutions are no longer acceptable. And when we get into extreme cases, when something has happened that needs decisiveness, and it needs quick action, then I believe that things need to be done by the leaders that are in charge, they need to take immediate action. And you may not have time to go ahead and get a group of people together to solve a problem because it needs immediate action and decisiveness. And it needs action right now, I do believe that you can achieve more by end if more people contributed to the solution and also to the strategy. So I challenge you are our teams designed for more collaborative work or just independent work. And if you have any influence on facilities layout, does the layout of your team facilitate talking more and collaborating more on the work that they do every day? Now this of course, is in consideration that we will move back into the offices once the challenges of COVID-19 are over. I have always enjoyed bringing in others to solve a complex problem because you get insight that you'd normally not hear. And you have to continue to do the work to understand and determine what is value added to the information that you are getting in what information is nonsense. If you work alone, you will miss out on valuable insight and other facts and assumptions that may eventually shape the decision or the outcome. And you get to grow your influence to when you will collaborating with others want to encourage you this week to lead with compassion and a lead with empathy and to look out for your team to see how they're doing and just to keep checking on them to see how they're meeting up with the challenges that we're still facing and just want to encourage To keep looking out for them, and just asking whatever challenges that they're facing, find out how their families are doing and just continue to get involved. I believe that as leaders, we need to be involved with our teams, not just when they're logged in and working on the projects and tasks that we've asked them to do. But we are more involved, we are finding out how they are being affected when they're logged off. Because everything that happens when they are away from you will affect how they do their work, and what they do and how they approach everything when they're logged on. So we want to continue to encourage you to see how your team is doing, find out where you can help and also to link up any kind of resources that the company may have as far as wellness programs, or anything else that may help solve a problem. For an easy one today, do you have a project or complex task that needs the input of others to be solved and if so, I want you to develop put together a team to collaborate with so you can solve that problem. I want you to develop a list of experts you need to solve your problem once you reach out to them to set up an initial meeting to create a work team to figure out the solution to the problem and couraging you to use collaboration to move forward if you haven't already done so. I have a free guide for you. It's called the leadership growth blueprint for finance and accounting managers. In the guide I talked about three leadership areas communication, team growth, and empowerment.

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Plus a few recommendations around challenges with the systems you are probably using to complete your work. The link to the guide is in the episode description. Or you can go to Stephen McLain calm. Please use it to help you with a few leadership wins today. Thank you. This episode is sponsored by my new online course offering through finance leader Academy.

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It's called Advanced your finance and accounting career, developing a promotion strategy that will set you apart. Are you having difficulty getting recognition from your leadership despite all the hard work you pour into your job, and your organization. This course helps you analyze what you bring to the organization and how you can set yourself apart from your peers to high visibility work and developing your leadership skills. Plus how you can devise a strategy to move ahead, you can go to Stephen mclain.com.

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For more details. Today I talked about the keys to collaboration.

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And I talked about four areas.

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Number one is how collaboration can help you solve problems.

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Number two, you need to continue to build trust and set expectations. Number three, you need to get the right people together to solve the problem.

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And number four, always communicate the decisions and results of the project and the problem that you just solved.

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Next week, I'll be discussing how to understand and apply emotional intelligence to our leadership. Emotional intelligence is not a gimmick, it's essential to becoming a better leader and caring more about your team. It's about figuring out yourself and how you react and how you act in the leadership of your team. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast. I'm dedicated to helping you grow your leadership. I hope you enjoyed the show. You can get this episode wherever you find podcasts. Until next time, you can check out more resources at Stephen McLain calm and sign up for my updates so you don't miss an episode of the show. And now go leave your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you

026: Effective Collaboration

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