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| The Scribe |
Collaboration is oftentimes confused with teamwork and togetherness. These words are not the same because great teamwork does not mean that people need to be around each other frequently or require peer oversight. In fact, great teamwork is based on recognizing people's strengths and allowing them to act accordingly. It is based on giving people the proper space to think things through and prepare mentally before returning to the group to discuss the intellectual endeavor. Instead of using this word, encourage people to contribute information as appropriate based on their role and assignment.
Thinking out-of-the-box has been so misused over the past years. I recently heard it coined by the youth to secretly describe their, well, bad habits. YES! While it used to encourage people to be different and not think of things in the norm, anything as small as eating dinner before 8pm is considered to be thinking out-of-the-box. Instead of using this catchy phrase, encourage people to plan how to improve existing processes by starting with the total opposite of the norm and work their way to a list where a change will cause the advantages to substantially outweigh the drawbacks.
Stop using the overused words - collaboration and think outside of the box. No one likes a broken record and there are definitely no DJ mixes or scratches on these words that can entice a worker to be more productive.
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