Embracing the power of collaboration for mutual success
I’ve always believed in the power of collaboration to bring out the best, not only in ourselves, but in our organisations. At Kyocera, it’s part of our mandate to help our partners grow and fulfil their potential and vice versa. After all, being part of a community of fellow business builders, who offer support, encouragement, co-creation, mentoring and troubleshooting, is helpful and liberating.
Aside from its many challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a greater shift towards collaboration in the business environment. In fact, recent findings by McKinsey show that diverse and inclusive teams that embrace collaboration can provide businesses with many benefits. The challenge, however, lies in how to equip business leaders, who are already established and successful, to best help themselves, their organisations and their business partners.
The key, according to this helpful article, lies in shifting mindsets and specific behaviours, by:
1. Training leaders for success
To develop skills of an adaptive, collaborative leader requires shifting mindsets and linking this shift to specific behaviours that can be tried and tested in a safe environment.
2. Developing curiosity
Allow the leadership team to experience the possibility of making an erroneous assumption and allow them to practice and experience asking new questions, listening and being curious about the answers.
3. On-the-job action learning
Action learning is based on following a pattern of acting, reflecting and reframing. By incorporating new skills into their regular way of working, leaders can realise first-hand how effective they are and reframe their thinking.
4. Embedding the learning into the organisational structure
By incorporating the new behaviour and learning into an official company structure, they become second nature.
By opening ourselves up to more collaborative relationships – whether client facing, in sales, as support staff, or as a Kyocera partner – we can add value by harnessing the best of each other’s skills and drive mutual success through our businesses.
Lee-Ann Kellner - Channel Sales Manager - KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa
