Category: Inclusion and diversity

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How to Leverage Collaborative Culture as a Market Advantage

collaborative culture

Cultivating a collaborative culture has both business and market advantages. It is a strategic organizational culture. It helps to promote excellence in today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape. This culture permeates throughout the ranks and files of any organization. This post will examine how group members can achieve organizational goals through collaboration. We will also examine the organization’s culture of effective collaboration. And how it can ultimately lead to a significant business and market advantage.

The collaborative culture is a new and emerging driver of success. Through the collaborative culture, individuals get the opportunity to bring to the table innovative and creative ideas. These are ideas that will enable business growth. It allows them to contribute their unique perspectives by fostering a workplace environment built on collaboration.

Building a Collaborative Culture

Fostering a collaborative culture is not a one-time event. It is a process that requires time. Some key steps organizations can take to achieve this include;

Commitment: Building a collaborative culture requires commitment from leaders of organizations. Leaders must be vocal advocates for collaboration. They must create a framework for collaborative behaviors. They must also have clear expectations for open communication and teamwork.

Communication: Communication is a must. Effective communication is the pillar of the collaborative culture. Hence, Organizations should invest in training programs. These programs must enhance communication skills and encourage active listening.

Building Synergy across Departments: Create opportunities for cross-functional collaboration by organizing team-building exercises. There is a need to encourage interdepartmental communication

Elements of Collaborative Culture

There are three elements of the collaborative culture. These are the unique features of collaborative culture. They indicate what the organization stands to gain by imbibing the culture of effective collaboration. These three elements are the tripod of the collaborative culture. They include;

Empowerment

Empowerment is at the heart of the collaborative culture. The collaborative culture encourages empowerment. Empowerment entails moving away from rigid hierarchies. It fosters an ownership mentality among employees. One way to achieve this empowerment is by creating an enabling environment. A space where everyone feels authorized to express their opinions freely without restrictions. It empowers them to contribute their unique perspectives towards organizational goals. They feel trusted to make decisions, and take initiative.

The more empowered group members are the more open and engaged they become. That is an advantage of empowerment. They will be more committed to achieving organizational goals and business growth. This will reflect in the kind of ideas they contribute. They will also churn out innovative and creative ideas. And make quality and informed decisions that promote excellence. Empowerment gives the employees the autonomy to determine the “how” within a defined framework. This allows them to leverage their expertise and find creative solutions. Empowerment fosters a culture of excellence.

Teamwork (Teaming)

The culture of effective collaboration requires a teamwork mindset among group members. The highlight of a collaborative culture is that it encourages diversity of thought and backgrounds. In other words, it encourages diversity and inclusion which promotes productivity. Succinctly put, the more collaborative the team is the more productive it becomes.

This is in line with what I have termed ‘Selective Association’. As an organization, you have to be selective when choosing your team. In addition, if you work in any organization. You will understand that you and your co-workers are carefully selected to associate with one another. The aim is to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. Moreover, when you agree to work with an organization you believe in its philosophy. The vision, mission statement, and core values. In other words, you and other staff are bound by the collaborative culture – to work together to achieve the organization’s goal.

The collaborative culture helps individual members to respect and value diversity. The differing ways of thinking, communication, and decision-making while working as a team. It helps to build synergy among team members. This synergy leads to a deeper comprehension of problems. It can also help in generating innovative ideas for more effective solutions. Through this culture team members can anticipate and take the right measures to address conflict among them. At the root of effective teaming, there must be trust and respect. Team members need to feel comfortable sharing ideas. Even, if they differ from the established norm.

Respect for Opinion

Respect for opinion is an important element of the collaborative culture. By respect for opinion, I mean respect for voice. And voice in this regard means building a safe environment. An environment where everyone feels that what they say is valued and respected. In such a situation everyone feels comfortable expressing their perspective. Even when such an idea is not implemented. This is because they are appreciated and their opinions matter. In the collaborative culture, every voice matters.

It has regard for team members’ opinions by explicitly including all team members in discussions no matter their rank. This is achieved by regularly soliciting and sampling team members’ opinions and ideas. As a show of respect for these opinions effort is made to factor them in the organization’s decision-making process. Employees become more engaged and contribute their best work when they feel their voices are heard and valued. Hence, by doing this organizations will reap the benefits of inclusion. Moreover, when every team member’s voice matters it can lead to faster issue resolution and improved operational efficiency.

Conclusion

In all this, we can conclude that the collaborative culture has both business and market advantages. Therefore, organizations can leverage it to create an inclusive environment. That inspires teams, encourages creativity and innovation, and cultivates a productive business culture that promotes growth.  Indeed, it is a gateway to success for any organization. It helps them understand customer needs and preferences better; respond quickly to changes in the market or customer demands, and also create a stronger organization brand appeal that attracts top talent. So it is recommended for any organization that envisages growth and success.

Get my book ‘The Threshold of Life‘ and read more about the topic.

Imagine, believe, dare the impossible

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Self-Awareness: Why it is Good for Success.

self-awareness

Self-awareness is a sterling quality every leader and success enthusiast must acquire in their gusto stride to greatness. Whether it is a private or multinational organizational setting, self-awareness is uniquely important for success. It is an attitude every leader or organization must crave for. The beauty of self-awareness is that it affords individuals to learn so many details about themselves, including their strengths, weaknesses, limitations, skills, values, and sense of judgment. It validates every commitment we make to succeed.

Understanding Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a conscious understanding of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires. An organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich classified self-awareness into two, namely internal self-awareness which borders on one clearly seeing their own thoughts and feelings. And the second is external self-awareness which is clearly seeing how others see us. In general, it affects how individuals behave concerning how they interact with other people.

Self-awareness has a massive impact on the quest for success. This is because self-aware individuals are more likely to be high performing to set and achieve crucial goals, minimize cost, and mitigate loss. Self-aware individuals are constantly seeking ways to improve their skills. They can improve a variety of skills that are crucial to maximize the efforts of others. Essential skills like listening, communicating, decision-making, Conflict-management, and accepting and giving feedback are maximized through self-awareness.

One crucial element of self-awareness is paying attention to the emotions of an individual and that of others. In other words, it is more or less an extension of emotional intelligence (EQ). According to Daniel Coleman it is one of the five elements of emotional intelligence (EQ); whereas, EQ is the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions, as well as identify and influence the emotion of others. And this is good for success. I hope to discuss EQ in one of my posts in the nearest future. So watch out for it. Hence, self-awareness is a success essential as it promotes high performance and capacity building.

Moreover, by seeking to understand the impact of their emotions and actions on others individuals set up and maintain a working environment devoid of emotional glitches. Such an atmosphere encourages a win-win spirit, where every party is happy and satisfied with the outcome. Success thrives most under such an atmosphere.

How to Become Self-Aware

One truth you must understand is that becoming self-aware is a real-life process that requires commitment, time, persistence, doggedness, and humility. These four basic steps can help you in your quest to become self-aware.

Mindfulness

Becoming self-aware begins with you being mindful of yourself. The term mindfulness refers to focusing on one’s awareness of the present moment while being mindful of events around them. It is trying to understand how your experiences in life can influence your thinking and actions. Through mindfulness, you can leverage your thought process and actions to succeed in any given endeavor.

Broaden your Knowledge

You must broaden your knowledge if you want to become self-aware. In cultivating self-awareness you must thoroughly educate yourself through formal and informal methods. Seek resources that deal with the concept of self-awareness. For instance, consider drawing upon a growing body of information about mindfulness, and other branches of knowledge on self-awareness.

Solicit Feedback

You can also improve your self-awareness level by soliciting feedback. Studies have shown that effective and successful individuals seek feedback from a variety of persons including peers, bosses, employees, and customers. Feedback gives you a vivid picture of how you feel and think about yourself, as against how others see, think, or feel about you. Soliciting feedback exposes the individual’s vulnerability and the stack reality of the need for improvement.

Conduct Formal Assessment

One way to cultivate self-awareness is to conduct periodic assessments of your personality and style. This is a critical part of the process. Always conduct a formal check on your progress from time to time. This is where feedback comes in. Ask yourself how people see or feel about your personality and style. Is it okay? Then if it is okay consolidate them. These are your strength; you must capitalize on them in cultivating self-awareness. In the same vein ask yourself what are the negative feelers about your personality and style. These are your weaknesses which you must commit every effort to improve. In general, conducting formal assessments helps a great deal in cultivating self-awareness.

In all, self-awareness is imperative to succeeding in life, and it requires time, commitment, persistence, doggedness, and humility to cultivate it. You must acquire it if want to keep a date with success and greatness in life.

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Cultural Intelligence Catalyst for Success

cultural Intelligence

There are quality skills that serve as catalysts to speed up the process of success. As much as possible you must possess them if you want to thrive and succeed in any endeavor. One such skill is cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is a must-have skill for any modern leader or entrepreneur. It is a market advantage as it promotes and deepens inclusion and diversity. Inclusion increases productivity, creativity, and innovation, and engenders a collaborative spirit, a win-win atmosphere where everyone feels satisfied with the outcome. Generally, inclusion is the ideal approach to successful leadership in any organization, and it is facilitated by cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence is the ability to interact and relate with people from other cultural backgrounds. In other words, it is all about understanding your culture in relation to other people’s culture. Culture on the other hand refers to some deeply rooted patterns of values, customs, attitudes, and beliefs peculiar to any group or society. It is learned and transmitted collectively by members of a particular society or group. And it subconsciously and consciously guides the behavior and thought of such a community.

One interesting fact about culture is that it is often neglected by people until they come in contact with anomalies in their cultural expectations. And it is our responsibility to decide how we respond to these cultural anomalies. Hence, cultural intelligence is not just the ability to understand these different cultural norms but the ability to act on that knowledge in a mutually beneficial way. It is the capability to relate and work effectively across cultures.

Components of Cultural Intelligence

Cultural intelligence consists of four quadrants. There are four components of CQ that every inclusive leader must possess in order to succeed. These qualities are sine qua none to success, and being deficient in any of them will impact negatively on your quest to achieve. These components include;

Drive

Let me say here that you must possess the energy to drive interaction across cultures. It is the motivational element of cultural intelligence related to an individual’s level of interest in interacting effectively across cultures. The drive includes the extent to which an individual is able to appreciate and enjoy engaging in culturally diverse interactions. It is also associated with the awareness of the benefits that one can gain from cross-cultural experiences.

The drive may also include confidence about being effective within culturally diverse contexts. As one of the most novel and important components of cultural intelligence, it entails the ability to engage and persevere through intercultural exchanges, or challenges.

Knowledge

Knowledge is another important aspect of Cultural intelligence. It refers to how much an individual knows about the concept of culture and its roles within any group. Obviously, you need to have enough information about different types of organizational and individual cultures, and how it affects your interaction with members of various cultures.

Strategy

It is the next capability of cultural intelligence. And it refers to an individual’s ability to prepare for and manage cross-cultural interactions. It consists of three important elements like planning, awareness, and checking. Planning as an element of strategy refers to consulting relevant knowledge and experiences before an encounter.

Awareness refers to being in tune with one’s own mind as well as trying to discern what others might be thinking. Checking on the other hand entails comparing one’s experiences with prior expectations, and adjusting one’s mindset if need be.

Action

Action includes what an individual does during a cross-cultural situation in order to remain effective and successful. It also includes the words and phrases that one uses in such situations. This encompasses verbal actions such as volume, tone, and pace of speaking. It may also include nonverbal cues like gestures, facial expressions, and the use of personal space. Personal space entails how close individuals stand or sit next to one another in cross-cultural interactions.

Final Note

Cultural intelligence is a crucial skill for any leader who will dream of success. It is very critical in your quest to succeed in life. CQ will help you to maximally engage well and with confidence with individuals in a wide range of contexts. It makes you versatile and well-prepared to respond effectively to ever-increasingly diverse and more sophisticated markets. I want to reiterate here that cultural intelligence deepens inclusion, and that is a plus to success. It is a market advantage as it enhances creativity, productivity, and innovation. It is the catalyst you need to speed up the process in your quest for success.