7 Collaboration Skills Your Team Needs (+ How to Improve)

If you’re looking to revolutionize the way your team works together, investing in their collaboration skills is a great place to start. 

In our thorough guide, we’ll give you everything you should know about improving your team’s collaborative skills, including the most essential skills to hone in on, tried-and-true strategies for improvement, tools to further develop your team’s skills, and examples of what healthy collaboration can look like in the workplace.

What Is Collaboration?

Collaboration is the act of working together toward a common cause. At work, for example, collaboration allows people to achieve a goal by combining their ideas, perspectives, and strengths. 

What are collaboration skills? 

Collaboration skills are the natural or learned abilities that help people work together to reach a shared goal. People use these types of skills in many settings, from the workplace to school to team sports, among other areas. 

Examples of collaborative skills include: 

• Flexibility
• Active listening
• Relationship building
• Effective communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving

Why are collaboration skills important? 

Collaboration skills and the ability to be collaborative are important because they allow you to achieve more. There are tons of benefits to working together in a team, including:  

• Better communication
• More employee engagement at work
• More creativity and innovation when brainstorming solutions
• Better efficiency at school and work

7 Essential Collaboration Skills Your Team Needs

If you’re hoping to improve the collaboration on your team, you’re in the right place. Here are the seven most essential collaboration skills you should focus on when fostering a more collaborative environment on your team.

1. Active listening

One collaborative skill folks often forget about is active listening. This involves making an effort to focus and listen to the person speaking to minimize the potential for miscommunication. 

If you find yourself having trouble focusing, try paraphrasing or summarizing what’s been said. This not only helps you pay attention, but it also gives the speaker a chance to correct themselves, elaborate, or affirm that you understand. You can also ask questions to show you’re interested (or to get clarification on something that’s been said).

When you’re actively listening, you can show signs that you’re paying attention, like nodding or using affirmatives like “right” and “mm hmm.” This shows the speaker that they have your undivided attention and that you care about what they have to say. 

2. Flexibility

Being flexible is a highly underrated skill amongst teams. If it doesn’t come to you naturally, it can be tough to learn how to be more flexible when unexpected things crop up.

One of the best ways to encourage flexibility on your team is by encouraging your employees to be open to new things, like new approaches, frameworks, ideas, and perspectives. When you have a positive team environment, this is much easier. 

Adjusting to changes — especially when they crop up unexpectedly — can be difficult and stressful. But it’s worth the effort of learning how to adapt to change as it’ll help your team cope with hardships and overcome obstacles.

3. Conflict resolution skills

When it comes to collaboration skills, being able to resolve conflict is huge. If you’ve ever worked in a team before, chances are, you’ve faced an issue. Maybe it was a disagreement, a mistake, or a breakdown in communication. Whatever it may be, being able to use conflict resolution skills is a must when you’re fostering a collaborative environment. 

Much of conflict resolution is finding a common ground or a compromise between both parties. As long as everyone is respectful, actively listening, and dedicated to finding a solution, resolving issues doesn’t have to be a make-or-break situation. 

Your team will come out much stronger when their conflict resolution skills are solid.

4. Efficient communication skills

Not surprisingly, having effective communication is essential for folks who work together. The ability to clearly express your thoughts, opinions, and ideas doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but it’s a skill that can be learned through dedicated practice. Efficient communication skills are necessary to minimize or avoid miscommunication and misunderstandings within and outside of the team. 

A large component of effective communication is being able to pay attention and listen when someone else is speaking. When working on your team’s communication skills, make sure you’re also offering guidance when it comes to non-verbal communication too, like hand gestures. Being able to understand someone’s tone and body language can improve your comprehension skills tenfold. 

5. Teamwork

Teamwork and collaboration go hand-in-hand, which is why it’s one of the most important collaboration skills. It often involves a shared goal or team objectives that members of the team can work toward together. 

If your team struggles with teamwork, there could be a lack of mutual respect. Mutual respect is often necessary for effective teamwork because the majority of people work better together when they feel valued and appreciated. Always encourage internal respect amongst team members (and as a team leader or manager, be sure to demonstrate the very same).

6. Empathy

Empathy doesn’t come naturally to everyone but it’s a necessary collaboration skill. It’s very difficult to work together in a team if you can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes to see their perspective. This helps you better understand people’s feelings and can inform the decisions you make, especially when considering how to respond. It’s common in workplaces (and other environments) for folks to respond quickly without actually considering the other person. 

When you work to boost your team’s understanding of empathy, they can build better relationships, both within and outside of your team. Knowing how to listen with empathy is a skill in and of itself, and is well worth honing in on to foster stronger relationships built to last.

7. Problem-solving 

Last but certainly not least, the ability to problem-solve is a core collaboration skill that all team members should aim to work on. This involves the ability to not only identify issues or difficulties, but also to evaluate them so they’re more manageable to tackle. When a complex or complicated issue emerges, it can be hard for teams to face head on unless they break it down into more bite-sized challenges to solve. 

Encouraging your team to analyze problems this way can improve their ability to come up with solutions. Plus, if you’re fostering a collaborative environment, they’ll be better equipped to brainstorm and implement these solutions. 

5 Strategies to Boost Your Team’s Collaboration Skills

Knowing what types of skills managers should hone in on when working with teams to improve their collaboration is one thing, but achieving that goal? That’s a whole other ballgame. Here are five tried-and-true strategies to boost your team’s collaboration skills.

1. Practice empathy and empathic listening.

The first strategy you can explore to improve the collaboration skills of your team is actively practicing empathy and empathic listening. Model this behavior yourself for your team, so they’ll have a good example. Boosting your team’s collaboration skills only works if you’re willing to put in that effort, too. Otherwise, your team might not see the point of putting in time and effort to understand others if their leader doesn’t. 

If your team struggles with empathy, you can explore empathy training, which can involve workshops, online classes, or seminars to help employees understand empathy a little better. 

2. Work on your team’s adaptability skills.

One of the best ways to improve a team’s collaboration includes zeroing in on their adaptability skills. As mentioned above, flexibility is huge when it comes to being able to work together successfully in a team, and sharpening adaptability skills is a great way to do that. 

For example, it might be helpful to explore the different work styles on your team. You can have your employees take a personality test like the DISC assessment to see what their preferences are and then show the team ways they can adapt to other work styles. 

As a team leader, make sure you’re also outwardly welcoming when it comes to new perspectives and ideas. When uncertain or unexpected circumstances emerge, model the exact behavior you’d like to see: staying cool and collected in the face of the storm. A team that adapts to change well, works well together. 

3. Make an effort to build trust within the team.

Another strategy to boost your team’s collaboration skills is to foster a sense of trust among the team. Team members who don’t have faith in each other aren’t going to mesh or work well together. Having a lack of trust also makes it more difficult to pick up other collaborative skills, like problem-solving, conflict resolution, and empathy. 

If you manage a team yourself, remember to always be honest, upfront, and reliable when you communicate and interact with people. You want your employees to be able to come to you with anything and openly demonstrating this level of trust will work wonders toward that goal. Part of this includes keeping commitments and promises. For example, if you promise your team a happy hour, it’s not a good idea to cancel at the last minute if you can help it. Even though it might not seem like a big deal, repeatedly undermining commitments you’ve made to the team can have a detrimental effect. 

It’ll also help if you can show some vulnerability and share your feelings when appropriate. Some leaders are so focused on looking strong for the team that they inadvertently come off as cold and distant. 

4. Routinely ask for feedback (and encourage team members to do the same).

It’s a good idea to make a habit of asking your team for feedback. Even if it’s through an anonymous survey, actively seeking out feedback from your team helps foster that collaborative environment we’re shooting for. However, just asking for feedback isn’t good enough — you need to be prepared to face criticism and leverage it to improve. Asking for feedback and then ignoring said feedback can be even more harmful.

5. Exude optimism and an indomitable spirit. 

Although it can be difficult at times, exuding optimism and showcasing a positive attitude can inspire your team to be more collaborative. Not surprisingly, it’s much more challenging to motivate a team to work together if you’ve got a negative outlook. 

With this strategy, you can boost your team’s collaboration skills by: 

• Actively trying to see the good in situations
• Encouraging people on the team
• Acknowledging team members when they do a good job
• Facing tasks with an enthusiastic attitude

How to Improve Your Team’s Collaboration Skills With Yoodli 

If you’re looking for a way you can put your team’s collaboration skills to the test, look no further than Yoodli. Yoodli, an AI-drive communication coach, offers realistic roleplays for teams to experiment with. Here, they can practice their collaboration skills in a completely safe space without worrying about making mistakes or “messing up.” 

One of the things that makes Yoodli so beneficial for improving your team’s skills is that it leverages multiple AI-generated conversation partners, all with totally different personalities. This helps people navigate conversations with a variety of perspectives they might not be used to interacting with. They can practice adapting to their partner based on the roleplay scenario. 

After the conversation, your employees receive detailed, actionable feedback so they know where they need to improve. For example, as an admin, you’ll be able to see in-depth insights with regard to your team, particularly how well they communicate, how many filler words they use, whether or not they use inclusive language, and other data.

Whether you have a team of five people or you’re working with a large number of teams, Yoodli can be used for at-scale training and help improve employees’ collaboration skills. 

Learn more about how you can start to use this tool to your team’s advantage for free at https://yoodli.ai/.

What Collaboration in the Workplace Can Look Like

When you’ve fostered a collaborative environment at work, you’ll reap the benefits of teamwork, inclusivity, and equity (among others). Here’s what healthy collaboration can look like in the workplace. 

Cross-team collaboration 

Virtually everyone will experience cross-team collaboration at some point in their lives because of how common it is. Whether you work in a corporate setting, retail, or in the food industry, the potential for collaboration among different teams is worth prioritizing. 

When teams can work well together, they can better: 

• Understand various viewpoints when it comes to problem-solving
• Communicate and work toward common company-wide goals
• Appreciate diverse backgrounds and perspectives 

Remote collaboration

Although remote work has existed for years, the potential for remote work opportunities exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, encouraging collaborative skills has been a bit challenging for those who feel isolated or separate from the overall team due to working from home. However, remote collaboration is possible. Many companies leverage tools for team communication, like Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. This can help improve virtual relationships among coworkers and bridge the gap between in-office and remote employees. 

One of the most important considerations for remote collaboration is time management. Some team members might work from a different time zone, so you’d want to be extra mindful when scheduling meetings and virtual happy hours to ensure everyone can attend and feel included. 

How to foster a collaborative culture at work

To better foster a collaborative culture at work, prioritize open, honest communication. The team should feel comfortable sharing not just their ideas and perspectives, but also their concerns. Employees won’t feel like they’re able to bring new ideas to the table if the expectation of open communication isn’t there. 

Be sure to also acknowledge and reward teamwork when appropriate. Whether it’s a successful task completed, a larger project deadline, or something else entirely, call out these collaborative successes as something to celebrate. 

As mentioned above, leading by example is absolutely necessary for fostering a more collaborative environment. Modeling these behaviors and collaborative skills that you’d like to see in your employees is the first step. 

The Bottom Line 

No doubt about it: Collaboration skills are essential for success. Investing in your employees to further develop their skills can have long lasting benefits, and Yoodli’s intelligent roleplay can guide your team toward improvement. 

Sources

• Association for Intelligent Information Management: “What is collaboration?”
• Indeed: “10 Reasons Why Collaboration Is Important in the Workplace,” “Collaboration Skills: Examples and Ways To Improve Them.” 
• CLC: “The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace.”