Helping Others and Fostering a Collaborative Relationship

Learning how to create and nurture collaborative relationships with others is an essential leadership skill. This can be done with other volunteers and members and brought back to your day-to-day job. The importance of collaborative relationships seems to be understated in most cases. There are several groups in an organization that rely on other groups. There is so much potential to be gained by building and developing these relationships. Building collaborative relationships involve reciprocity or helping others.

The teams that appear to be working in a silo are going to be the most difficult to reach out to but it just takes starting the conversation. The benefit to the organizations is going to be incredible if the relationships are built and continue to be maintained. Motivation to work as a leader and collaborate with others in a company comes from producing a successful project, product or service.

There is also the pay factor, to earn money, for a job well done. Money is not a motivation that can be used with volunteers and in a user group. The product of the group might just be the overall strategy and goals, but there are not always projects. Many technology professionals must want to learn and grow. The continued learning is part of the ever-advancing technology field. Once we stop learning, our skills become obsolete. To be able to be self-directed in these areas help for motivation to participate more in the user group and develop into the leader volunteer.

The mindset of the volunteer is to pursue a vision and know that there are others wanting to do the same. From the board of directors standpoint, it is imperative to share the overall goals, vision, and strategies with volunteers to help them stay engaged and motivated.

Volunteers have to want to collaborate, even if it means reaching out to others that you may not know. It will involve stepping out of a comfort zone to continue to learn and grow. It means helping others to do the same and wanting to help others and not for the sole purpose of your own personal gain and career advancement.

The motivation to be in a volunteer role will come from helping others succeed; this will lead to authentic long-lasting relationships. If you think about how you would like others to collaborate with you and build relationships with you, you can turn that around to create a new relationship and your authenticity will be very apparent. As leader volunteers, the interest in helping others solve problems and find solutions will show through and make strong relationships.