Give your child the collaboration skills they need to be a great team player

In the professional world, being able to collaborate well with a team is the number one way to be successful. No matter how you look at it, collaboration is a part of life – even if you don’t love it. But it doesn’t have to be painful, and in almost every case, working in a team can help reduce stress and avoid burnout. So, to help your child embrace the benefits of teamwork, here are some tips to help them improve their collaboration skills.

What's my task again?

One of the first big hurdles to tackle on any group assignment is the bystander effect. I’ve had projects that have gone weeks without a single letter typed because nobody’s clear on what they’re supposed to do. Worse still, people attempt to be nice by saying they ‘don’t mind’ which section they work on, which just leads to more delays.

A team needs someone who’s willing to carve up the project and create accountability. People might seem shy, but if your child can take the lead and start dividing the project into pieces, things start to naturally flow from there. They could use the help of a corporate task management software like Trello, Jira, or Asana, or they can just as easily get away with a google sheet which lists the task, the person responsible, the due date of that section, and the status of the project.

What does success look like?

When you kick off on the project, it's worth asking 'what does everyone want to get out of this?'

This is a phrase that you’ll encounter in just about any client-facing job, or really any job where you have someone assigning work to you. If your child is working with people who just aren’t that keen on putting the hard yards in, they can find a way to make sure that the best people are working on the bits of the project that are going to deliver results. It might mean that they have to take on a bit more work, but sometimes this is the best way to achieve success.

Checking in

Our brains are very good at connecting the dots, to create pictures – even when that picture may not really exist. Tha's all to say that it's hard to tell how people are going along with a project unless you’re willing to check in with them and see how they're going. If their contribution might not be up to scratch, it's easy to chalk it up to neglect or laziness. But they could be struggling with the material, the task or other obligations and need a helping hand. At the end of the day, their success is likely to be shared with the rest of the team, so a simple conversation can help everyone work towards a better outcome.

That all being said, there’s an art to the check-in, especially if some constructive feedback is neeed. The three tips to think about when checking in include:

• Keep it friendly and/or polite: People want to feel respected, and typically won't tolerate being talked down to by their peers.
• Throw in a compliment or two: Embrace the compliment sandwich – even if it’s something as simple as saying ‘thank you for your quick reply'; or 'thanks for agreeing to meet up about this project'.
• Be specific and be constructive: Before getting in touch, figure out exactly what you think needs to be improved, and how to help them improve. When you end up having a convo with them, approach it with curiosity and generosity, assuming that they also want to do the best job possible.

Putting it on record

We start all our projects with the best of intentions, but even after implementing these amazing tips, sometimes things don’t work out as we hoped. Hopefully things can be sorted out within the group, but it can come to needing to kick it upstairs and talk to your tutor, course convenor, or in the case of the working world, HR to have things straightened out. If there’s one constructive thing that your child can take from this, however, it is the process of proper record keeping and evidence-gathering – which will serve them well, from the boardroom to tenancy disputes to getting a refund after buying something in the wrong size at your favourite store. Suggest they learn how to use popular note-taking software like Notion, Google Keep, OneNote or just your Notes app so that all their info is organised.

As you probably know all too well, even in the so-called ’grown-up’ professional world people can have disagreements over group projects – but if your child can take initiative and show that they want a positive result for everyone, they can earn the respect of their co-workers, even if it’s your first job.