Improving Collaboration Within Your Company

by Amy Collett

When you own a business, you want everyone in your company to be on the same page and to work collaboratively to achieve a common goal. But how do you make your team members, who all have different backgrounds and personalities, come together and communicate effectively for the good of the company? WyzGuys Cybersecurity has some tips that will motivate your employees to better collaborate with each other.

Encourage Open Communication

As a business owner, make a point to ask your team members for their input on a regular basis. If they deal directly with customers, they might have heard complaints about a product that need to be resolved, or clients’ needs that aren’t being addressed but that your business might be in a position to fill, leading you to more client engagement and profits. Welcoming your employees’ feedback will make them feel like a valued part of the team.

When talking to your team members, remember that your body language reveals a lot about what you’re thinking and feeling. During meetings, make eye contact with your collaborators to show interest in what they’re saying. Keep your head straight and try minimizing your hand gestures; too much waving can make you look unsure of yourself. Avoid fidgeting and touching your face, which looks unprofessional and makes you seem nervous and agitated.

Invest in Collaborative Tools, Technologies, and Platforms

New technologies make it easier than ever for people to collaborate in real-time, even if they’re scattered around the globe. So take advantage of online platforms and project management tools that allow documents and files to be shared among team members while keeping your data secure. Armed with these tools, your organization will be able to coordinate tasks and monitor their progress while keeping track of deadlines.

Instant messaging apps and video conferencing tools will also keep your teams active and engaged as these technologies allow for quick interactions and back-and-forth, which is ideal for brainstorming sessions where workers need to share their screens to get immediate feedback. And cloud-based technology will let you see recent changes and activities in spreadsheets and documents while saving all your information and data online, making them accessible to all your team members at any time.

Another effective collaboration tool is a product road map. This is especially helpful when you’re bringing a new product to market. A product road map allows you to break down a project’s timeline and ensures everyone knows their role in preparing for a product release. The steps to create a product roadmap are fairly simple: determine your strategy, bring in all the necessary teams, identify priorities and plot a timeline. And when you use a free online template, you can have your map ready to go in no time.

Promote and Reward Cross-Team Collaboration

Make sure your employees know how they fit within your organization, and what part they’re playing on a particular project. Having clear directives will help save time and avoid overlap as each person will be aware of which specific tasks they’ve been assigned. And when two separate teams need to work together on a project, assign a single point of contact for each team to make the process smoother and more efficient. Before starting on your next collaborative project, take time to organize team-building activities where people will have a chance to know each other on a more personal level, which can prevent conflicts in the workplace.

Foster collaboration by rewarding the whole group for their efforts, and avoid assigning blame on a particular employee or team when you don’t reach your objectives or when things don’t go as planned. Conversely, don’t foster competition among teams or individuals, which could potentially lead to less effectiveness for the overall project. And just remember: when the whole team gets recognized and rewarded, individuals will be more willing to collaborate.

Getting your teams to collaborate on major projects will lead to business growth as well as foster a sense of community and belonging in each team member. So take advantage of project management tools and video conferencing platforms as well as old-fashion team-building exercises that will help you and your employees keep your eyes on the prize.

When it comes to protecting your business, cybersecurity should be a top priority. To help you stay vigilant and able to quickly recover from a cyberattack, connect with the team at WyzGuys Cybersecurity today!

 

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About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

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