One of the biggest keys to success in business is collaboration or to use a technical term, the “collaborative process”. With these words alone, you should be able to see why it is so important to have a team who is diverse, who has a common purpose, and who shares trust and commitment. Sharing trust and commitment is very difficult to accomplish if you think of one person as the leader, and everyone else as his followers. In fact, if you follow any successful business or group of individuals, you will often see the leader as the one who is able to accept the suggestions of those who are part of the team, and trust that they will pass along the proper information and ideas for the members of the team to implement.

Creating a collaborative process where everyone is on the same page, and everyone is on the same direction, as well as working together toward the purpose, can make or break a business. There are so many people who see the leader, or the vision of the organization, as the one responsible for guiding the members of the team towards a shared purpose. They assume that the leader is the one who bring the group together, and they will assign themselves a specific role in the organization and work within the structures that will help bring the group together. They will choose to follow the leader, even if they believe that it is the member of the team who can make the most impact in the direction of the organization.

If you truly want to be successful, you should be focusing on having your team work towards the same goal or intention. If your team members have a common purpose and understanding of the value of this group, then they will be more willing to share and work with one another, and will bring a common goal together. When a group is focused on the same purpose, everyone will be more likely to trust one another, and they will be more likely to do the work that needs to be done. When everyone in the group is doing their part to the success of the group, there is very little friction, and you will see that the company thrives and grows.

In summary, if you work towards this five aspects, you have better changes of creating a successful team:

• Purpose
• Awareness, including self-awareness and situational awareness
• Trust
• Collaboration
• Constructive Conflict