When you think of leadership, do you think about the demands of just one person? For many years, this was how I felt about the concept of “leadership.” It wasn’t until I started working for a nonprofit organization while I was in graduate school that I saw the true nature of leadership play out.
I worked for a boss that was diplomatic in how he approached leadership. For him, decisions were a discussion, and all problems were an opportunity for us to work together to solve them. What I saw on display was collaborative leadership.
While he made the final decision, he sought our opinions about various crucial choices. Whether we were producing a marketing video, or selecting speakers for a conference, his leadership style invited us as employees to actively participate.
Now, when you work for someone who practices collaborative leadership, you quickly realize that group discussions and meetings can become the norm. While it was an honor to be consulted about a variety of decisions, there were times where we could have had a better infrastructure to encourage collaborative leadership.
We should have had the necessary collaboration tools for business. Communicating while working, tackling a grant proposal, or even meetings would have been much more straightforward with the right enterprise collaboration system.
For the leaders who understand the importance of collaborative leadership, the right collaboration tools for business are essential. Let’s discuss what a collaboration system is and why it’s necessary for anyone in a leadership position.
What is a Collaboration System?
A collaboration system, in its most basic form, is meant to bring unity to employees and leadership within an organization. As an enterprise collaboration system, its purpose is to allow for the efficient sharing of documents and information. When I have seen it at its most effective, it was enabling workers to mimic in-office processes like that “water cooler” conversation, or a whiteboard brainstorm meeting. The goal is to keep the day “flowing.”
Flujo is an example of a productivity multiplier, that is all about flow. In fact, this concept is a part of its name. We wanted to create a collaboration tool for businesses that made the process of work easy and straightforward. From scheduling a meeting to accessing folders in one place, collaboration and leadership are made to be more effective.
What are the ways you can realize the benefits of an enterprise collaboration system like flujo, or other apps? How can it bring about collaborative leadership? Next, are seven ways a collaboration system can make leadership easier.
Seven Ways a Collaboration System Can Make Leadership Easier
Batman can’t catch with the Joker without tools like the batmobile or grapple hook, and my other favorite hero, Captain America, couldn’t help lead the Avengers without his shield. Well, as the leader of your organization, you are a hero, and a collaboration system is your tool that can bring success to your company. Here are seven ways a collaboration system can make it easier for you to lead your team.
Save money on travel costs – I have seen companies who do not have the software tools to adequately accommodate remote work employees spend thousands flying in off-site team members. They would also lose money by reimbursing those who drove in from long distances. Most of the time, the traveling was to attend a meeting they could have participated in at home. With a collaboration tool for business, you don’t have to fly in remote team members or collaborators. A quick meeting set up on FLUJO can alleviate the need to do this.
Give your employees the freedom to work from anywhere – Nearly 70 percent of the workers in the world work remotely at least once a week. Remote work is becoming the norm. I cannot tell you how many past co-workers I have seen take on remote positions, or make location-independence a requirement for their next job. You are losing out on high-quality talent if you refuse to embrace remote work, and one of the benefits of an enterprise collaboration system is being able to offer remote work as a perk.
Mimic in-office processes – As mentioned above, there are going to be times where your team needs to mimic some in-office processes. Whether it be conversations in the break room or a strategy meeting, a collaboration system can foster these interactions. Remember those days where you could quickly run to someone’s desk? Well, that may not be possible. However, an instant message on flujo can make you feel as if this is something you can still do.
Save money on communication – Those long-distance phone calls add up. A collaboration system allows you to communicate with other employees affordably. With flujo, you will likely only spend a monthly subscription fee instead of daily phone costs.
Stay in the loop – You never have to worry about knowing what’s going on with your team, or encouraging everyone to share progress. A collaboration system creates the infrastructure to do this. You can delegate tasks, set up task dependencies, check to-do lists, and set up a time to discuss the progress of your team. If done correctly, a collaboration tool for business can help you have an overhead view of what is going on at your organization.
Attract the best talent, regardless of location – You can find the best people to handle your projects without them being in the same zip code. One of the reasons I left my previous place of employment was that they did not embrace remote work, or have the tools to do so. Many others left for the same reasons. Having a robust collaboration tool for business that supports collaborative leadership makes it possible for anyone to work for you regardless of where they are. Even if you do have individuals in the office, they can more easily keep up with what is going on if you have a hybrid team.
Add efficiency and speed to your projects – Everyone is viewing the same information. So, you have less of a chance of errors happening, while also ensuring everyone can work on a project at the same time. Again, even if everyone is in the office, having a collaboration system allows you to keep everything organized while enabling your team to work on projects simultaneously and digitally communicate with one another while they do it. It eliminates the need for countless emails and in-office meetings.
It’s Important to Find the Right Collaboration Tool for Business
Before you can realize the benefits of enterprise collaboration systems, you first have to find the right tool. There are other options out there, but we want to introduce you to something that makes leadership easier because everything is in one place.
Flujo is a one-stop-shop for those who want more out of collaboration. Instead of having to go to one tool for instant messaging, another for scheduling, and one more to delegate tasks, FLUJO’s “flow” allows this to take place in one location. While collaborative leadership isn’t easy, a tool like FLUJO can help you lead more effectively.
