Want more cooperation and collaboration in your organization and on your team?
Then it’s time to “reframe” kindly!
Often, concepts and words are so ingrained in our thinking that they are “unconscious”. We aren’t even aware of how they affect our actions, words and thoughts anymore!
Today, here are a couple of things that you, as a Kind Leader, can make a deliberate choice to “reframe” for cooperation and collaboration!
"Reframe" from thinking about “internal customers” first…and “end customers second”! I actually order the phrase “Business Partners” for the people we get work from…and pass work along to! Why? Because it’s impossible to satisfy the needs of customers and create products and services without working together with other individuals, teams and departments! When we come together as “partners in business” we can put aside competing agendas to cooperate and collaborate together to serve the purchaser of those goods and services: the customer!
Instead of using terms like “stakeholder” to describe people who have an interest or say in how a product or service is created, use the term “Business Partner” instead! That way, instead of starting out with a “picture in your mind” of people planting their stakes in the ground and defending their turf, you are starting out with a “picture” of people who are partnering together to satisfy someone outside themselves: the customer!
"Reframing" takes time and practice! And it requires leaders to model the behavior of "reframing". So the best time to start! Today! Right now!! And the best person to start? You!
Kind Leaders know that competition isn’t the only (or best) way to create innovations, serve customers and “win”! Cooperation and collaboration create positive results and a better, kinder work environment!
As I always say, “How we get there is as important as where we are going!”
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