In this issue of UpFront & Center we are going to explore a topic near and dear to my heart: collaboration.
Here’s what surprises people most: You don’t need a specific task in mind to start collaborating.
Sometimes, the most valuable part is the conversation itself.
Talking through your work with someone else has a way of uncovering tasks and responsibilities you’ve taken on simply because no one stopped to question them.
That’s not a task you delegate.
That’s a discovery, one of my favorite things to help people uncover.
Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they were unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. — C. S. Lewis
Center Stage
A client once told me he spent about two hours a week managing his own calendar. After a few questions, we landed closer to five hours a week.
He wasn’t in denial. He just had never stopped to evaluate this task with intention.
Collaboration does that. It holds up a mirror to the invisible work:
- the follow-ups
- the formatting
- the scheduling
The small things that belong on someone else’s list.
It is not about handing over control. It is about getting honest about your time.
The best working relationships are quiet and reliable.
You stop noticing the tasks.
You start noticing the results.
Coming together is a beginning; Keeping together is progress; Working together is success. — Henry Ford
The Takeaway
Good collaboration starts with one honest question:
“What do I keep doing that someone else could do just as well, or better?”
It is not about dumping the tasks you hate (though that is a nice bonus). It is about protecting your time for the work only you can do: the thinking, the deciding, the connecting.
A few things that make collaboration work:
- Clear expectations upfront. Not a novel, just a shared understanding of what “done” looks like.
- One communication channel. Email, text, or a shared tool. Not all three.
- Permission to ask questions. The fastest way to ruin a collaboration is making someone afraid to clarify.
- A short check-in at the start. It saves a long correction at the end.
And if you’ve tried this before and it did not go well? That’s data, not destiny.
Most of the time it was not the wrong person.
It was unclear direction.
That is fixable.
Collaboration is being open to each other’s ideas and benefiting from each other’s perspective in an open way. — Alan Menken
Research & Statistics
Do you enjoy research and statistics like I do? If yes, the following links are for you. Enjoy!
Forbes = Collaboration Yields Improved Productivity
A Quick Win
Try Loom, a free screen recording tool that makes handing off tasks a whole lot easier.
Instead of writing a long email to explain something, you record a short video of your screen while you talk through it.
Your collaborator watches on their own time, follows along, and asks questions if needed.
No meeting to schedule. No nuance lost in a text chain.
It is especially useful for:
- Walking someone through a process you have been handling manually
- Giving feedback on a document without a back-and-forth email thread
- Training someone on a task without needing to be available in real time
The free plan is plenty to get started. Record, share a link, done. No jargon. No tech headaches.
➤ Try it at loom.com
Take it UpFront
You’ve got a business to run, a project to lead, or a committee to keep moving. The question isn’t whether you could use a little help. The question is: what would you do with that time back?
That’s where I come in.
Sometimes that means taking recurring tasks off your plate.
Sometimes it means organizing the behind-the-scenes details that keep everything running smoothly.
And sometimes it means serving as a thought partner, someone who can help you talk through ideas, spot opportunities, identify bottlenecks, and bring clarity to what’s next.
Whether you need hands-on support, a reliable second set of eyes, or simply a sounding board, I’m here for it.
Call, email, or click the booking button below. Let’s figure out where collaboration could make the biggest difference for you. I promise, I won’t make it complicated.
Until next time,
Keep moving forward and keep what matters UpFront.
