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By Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Answer True (T) or False (F) for each statement below to evaluate whether you have collaborative attitudes, work style, and working preferences.

__ 1. I tend to knuckle under to group pressure easily.

__ 2. I produce my best results when I work on my own.

__ 3. My job would be so much easier if I didn’t have to depend upon others to do it.

__ 4. People will almost always let you down.

__ 5. I don’t care about my job that much; I just want to be told what to do.

__ 6. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

__ 7. I know what’s best and don’t see the value of hearing others’ opinions.

__ 8. I can’t stand some of the people I work with.

__ 9. When someone talks, I compose my answer before he or she finishes speaking.

__ 10. I’m just trying to get by here.

__ 11. It’s a “dog eat dog” world.

__ 12. I believe the best way to respond when you disagree is to bite your tongue.

__ 13. Meetings are a waste of time.

__ 14. No great work of art was ever created by collaborating.

__ 15. I always seem to end up pulling more than my weight on a group project.

__ 16. I run the other way from conflict.

__ 17. I hated being put on group projects in school.

__ 18. When someone challenges my ideas, I clam up.

__ 19. It’s all about me.

__ 20. It I want the job done right, I do it myself.

Count the number of False (F) responses and give yourself five points for each. Then see how likely you are to succeed when collaborating with others.

YOUR SCORE:

95-100: Thriver: You are a collaborative superstar. You generally trust others and embrace the opportunity to work collaboratively with them. You are likely to excel in collaborative environments.

80-90: Team Player: You have many attitudes and preferences that position you well to succeed when working collaboratively. You will probably function well on a team. However, you do have some beliefs that may interfere with your ability to get the most out of collaborative opportunities. Continue to open yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking, especially as they relate to your working with others.

65-75: Doubter: You hold some beliefs and values that suggest that you don’t always see the value in collaborative work. Perhaps you’ve been burned in the past. Or perhaps collaboration doesn’t come naturally or easily to you. Spend some time thinking about what you can gain personally and professionally from the opportunity to work collaboratively with others. Continue to refine your thinking, especially it relates to your working collaboratively.

60 and Below: Loner: You probably find collaborative work difficult. Perhaps you don’t see the value in collaboration, or perhaps you feel that you’re not well suited to collaborative work. Chances are that you more naturally gravitate toward work opportunities that allow you to work and shine independently. That’s OK. However, if you’d like to excel in collaborative work, you will need to change many of your attitudes. Continue to learn more about collaboration, how it can benefit you personally and professionally, and what you need to think and do to be an effective collaborator.

In my experience, taking minutes of a meeting is a thankless task. The only time you are likely to hear anything about the minutes you’ve taken is when you’ve made a mistake. Few people will sing your praises because you did a good job of taking the minutes. And let’s face it; taking minutes is not all that exciting. You’re there to capture what other people say, not to come up with your own ideas. You have to pay attention the whole time you’re at the meeting and not let your mind wander. While other meeting participants can sit back and relax, you can’t. And when everyone walks out of the room when the meeting is over, you still have a lot of work ahead of you. You have to review and edit your notes, complete the minutes, and distribute them.

I remember working in an organization some years ago where no one on our senior management team was designated to take the minutes of our meetings. We were supposed to rotate the task. But there were some members of our team who always had a reason that they could not take the minutes. They weren’t very good writers, they’d say. Or they were really busy. Or they were going to have to leave the meeting early. Whenever the question of who would take the minutes came up at the start of the meeting, which it inevitably did, they would rifle through their notes or jot something in their padfolios to avoid eye contact with the rest of us sitting at the conference table. And I must admit, too, much as it pains me, that a few of the older men on the team held fast to the idea that the task of taking minutes was more suitable for a female colleague.

The people who take the minutes of our meetings are doing an important and valuable service for us. If you’ve never had to take minutes, think about how different their experiences at meetings are from yours. Be grateful that you don’t have to be the one to take the minutes. Thank them for what they are doing to support you and your colleagues. Compliment them on their excellent minutes. And when you do, smile warmly and mean it. — Dr. Laura Hills, President, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

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