The finance department is asked to collaborate or partner more and more with other departments in the hunt for contributing more value to the company. However, are you
Do you train for collaboration skills?
Answers
Nothing can beat leading by example and real life experience, but I have in the past used some of the soft skill training. Things like listening, teamwork, etc. Typical stuff. There are some cool Covey based training sessions.
I’m not sure if you can “train” to develop those soft skills. But managers can work with staff members, encourage and support them to work with other departments/cost center staff, managers and senior staff to collaborate and build business partnerships. When I arrived at my last employer as a member of the finance staff, in order to be successful in my job, I worked hard to reach out and develop partnerships with the Sales,
John P. Martin www.linkedin.com/pub/john-p-martin/0/253/110
I agree John, I personally don't think you can train to collaborate, however, if you have poor collaboration skills you can be coached to be a better collaborator. All in all if you can't collaborate across business lines you will not be successful. Life in and out of work is about people and the ability to talk but more important the ability to be a good listener.
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