A local business development organization, funded by the SBA, recently hosted a series of interviews on the topic of collaboration among small companies and solo-professionals. I was asked to explain my premise that focusing on your own personal talents – being “self”-ish – was an important element in successful collaboration.

Collaboration works better when each individual knows precisely what they bring to the effort. In fact, your ability to be a valuable contributor to a collaborative effort increases in direct relation to your level of personal understanding.
Consider this:

You want to form a very effective team – who would you select?

A group of random generalists who will try as hard as they can to do whatever it is you want them to do?

Or

A group of individuals who have demonstrated personal expertise in the various elements of the task at hand?

My section of the interview runs just less than 7 minutes. If you have questions, please drop me an email or – better yet – call and set up time to chat. Live conversations are SO much more in my area of strength than emails.