An article by Anke Sommer
What are co-operations in professional relations?
Successful co-operations in your working life have four very simple features.
All forms of collaboration in a professional context, be it working together in teams, partnership work involving employees and line-managers, work carried out jointly by business partners, or co-operative work among executives, board members or managers.
Professional collaboration also includes the partnerships between companies and customers, and relations with patients and clients.
Definition of a strong and healthy collaboration
Strong co-operations require balance. Crucial here is the interpersonal relationship. The main characteristics of successful professional co-operations are summarised in the following four answers to the question: What makes co-operations successful?
Answer 1
A co-operation is successful if it considers professional relations and the core business, i.e. the entrepreneurial goal, in equal measure. In successful co-operations, soft skills and hard facts are of equal importance. The better the workplace atmosphere, the more successful the community of professional activity. This is why investment and efforts are made in interpersonal work relationships, as good humour and balance automatically carry over into the entire business environment.
Answer 2
Competing your way to success is a traditional and therefore well-tested recipe for success. Competition can lead to the recovery and empowerment of everyone involved. In successful co-operations, your partners in the collaboration are the motivation for your own personal achievement. But healthy competition is also part of the relationship between coach and coachee, tax adviser and client, doctor and patient, if it enhances the goal or the relationship between the parties involved. Competition is here the incentive for improving the current situation. There are measurements and battles, but never against each other. Competing with each other comes first. At the same time, all work relationships exhibit a strong sense of togetherness and therefore tight cohesion. So this guiding principle applies also to every team.
Answer 3
Successful collaborations have a positive guiding principle. They have a model that is successful, established and progressive in terms of leadership and values. There’s no need to reinvent success factors, so work relationships follow a successful model from the start.
Answer 4
Successful co-operations have clearly assigned, complementary fields of activity. Rank, role und tasks are allocated. The question of power is settled. One’s own position is undisputed.
A successful professional collaboration requires investment in the work relationship, team-building measures, clear goals, a successful model, a competitive spirit that is mutually encouraging for participants at all levels, and a structure with defined power relationships, varied specialisations and mutual cohesion.