Andrew Dietz is Founder and President of Creative Growth Group, Inc., a business development firm that exclusively helps professional service organizations sharpen growth strategies, enhance client development capabilities, and implement marketing and business development initiatives.

Jim Signorelli of eswStoryLab said, “The most important measure of a collaborative culture is that executive egos in the firm take a backseat to the overall client objective.”  Humility trumps ego. “One maxim we have is that being the person influenced is just as important as being the influencer.   Go in to a collaborative situation with the intention of being influenced and a lot more will take place,” Jim added.  

Other essentials for creating a collaborative culture include leadership modeling the behavior, rewarding collaboration and providing the time (cut a collaborator some billable hour slack) and tools (coaching on skills like listening) that facilitate collaboration.

This post is part of a series recapping the event, Creating Collaborative Advantage: How To Get Fiercely Independent Professionals To Collaborate For The Benefit Of Each Other, Their Firm and Their Clients hosted by SilverEdge, along with its partners Deltek and Creative Growth Group. Stay tuned for more advice from the event.